Michael Woodhouse

I have worked as an Associate Tutor in NBS for the past six years. My role has been mainly teaching and running seminars on the management accounting courses. This has included the marking and assessment of student work.

I am a Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant.

In my accountancy career I worked in many sectors of industry and commerce, in both the private and public sectors. Initially I trained within manufacturing industry and was employed in a number of different industries (engineering, chemicals and building joinery). For a number of years I worked for the Government Accountancy Service. My final years before retirement were spent within the insurance sector.

This diversity within my career enables me to understand the wide reaching scope of finance and accountancy within the totality of the economic life. Much of my career time was spent on the financial evaluation and control of projects. In addition I also designed and implemented financial management systems bringing leading edge tools/technology into play. I have developed management and report systems. I have carried out forensic analysis of other company activities to ascertain their competitive advantage and for investment purposes.

In order to carry out the tasks above I have managed technical, clerical and other resources.

My teaching focus is on management accounting and falls in distinct aspects.

There are the technical tools that the management accountants have at their disposal. These I explain both in the technical aspect and the solutions that these tools facilitate. Through the use of practical examples show that management accounting is a real world subject. Students are encouraged to explain their own thoughts and observations of the process. Through the loop of explanation and feed-back immerse the students in the subject

I try to bring the real world into my teaching in order to show that accountancy is both interesting and important as well as being a worthwhile choice of a career. I give examples of practical application as well as encouraging students to think in the same way. For me the relevance of management accounting is translation of myriad strands of both financial and non-financial data into meaningful information. The role is to communicate as clearly and succinctly as possible in order that all involved understands the real meaning and impact of what is happening.

I like to describe the role of the management accountant, as not unlike painting a picture by numbers with the twist within management accounting that it is the painting a picture with numbers. The “picture” should be clearly “painted” in order that all can see the image presented in the utmost clarity. Until the data is sorted and sifted and turned usable information the task is incomplete.