14
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING
■
Reporting interval.
For most businesses, financial accounting reports are produced on an
annual basis, although some large businesses produce half-yearly reports and a few pro-
duce quarterly ones. Management accounting reports will be produced as frequently as
needed by managers. A sales manager, for example, may require routine sales reports on
a daily, weekly or monthly basis, so as to monitor performance closely. Special-purpose
reports can also be prepared when the occasion demands: for example, where an evalu-
ation is required of a proposed investment in new equipment.
■
Time orientation.
Financial accounting reports reflect the performance and position of the
business for the past period.
In essence, they are backward looking.
Management
accounting reports, on the other hand, often provide information concerning future perfor-
mance as well as past performance. It is an oversimplification, however, to suggest that
financial accounting reports never incorporate expectations concerning the future. Occa-
sionally, businesses will release projected information to other users in an attempt to raise
funds or to fight off unwanted takeover bids. Even preparation
of the routine financial
accounting reports typically requires making some
judgements about the future, as we
shall see in Chapter 3.
■
Range and quality of information.
Two key points are worth mentioning. First, financial
accounting reports concentrate on information that can be quantified in monetary terms.
Management accounting also produces such reports, but is also more likely to produce
reports that contain information
of a non-financial nature,
such as physical volume of
inventories, number of sales orders received, number of new products launched, physical
output per employee and so on. Second, financial accounting places greater emphasis on
the use of objective, verifiable evidence when preparing reports. Management accounting
reports may use information that is less objective and verifiable, but nevertheless provides
managers with the information they need.
We can see from this that management accounting is less constrained than financial account-
ing. It may draw from a variety of sources and use information that has varying degrees of
reliability. The only real test to be applied when assessing the value of the information pro-
duced for managers is whether or not it improves the quality of the decisions made.
The main differences between financial accounting and management accounting are sum-
marised in Figure 1.5.
The differences between management accounting and financial accounting suggest that
there are differences in the information needs of managers and those of other users. While
differences undoubtedly exist, there is also a good deal of overlap between the needs of both.
Can you think of
two
areas of overlap between the information needs of managers and
those of other users? (
Hint
: Think about the time orientation and the level of detail of
accounting information.)
Two areas that spring to mind are:
■
Managers will,
at times, be interested in receiving a historical
overview of business
operations of the sort provided to other users.
■
Other users would be interested in receiving detailed information relating to the future,
such as the planned level of profits, and non-financial information, such as the state of
the sales order book and the extent of product innovations.
Dostları ilə paylaş: