Accounting is a broad knowledge of the measurement, processing, and communication of a company’s financial information and data. Additionally, it can be divided into several fields based on the purpose of how accounting information is being used. For instance, management accounting is the field of accounting that specifically focuses on the measurement, analysis, and reporting of a company’s financial information and data to help company managers conduct strategic budget planning in order to fulfill their business goals. During my freshman year of an accounting major student at the University of Texas at Tyler, I have learned how management accounting information actually affect a company’s success, why it is considered as the foundation of leading a company to its business goals, what do management accountants do, and how companies could achieve effective management accounting.
After summarizing and analyzing the academic journal article “Does management accounting play role in the planning process?” and the book “Cost Accounting: Analysis and Control”, I have reshaped my understanding of management accounting. Before conducting researches, I used to understand my major as a “statistical data analyzer” since all I knew about my major was the accounting tasks of calculating, categorizing and analyzing financial data and information I learned from classes. However, after reading the article and the book, I understand the importance of management accounting and how the accuracy of the management accounting tasks could affect a company’s development and expansion. Management accounting is not only simply about dealing with numbers and math, but it is the stepping-stone of a company’s overall development and long-term management. Moreover, after reading through the AICPA whitepaper, I have obtained a stronger understanding of the work environments and duties of a management accountant and further gained a better sense of job opportunities and internships as a perspective management accountant.
On my website, I have categorized my previous research of management accounting into two labels, “Management accounting” and “Effective management accounting”.First, I introduced management accounting and discussed the importance of management accounting in the first label by introducing the research of the Brazilian companies and then talked about the functions of the main activity of management accounting- cost accounting in order to further explained why management accounting plays an important role in a business’s overall planning process. Next, in the second label, I wrote about “The Global Management Accounting Principles”, which is a universal guidance of management accounting which can help companies carry out effective management accounting.
Eventually, I believe that by understanding the information of the two labels, readers get to know the value that management accounting is important in the overall company planning process since management accounting data and information contains the cost accounting data which is connected closely to a company’s budget planning. And budget planning is relevant to whether a company could reach their business goals successfully. Therefore, understanding the importance of management accounting helps readers understand what kind of data and information is compulsory and unreplaceable when it comes to helping company managers to conduct strategic budget planning in order to achieve business goals. Moreover, by understanding “The Global Management Accounting Principles”, readers will know what values, skills and abilities that current employers consider important. Therefore, prospective management accountants should put more effort in those values, skills and abilities during the school years in order to become a timely and productive management accountant who meets the needs of current global management accounting market and immediately satisfies the demands of universal employers. As a result, by learning “The Global Management Accounting Principles”, readers, especially student studying management accounting, are more likely to be familiar with the current working environment and job market of management accounting and further adapt themselves into the work market of management accounting after graduation.
Management Accounting 