Accounting Essay: The Duties Of Management Accounting

A.

Duties of a management accountant

The role of the management accountant is to perform a series of tasks to ensure their company 's financial security, handling essentially all financial matters and thus helping to drive the business 's overall management and strategy.

Management accountants are key figures in determining the status and success of a company. Some choose to become a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), a similar credential to CPA, but with a greater focus on cost accounting, financial planning, and management issues.

Management accountants aid managerial planning and commercial decision-making tasks by providing appropriate financial information and undertaking related accounts administration. management accountant supervises

Many smaller organizations will combine the roles of financial accountant and management accountant. This is unfortunate because the mindsets required for the two jobs are rather different. Also, the day-to-day pressures of financial accounting tend to leave little time for the analysis and reflection that is necessary for effective management accounting

Management accounting techniques

To be successful in their jobs, management accountants must understand the problems that managers have to deal with. This is so that they are able to recognize what the real problem is. They must also know which information is relevant to assist managers to find the solution to particular business problems. They must then obtain the required information and communicate their conclusions and advice.

Management accountants need to acquire familiarity with a number of techniques. These can then be applied to solve particular business problems, such as identifying the optimum output level for a product, or to help achieve particular business objectives, such as motivating senior managers.

The techniques used by management accountants can be grouped into three broad categories:

 Objective calculations and procedures which provide information for planning and decision-making;

 Behavioral techniques or approaches that assist senior management in control and performance

The position covers building and implementing financial controls, cash reporting, and analysis of the company’s performance against budget. This work will build on accounting databases, commercial research and business plans already in effect.

Tasks:

 Retrieve financial information from staff, suppliers and customers

 Monitor all Balance Sheet reconciliations, ensuring completion and adequate record keeping by all team members responsible

 Keep all accounting records up to date in the company’s online accounting package

 Work with external accounting consultants on issues such as group accounting, accounts presentation, international tax set up

 maintain and enforce credit control across debtors and creditor balances

 Produce timely and accurate management accounts, investigating variances, correcting errors where necessary and providing explanations on departures from budget

 Contribute to the development of management information provided internally and externally

 Ensure that compliant financial records are maintained in line Kenyan tax and regulatory law

 Ensure that all work is in line with policies and