Tonight I start a new semester teaching managerial accounting applications to MBA students at Fairleigh Dickinson University. I want elaborate on the purposes of managerial accounting which should apply to every manager, business owner and not-for-profit director.
Managers need to be informed to be effective and the information should be presented timely and in a way that is easy to understand, evaluate and apply. Everything a manager receives should help them either manage, oversee, control or make decisions. It should be realized that managing operational activities is a collaboration between accounting, management, the factory or production department, marketing, budgeting, systems specialists, the new product development team, risk managers, upper management and even the independent auditors; and each part of the team needs to be an active participant. Further, reviewing essential data should never be a chore – it is the key to being an effective manager – and the appropriate time needs to be devoted to it.
The process begins with the managerial accountants, but the users, i.e. the managers, need to speak up to find out what they should get and also how they can get what they need, its frequency and format.
My students, starting tonight will learn what they will need and how to use what they receive and also to discern its applicability and reliability so they could become better and more effective managers.
Readers of this blog that are not my students should ask themselves if they are getting the right data timely and whether they are using it as an essential and valuable tool. If not, they should use this blog as a motivator to start getting what they need and then using it the way it should be used. Show this blog to the primary accountant for your division or organization and tell them that “Ed said I need to get started on the right path.” If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me to find out how you can get better information and then use it in the right way so you could manage better.
Do not hesitate to contact me with any business or financial questions at [email protected] or fill out the form below.
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