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The Importance of Managerial Accounting

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The Importance of Managerial Accounting
ACC206: Principles of Accounting II
May 16, 2012

The Importance of Managerial Accounting Every business whether large or small has a need for an accountant. Accountants are expected to know about the business from top to bottom and are responsible for reporting numbers and figures on financial statements for outside as well as inside decision-makers. The type of accounting that reports to inside decision-makers is managerial accounting. Without this vital information reported by managerial accounting, the business will not be able to operate in a profitable manner. This will be a brief discussion about managerial accounting by answering a few questions such as; what is management accounting, what are the sources of data, and how are the data used to make management decisions, all reflecting in the importance of managerial accounting to any business. Managerial accounting provides vital pieces of financial information about a business’s operations to inside decision-makers allowing them to analyze the business in a more profitable manner. “Managerial accounting provides information to help managers plan and control operations as they lead the business” (Horngren, et al., 2012, p.775). Not only does managerial accounting provide the financial information, but it also “includes managing the company’s plant, equipment, and human resources” (Horngren, et al., 2012, p.775). All of these different departments of a business offer valuable insight to the company’s operations that accountants relay in the form of financial statements back to the owners and managers. For example, there is a manufacturing company that has five steps in the production process of manufacturing tennis balls. Managerial accounting will break down each of those production steps and analyze if any of those steps can be condensed or omitted –

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