Summary
Management accounting
Management accountants will become increasing marginalized if they focus solely on the accuracy of financial reporting data prepared for outside parties. Management accountants will become most relevant to internal management if they can provide information that supports operational decision-making. The accountant should focus on distilling and analyzing data, educating managers on the use of accounting data and participating in the long-term planning of the organization.See the full content of this document
Extract
Getting beyond counting.
How to provide management with decision-making information.
CPAs don't like to be called bean counters. Yet, like it or not, the term comes uncomfortably close to describing the tasks management accountants have performed historically counting, comparing, recording and, finally, periodically reporting financial information. Yet how much of this information is really current and useful to management? Can those who run the business use these data to make valid business decisions? In most cases, the answer to both questions is no. This article suggests ways accountants in business and industry can revitalize themselves by providing the right information, in the right way, at the right time, to the right people, To be sure, some of the data CPAs collect and report, while not useful to management, are required by investors, banks and the Internal Revenue Service. This article will not focus on those data but, rather, on the strategic information managers need to run their businesses better and more profitably. A NE...See the full content of this document
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