CHAPTER 1
THE MANAGER AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
See the front matter of this Solutions Manual for suggestions regarding your choices of
assignment material for each chapter.
1-1 Management accounting measures, analyzes and reports financial and nonfinancial
information that helps managers make decisions to fulfill the goals of an organization. It focuses
on internal reporting and is not restricted by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
Financial accounting focuses on reporting to external parties such as investors,
government agencies, and banks. It measures and records business transactions and provides
financial statements that are based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
Other differences include (1) management accounting emphasizes the future (not the
past), and (2) management accounting influences the behavior of managers and other employees
(rather than primarily reporting economic events).
1-2 Financial accounting is constrained by generally accepted accounting principles.
Management accounting is not restricted to these principles. The result is that
• management accounting allows managers to charge interest on owners’ capital to help
judge a division’s performance, even though such a charge is not allowed under
GAAP,
• management accounting can include assets or liabilities (such as “brand names”
developed internally) not recognized under GAAP, and
• management accounting can use asset or liability measurement rules (such as present
values or resale prices) not permitted under GAAP.
1-3 Management accountants can help to formulate strategy by providing information about
the sources of competitive advantage—for example, the cost, productivity, or efficiency
advantage of their company relative to competitors or the premium prices a company can charge
relative to the costs of adding features that make its products or services distinctive.
1-4 The business functions in the value chain are
• Research and development—generating and experimenting with ideas related to new
products, services, or processes.
• Design of products and processes—the detailed planning, engineering, and testing of
products and processes.
• Production—procuring, transporting, storing and assembling resources to produce a
product or deliver a service.
• Marketing—promoting and selling products or services to customers or prospective
customers.
• Distribution—processing orders and shipping products or services to customers.
• Customer service—providing after-sales service to customers.
1-1
, 1-5 Supply chain describes the flow of goods, services, and information from the initial
sources of materials and services to the delivery of products to consumers, regardless of whether
those activities occur in the same organization or in other organizations.
Cost management is most effective when it integrates and coordinates activities across all
companies in the supply chain as well as across each business function in an individual
company’s value chain. Attempts are made to restructure all cost areas to be more cost-effective.
1-6 “Management accounting deals only with costs.” This statement is misleading at best,
and wrong at worst. Management accounting measures, analyzes, and reports financial and non-
financial information that helps managers define the organization’s goals, and make decisions to
fulfill them. Management accounting also analyzes revenues from products and customers in
order to assess product and customer profitability. Therefore, while management accounting
does use cost information, it is only a part of the organization’s information recorded and
analyzed by management accountants.
1-7 Management accountants can help improve quality and achieve timely product deliveries
by recording and reporting an organization’s current quality and timeliness levels and by
analyzing and evaluating the costs and benefits—both financial and non-financial—of new
quality initiatives such as TQM, relieving bottleneck constraints or providing faster customer
service.
1-8 The five-step decision-making process is (1) identify the problem and uncertainties (2)
obtain information (3) make predictions about the future (4) make decisions by choosing among
alternatives and (5) implement the decision, evaluate performance and learn.
1-9 Planning decisions focus on selecting organization goals and strategies, predicting results
under various alternative ways of achieving those goals, deciding how to attain the desired goals,
and communicating the goals and how to attain them to the entire organization.
Control decisions focus on taking actions that implement the planning decisions, deciding
how to evaluate performance, and providing feedback and learning to help future decision
making.
1-10 The three guidelines for management accountants are
1. Employ a cost-benefit approach.
2. Recognize behavioral and technical considerations.
3. Apply the notion of “different costs for different purposes”.
1-11 Agree. A successful management accountant requires general business skills (such as
understanding the strategy of an organization) and people skills (such as motivating other team
members) as well as technical skills (such as computer knowledge, calculating costs of products,
and supporting planning and control decisions).
1-2
THE MANAGER AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
See the front matter of this Solutions Manual for suggestions regarding your choices of
assignment material for each chapter.
1-1 Management accounting measures, analyzes and reports financial and nonfinancial
information that helps managers make decisions to fulfill the goals of an organization. It focuses
on internal reporting and is not restricted by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
Financial accounting focuses on reporting to external parties such as investors,
government agencies, and banks. It measures and records business transactions and provides
financial statements that are based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
Other differences include (1) management accounting emphasizes the future (not the
past), and (2) management accounting influences the behavior of managers and other employees
(rather than primarily reporting economic events).
1-2 Financial accounting is constrained by generally accepted accounting principles.
Management accounting is not restricted to these principles. The result is that
• management accounting allows managers to charge interest on owners’ capital to help
judge a division’s performance, even though such a charge is not allowed under
GAAP,
• management accounting can include assets or liabilities (such as “brand names”
developed internally) not recognized under GAAP, and
• management accounting can use asset or liability measurement rules (such as present
values or resale prices) not permitted under GAAP.
1-3 Management accountants can help to formulate strategy by providing information about
the sources of competitive advantage—for example, the cost, productivity, or efficiency
advantage of their company relative to competitors or the premium prices a company can charge
relative to the costs of adding features that make its products or services distinctive.
1-4 The business functions in the value chain are
• Research and development—generating and experimenting with ideas related to new
products, services, or processes.
• Design of products and processes—the detailed planning, engineering, and testing of
products and processes.
• Production—procuring, transporting, storing and assembling resources to produce a
product or deliver a service.
• Marketing—promoting and selling products or services to customers or prospective
customers.
• Distribution—processing orders and shipping products or services to customers.
• Customer service—providing after-sales service to customers.
1-1
, 1-5 Supply chain describes the flow of goods, services, and information from the initial
sources of materials and services to the delivery of products to consumers, regardless of whether
those activities occur in the same organization or in other organizations.
Cost management is most effective when it integrates and coordinates activities across all
companies in the supply chain as well as across each business function in an individual
company’s value chain. Attempts are made to restructure all cost areas to be more cost-effective.
1-6 “Management accounting deals only with costs.” This statement is misleading at best,
and wrong at worst. Management accounting measures, analyzes, and reports financial and non-
financial information that helps managers define the organization’s goals, and make decisions to
fulfill them. Management accounting also analyzes revenues from products and customers in
order to assess product and customer profitability. Therefore, while management accounting
does use cost information, it is only a part of the organization’s information recorded and
analyzed by management accountants.
1-7 Management accountants can help improve quality and achieve timely product deliveries
by recording and reporting an organization’s current quality and timeliness levels and by
analyzing and evaluating the costs and benefits—both financial and non-financial—of new
quality initiatives such as TQM, relieving bottleneck constraints or providing faster customer
service.
1-8 The five-step decision-making process is (1) identify the problem and uncertainties (2)
obtain information (3) make predictions about the future (4) make decisions by choosing among
alternatives and (5) implement the decision, evaluate performance and learn.
1-9 Planning decisions focus on selecting organization goals and strategies, predicting results
under various alternative ways of achieving those goals, deciding how to attain the desired goals,
and communicating the goals and how to attain them to the entire organization.
Control decisions focus on taking actions that implement the planning decisions, deciding
how to evaluate performance, and providing feedback and learning to help future decision
making.
1-10 The three guidelines for management accountants are
1. Employ a cost-benefit approach.
2. Recognize behavioral and technical considerations.
3. Apply the notion of “different costs for different purposes”.
1-11 Agree. A successful management accountant requires general business skills (such as
understanding the strategy of an organization) and people skills (such as motivating other team
members) as well as technical skills (such as computer knowledge, calculating costs of products,
and supporting planning and control decisions).
1-2
