ACC_1020_RP2

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School

Thomas Edison State College *

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Course

1020

Subject

Accounting

Date

Jan 9, 2024

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docx

Pages

5

Uploaded by MinisterLarkPerson814

1 Principles of Managerial Accounting 1020 23 July 2023 Reflection Paper 2 The management accounting framework is made up of three key principles. These principles play an important role in decision making, linking decision making authority with the necessary information. The three principles are: decision making authority, making and supporting decisions, and evaluating and rewarding performance. Decision making authority is typically assigned to managers who oversee various assets in an organization. The employees under these managers are given responsibilities which are outlined through job descriptions, verbal instruction, or management accounting system documents and reports. Managers are given their expected outcomes through management accounting reports, and these outcomes align with their organization’s goals. It is the manager’s responsibility to make informed decisions that help achieve their goals/outcomes, in turn help the organization achieve their goals/expected outcomes. Making and supporting decisions is another important piece to the management accounting framework. A manager needs reliable and timely information in order to make informed decisions. The information needed includes both historical and projected data about their specific operation as well as other parts of their organizations value chain. The value chain plays a big part in this area. It encompasses all activities and resources needed to create and deliver a product or service to customers. Another important piece to making and supporting decisions is benchmark studies. Organizations share information with independent consulting companies, where they will collect and compare that information with other organizations within the same industry. This helps
2 organizations compare costs and processes with one another. Not only do organizations share information with independent consulting companies, they also share information with suppliers in their value chain and customers. This allows suppliers to get products to the organization right when they need to be there, and customers are able to see progress on their goods or services. All of this to say, there is a lot that goes into decision making. It cannot be a decision made on a whim, but one that is made by taking in all necessary information and making the best decision that fits with the information obtained. The last piece of the management accounting framework is evaluating and rewarding performance. The assets that the managers oversee are owned by the organization. In order for the organization to ensure that the assets are earning a good return, the organization (or shareholders) will use the financial statements as a way to evaluate the decisions made. Typically, if a manager is meeting or exceeding all goals or predicted outcomes, they are rewarded. There are three major components to production cost: direct material, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead. All three of these components are the costs associated in producing a product or fulfilling a service. Direct material costs are the expenses used for materials that can be easily traced through the production process to the final product. Direct labor costs are the wages and/or salaries paid to the employees that are providing the labor for the product or service. Once again, these should be easily traced through the production process to the final product. Manufacturing overhead are all the other costs in the manufacturing process that cannot be easily traced through the production process.
3 Period costs are the expenses that are not attached to the direct manufacturing of a product or service. Selling costs would fall under a period cost. While it is necessary to have expenses in order to sell a product or service, those costs are not directly associated with manufacturing the product or service. There are also administrative costs, these costs are associated with staff support and other administrative functions. Once again, not directly related to the manufacturing or a product or service. These selling and administrative costs are expensed in the period when they are incurred on the income statement. I am currently employed by UPS and actually use a few of the concepts we have talked about thus far in my everyday work. At the beginning of the year, our business plan rolls out to each department. This allows us to see our goals for several different areas of our operations. The elements listed on the business plan are identical to the financial reports we see each month, we call them cost statements. A few of the elements are: total operating costs, production, cost per piece, hourly staffing, administrative staffing, part time management staffing, full time management staffing, aircraft turns, cost per turn, volume, etc. When the cost statements come out at the beginning of the month, it gives us the results for the previous month. Those results are compared to the same month last year, as well as the goals for that month from the business plan. This allows us to see our performance for the previous month compared to the plan, as well as last year. The business plan allows us to set ourselves up, having that information ahead of time, we can make plans in order to achieve our goals. Using the information from the previous year, we are able to see where we might run into some issues, once again, coming up with plans to overcome.
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