Accounting Questions and Answers

Managerial accounting focuses on the needs of internal users (managers) and on data relevant for decision making.

1. What is the purpose of financial statement analysis? The purpose of financial statement analysis is to provide information used by the business, potential creditors and investors.

Q1. Contrast financial and managerial accounting on the basis of user orientation, purpose of information, level of aggregation, length of time period, orientation toward past or future, conformance to external standards, and emphasis on objective data.

Managerial accounting involves planning, controlling and decision making processes that are very helpful in business major such as marketing, operations management and human resource management. For example, marketing managers make planning decisions related to allocating advertising dollars across various communication mediums and to staffing new sales territories. From a control standpoint, they may closely track sales data to see if a budgeted price cut is generating an anticipated increase in unit sales. Operations managers have to plan how many units to produce to satisfy anticipated customer demand. They also need to budget for operating expenses such as utilities, supplies, and labor costs. In terms of control, they monitor actual spending relative to the budget, and closely watch operational measures such as the number of defects produced relative to the plan. Human resource

Managerial Accounting reports are primarily used by supervisors, line managers, process owners, as well as executives, to gain a better understanding of the current financial and operational health of the organization. (Internal)

According to Will S, Ray H, & Eric E.N. (2009), management accounting is a branch of accounting that is concerned with providing information to managers who direct and control the firm’s operations. Management directing function seeks to effectively use both the human and raw material wealth of a firm to achieve organizational set objectives on routine basis. Controlling function is the art of tele-guarding the activities of the organization to consistently fall in line with set objectives. Management accounting achieves this function through effective budgeting.

The first impression of the course managerial accounting for managers was that it would involve learning how to manage operations of a firm, especially in relation to its financial records and activities to ensure efficient and successful operation of a firm. I expected to learn how to deal with the final financial records and using them to perform an analysis of the records which will help to make informed decisions. It would also involve learning how to deal with the accounting records to make effective budget plans in considerations of resources available. My expectations of the course

The final responsibility for the integrity of an SEC registrant’s internal controls lies on the management team. U.S. companies need to refer to a comprehensive framework of internal control when assessing the quality of financial reporting to determine that financial statements are being presented under General Accepted Accounting Principles, GAAP. The widely used framework is referred as COSO, Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, sponsored by the following organizations American Accounting Association, the American Institute of CPA’s, Financial Executives International, the Institute of Internal Auditors, and the Institute of Management Accountants. COSO’s defines internal control as:

3. Managerial Accounting deals with procuring of data for the organisation's management i.e. to serve the internal users with necessary accounting information to carry out the management tasks of planning, organising, actualising and controlling. " Management Accounting is the presentation of accounting Information in such a way as to assist management in creation of policy and in the day to day operations of an undertaking". 4. Financial Management deals with the process adopted by an organisation for taking financial decisions through analysing and interpretation of financial data for meeting the organisations objectives.

Management accounting is used to provide managers with information, so they can make informed business decisions. The next category is open-book accounting; this is defined as an accounting principle that aims to improve accounting in organizations. Tax-accounting is defined as the accounting needed to comply with jurisdictional tax regulations. In other words, tax-accounting is used to put tax on goods and services. Accounting has revolved into what every company uses today which is the equation of; Assets=Liabilties+Owners Equity. The meaning of this equation is to show companies what they own and what they owe to there creditors and everybody else.

This is because of the different emphasis: management accounting information is used within an organization, typically for decision-making.

The role of management accounting “involves partnering in management decision-making, devising planning and performance management systems … to assist [the needs of managers] in the formulation and implementation of an organisation’s strategy.” (IMA, 2014)

Management accounting also help the organisation to evaluate the internal financial situation of the organisation in regards of regulatory authorities, investors and shareholders. In order words, management accounting is interlinked with organisational operations on different levels that help the companies to operate in the national and international market (Kaplan & Atkinson,

The two fundamental qualities that make accounting information useful for decision making are relevant and faithful representation. In my opinion, I think both are important quality of accounting information. In order to be relevant you need to have predictive value, and confirmatory value, or both for making decisions. For example, investors form their own expectations about the future based on the predictable value. They were able to evaluate. To be more clear, events such as in the past, present, or future like daily cash transitions are making a difference in the decision. While confirmatory value helps them confirms or

According to Morrissey, Meyrick, and Berry (2013 p. 149), management accounting includes that aspect of classifying and recording the financial information at the discretion of the management to assist them in carrying out their managerial functions. For instance, the budget