Lesson 26 - Managerial Accounting

MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING

Managerial Accounting

The field of accounting that specializes in providing economic and financial information for use by managers and other internal users is managerial or management accounting. Managerial accounting ensures the appropriate use of and accountability for an organization's resources. Management accounting also comprises the responsibility for the preparation of financial reports for nonmanagement groups such as regulatory agencies and tax authorities. Simply stated, management accounting is the accounting for the planning, controlling, and decision-making activities of managers within an organization.

Managerial Reports

The principle of usefulness to management is the primary criterion for the preparation of managerial accounting reports. In preparing useful managerial accounting reports, five characteristics should be considered. These are relevancy, timeliness, accuracy, clarity, and conciseness. A report should not be prepared if the cost of preparing it exceeds the benefits from using it.

Management Process

The management of an organization consists of those individuals charged with the responsibility of directing the enterprise toward achieving its goals. The management process involves three basic functions of planning, controlling, and decision making.

Planning

The term planning refers to the setting of objectives and goals for future performance. Managers must constantly make decisions regarding plans for production, growth, and for achieving performance goals.

Budget

The tool used by management accountants to assist management in the planning process is the budget. The budget is a formal quantitative expression of the goals set by management. The master budget provides management with an overview of the plans for all operations sales, production, purchasing, financing, etc. The master budget can warn a company of an impending deficiency of cash, so that arrangements can be made to obtain short-term financing. Or it might indicate an availability of excess cash that can be profitably invested for a short period. If master budget is adjusted for different levels of changes in activity volume, it is called a flexible budget.

Organizations are often faced with the need to purchase additional property, plant, and equipment. Investing in such properties will require a substantial commitment of resources. But the result may significantly increase the organization's productive capacity and should improve long-run profits. Capital Budgeting analysis offers several methods to assist management in making these decisions.

Controlling

After the planning process has been completed, the next thing to do is to put the plans to work. And once those plans are at works, it is necessary for managers to monitor the operation in order to see if they are achieving what they are supposed to. In other words, managers need to exert some control over the operations they manage. Controlling involves putting the plans to work, observing those plans at work, and gathering information on how well they are performing, and take necessary actions to get those plans back on track if the plans are not going toward intended goals.

Performance Report

A basic element of the control process is the gathering of adequate, and timely information on how well the plans are working out at all levels within the organization. Accountants can use this information to prepare a performance report, as the principal accounting tool for assisting management in controlling operations. A performance report, which compares a department's actual results with the budget for that department, lists any differences between actual and budgeted amounts.

Management by Exception

Investigating differences in a performance report can be time-consuming and costly, requiring careful attention and evaluation by the manager and workers most closely associated with the operation that did not meet the budget. While the costs of investigating variety variances are the same, the potential benefits from investigating a large variance should be much greater than a small one. Therefore, for time and efforts of management it is better to be devoted to and spent on variances that are large enough in relation to the amount budgeted. The spotlighting of material differences for investigating is referred to as management by exception.

Analysis of Variances

Both of the over budget and under budget differences spotlighted for investigating must be analyzed. This analysis might reveal some ways to do things better or for less cost than was originally planned. Once discovered, they could be corrected or instituted as part of the routine.

Cost Accounting

Most of manager's functions are fulfilled based on decisions made using product cost data. The main part of managerial accounting is therefore concerned with processing and preparing data about the products, which is termed cost accounting. Cost accounting includes methods for recognizing, classifying, allocating, aggregating and reporting product costs and comparing them with standards.

Costing Systems

To determine product costs, a company must use a cost accounting system. It consists of the techniques, personnel, forms, and accounting records used to develop timely information regarding the cost of providing products or services. Cost accounting systems can be broadly classified into two distinct types: job-order cost system,and process cost system. However, to provide their managers with more types of useful information, many companies are using hybrid cost systems, designed to realize the advantages of both job and process cost systems.

New Manufacturing Environments

Increased global competition, scarce resources, and the public's demand for quality goods and services have resulted in a movement to revolutionize manufacturing throughout the world. In the new manufacturing environments, creative efforts to increase efficiency and improve information have become essential elements of survival. Examples of new manufacturing technologies and techniques are computer-aided manufacturing and robotics used widely to improve product design, testing, and quality.

Activity-Based Costing

One major goal in the new manufacturing environment is to more accurately measure per-unit costs, not only the costs of producing finished units but the costs of performing each activity within the manufacturing process also. Activity-based costing technique is a step toward this goal.

Just-In-Time Production

To achieve greater productivity and efficiency, many manufacturing enterprises have begun to implement just-in-time manufacturing systems, sometimes referred to as flexible flow manufacturing systems. These systems emphasize the manufacture of products or product components only as they are needed by the marketplace or by the next stage of production.

Quality Controls

As a result of competition, many manufactures realized that they cannot compete in the world markets in lower prices alone, but the superior product quality must be a major manufacturing goal.

Although quality control programs are inherent in the JIT manufacturing system, other producers have also implemented quality programs to their products. Total quality control (TQC) programs begin with the product design and continue through production, and they involve and ongoing commitment to improving product quality. Managerial accountants play a vital role in TQC programs by providing information on the costs of poor quality, including the costs of reworks, scrap, defect prevention, customer dissatisfaction, and warranty obligations.

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