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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Management accounting

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Management accounting or managerial accounting is concerned with the provisions and use of accounting information to managers within organizations, to provide them with the basis to make informed business decisions that will allow them to be better equipped in their management and control functions.So, it involves preparations of management reports and accounts that provide accurate and timely financial and statistical information required by managers to make day-to-day and short-term decisions.

Unlike financial accounting or financial accountancy, which produces annual reports mainly for external stakeholders, management accounting is primarily forward-looking and generates monthly or weekly reports for an organization's internal audiences such as department managers and the chief executive officer. These reports typically show the amount of available cash, sales revenue generated, amount of orders in hand, state of accounts payable and accounts receivable, outstanding debts, raw material and inventory, and may also include trend charts, variance analysis, and other statistics and also called managerial accounting.

According to the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA): "Management accounting is a profession that involves partnering in management decision making, devising planning and performance management systems,and providing expertise in financial reporting and control to assist management in the formulation and implementation of an organization's strategy".

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) states that management accounting as practice extends to the following three areas. There are 1. Strategic management—advancing the role of the management accountant as a strategic partner in the organization, 2. Performance management—developing the practice of business decision-making and managing the performance of the organization and 3. Risk management—contributing to frameworks and practices for identifying, measuring, managing and reporting risks to the achievement of the objectives of the organization.

The Institute of Certified Management Accountants(ICMA), states "A management accountant applies his or her professional knowledge and skill in the preparation and presentation of financial and other decision oriented information in such a way as to assist management in the formulation of policies and in the planning and control of the operation of the undertaking". Management accountants therefore are seen as the "value-creators" amongst the accountants. They are much more interested in forward looking and taking decisions that will affect the future of the organization, than in the historical recording and compliance (score keeping) aspects of the profession. Management accounting knowledge and experience can therefore be obtained from varied fields and functions within an organization, such as information management, treasury, efficiency auditing, marketing, valuation, pricing, logistics, etc. Accounting software tools irrespective of commercial accounting software or free accounting software are very useful for management accountants to perform their tasks.

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