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How Management Accounting
Information Supports
Decision Making
Chapter 1
Management Accounting Information
The institute of Management Accountants has
defined management accounting as:
– A value-adding continuous improvement process of
planning, designing, measuring, and operating both
nonfinancial information systems and financial
information systems that guides management action,
motivates behavior, and supports and creates the
cultural values necessary to achieve an
organization’s strategic, tactical and operating
objectives.
© 2012 Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
Management Accounting Information
– Management accounting provides both financial
information and nonfinancial information
– The role of management information supports
strategic (planning), operational (operating), and
control (performance evaluation) management
decision making
In short, management accounting information is
pervasive and purposeful
© 2012 Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
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Management Accounting Information
Examples of management accounting information
include:
– The reported expense of an operating department, such
as the assembly department of an electronics company
– The costs of producing a product
– The cost of delivering a service
– The cost of performing an activity or business
process—such as creating a customer invoice
– The costs of serving a customer
Management Accounting Information
Management accounting also produces measures of the
economic performance of decentralized operating units,
such as:
– Business units
– Divisions
– Departments
These measures help senior managers assess the
performance of the company’s decentralized units
Management Accounting Information
Management accounting information is a key source of
information for decision making, improvement, and
control in organizations
Effective management accounting systems can create
considerable value to today’s organizations by
providing timely and accurate information about the
activities required for their success
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Changing Focus
Traditionally, management accounting information has
been financial information; denominated in a currency
Management accounting information has now expanded
to encompass information that is operational or physical
(nonfinancial) information:
– Quality and process times
– More subjective measurements, such as:
• Customer satisfaction
• Employee capabilities
• New product performance
Financial vs. Management Accounting
Financial Accounting
1. Communicates economic information to individuals
and organizations that are external to the direct
operations of the company
2. Stresses the form in which it is communicated
3. Is based on historical information
Financial vs. Management Accounting
Management Accounting
1. Provides information to managers and employees
within the organization
2. Allows great discretion to design systems that provide
information for helping employees and managers make
decisions
3. Forward looking
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Role of Financial Information
Financial information pervades our economy
– It is the primary means of communication between
profit seeking organizations and their stakeholders
– For this reason organizations use financial measures
internally as a broad indicator of performance
This financial information provides a signal that
something is wrong, but not what is wrong
Financial information summarizes underlying
activities
PDCA Steps
Plan Step defines the organization’s purpose and
selects the focus and scope of its strategy
Do Step involves the implementation of a chosen
course of action
Check Step includes measuring and monitoring
performance and taking short-term actions based on
measured performance
Action Step involves managers taking actions to lower
costs, change resource allocations, and improve
quality
© 2012 Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
Behavioral Implications
As measurements are made on operations and
especially on individuals and groups their behavior
changes
– People react when they are being measured, and
they react to the measurements
– They focus on the variables and behavior being
measured and spend less attention on those not
measured
Two old sayings recognize these phenomena:
– “What gets measured gets managed.”
– “If I can’t measure it, I can’t manage it.”
© 2012 Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
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Behavioral Implications
Employees familiar with the current system may
resist as managers attempt to introduce or redesign
cost and performance measurement systems
Employees have acquired expertise in the use of
the old system
Employees also may feel committed to the
decisions based on the information the old system
produced
© 2012 Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
Behavioral Implications
Management accountants must understand and
anticipate the reactions of individuals to information
and measurements
When the measurements are used not only for
information, planning, and decision-making, but also
for control, evaluation, and reward, employees and
managers place great pressure on the measurements
themselves
© 2012 Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
Behavioral Implications
Managers and employees may take unexpected and
undesirable actions to influence their score on the
performance measure
Managers seeking to improve current bonuses based
on reported profits may skip discretionary
expenditures that may improve performance in future
periods
© 2012 Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
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Meeting the Challenge
Management accounting has become an exciting
discipline that is undergoing major changes to reflect
the challenging new environment that organizations
worldwide now face
Need to develop financial and nonfinancial
information that will:
– Focus on aggregate, usually financial, measures of
performance in for-profit organizations that provide
an overall summary of performance, and the ability
of the organization to meet its financial objectives
© 2012 Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
Meeting the Challenge
• Focus on the organization’s success in meeting its
customers’ requirements in for-profit organizations
so that the organization can react promptly to
failures in delivering the value proposition
• Enable all organizations to identify process
improvements needed to improve the
organization’s ability to deliver its value
proposition
© 2012 Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
Meeting the Challenge
• Enable all organizations to identify the potential of
the organization’s members to manage and improve
process performance
• Enable the for-profit organization to assess the
profitability and desirability of continued investment
in various entities such as products, product lines,
departments, and organization units
• Enable the organization to motivate, monitor, and
detect noncompliance with inappropriate organization
behavior
© 2012 Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
