Management Accounting

Management accounting provides necessary information to assist management in decision making and management control. The chartered institute of management accountants (2001) describe Management accounting as :-the application of professional information in such a way as to assist the management in the formation of policies and in the planning and control of the operations of the organization. Management accounting has been considered as an integral part of the management knowledge in accounting and finance. In addition, Pierce & O ` Dea (2003) suggests that the future management accountants need not only knowledge of accounting and finance but also knowledge of the business enterprise especially understanding of production and sales activities. In his research, Leonard (1999) explains the extent to which cost analysis serves as a major role of management accounting. It devotes time in determining what cost should be at a given level of output and then what analyzing why, that target cost was not achieved. An effective cost control program is usually built around the management accountant`s reports and summaries of operating data, and management`s corrective action taken as a result of studying these reports and summaries. Thus, cost control is the responsibilities of both the management accountant and management of an enterprise. Management accountant is responsible for the recording and reporting phase of cost control, while management of the enterprise is responsible for taking corrective action(Cooper P & Dart E, 2009). WHAT IS STRATEGY Strategy is the term often used to describe the collective actions and techniques that management of an enterprise (for profit and not for profit) employ in a bid to achieve organizational goals and objectives (M E Porter,1996). To achieve the long term goal of a business entity, carefully designed management accounting control system is a very important tool that must be in the toolkit of those that

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