Intro to management Accounting

In Management accounting or managerial accounting, managers use the provisions of accounting information in order to better inform themselves before they decide matters within their organizations, which aids their management and performance of control functions.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) states that management accounting as practice extends to the following three areas:

Strategic management—advancing the role of the management accountant as a strategic partner in the organization.
Performance management—developing the practice of business decision-making and managing the performance of the organization.
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 (CMA) .states "A management accountant applies his or her professional knowledge and skill in the preparation and presentation of financial and other decision oriented information.

Differences between financial accountancy and management accounting

Management accounting information differs from financial accountancy information in several ways:

while shareholders, creditors, and public regulators use publicly reported financial accountancy information, only managers within the organization use the normally confidential management accounting information;
while financial accountancy information is historical, management accounting information is primarily forward-looking;
while financial accountancy information is case-based, management accounting information is model-based with a degree of abstraction in order to support generic decision making;
while financial accountancy information is computed by reference to general financial accounting standards, management accounting information is computed by reference to the needs of managers, often using management information systems.

Financial accounting focuses on the company as a whole .

Management accounting provides detailed and disagregated information about products, individual activities, divisions, plants, operations and tasks.

Specific methodologies
Activity-based costing (ABC)
Activity-based costing
Grenzplankostenrechnung (GPK)
Lean accounting (accounting for lean enterprise)
Resource consumption accounting (RCA)
Throughput accounting
Transfer pricing
Listed below are the primary tasks/services performed by management accountants. The degree of complexity relative to these activities are dependent on the experience level and abilities of any one individual.

Rate and volume analysis
Business metrics development
Price modeling
Product profitability
Geographic vs. industry or client segment reporting
Sales management scorecards
Cost analysis
Cost–benefit analysis
Cost-volume-profit analysis
Life cycle cost analysis
Client profitability analysis
IT cost transparency
Capital budgeting
Buy vs. lease analysis
Strategic planning
Strategic management advice
Internal financial presentation and communication
Sales forecasting
Financial forecasting
Annual budgeting
Cost allocation

Related qualifications

There are several related professional qualifications and certifications in the field of accountancy including:

Management Accountancy Qualifications
CIMA
ICMA
ICAI
CMA
Other Professional Accountancy Qualifications
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, CIPFA
Chartered Certified Accountant, (ACCA)
Chartered Accountant, (CA)
Certified Public Accountant, (CPA)
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA Australia)
Chartered Global Management Accountant