Summary |
This book focuses on four essential aspects of reporting accounting data for management: cost determination, cost control, performance evaluation, and financial information for planning and special decisions. Cost determination is important for financial reporting (i.e., inventories, cost of goods sold, and so on) as well as for management functions. The actual cost data form a basic input to the control process and planning decisions. Cost control goes a step beyond cost determination and considers what costs should be and what corrective action should be taken when costs get out of line. Performance evaluation may be regarded as a special case of the control process. Effective management of a complex organization requires the delegation of management tasks to various individuals. This, in turn, requires a comprehensive reporting system to monitor the operations of the managers and to assure that their performance is consistent with over-all goals of the organization. The planning function- making decisions that affect the future is a very important phase of management operations. Because the types of accounting data required for planning often depend upon the decision making context, a wide range of planning situations are considered.
|
