Resources to help you grow your business.
If you have a question about financial information or management accounting, send it to us and we'll send you the answer and publish it here, adding it to our bank of resources.
Question: What are management accounts and how can I use them to grow my business?
The Chartered Institute of Management Accounting (CIMA) defininition of management accounting is:
"The process of identification and communication of information used by management to plan, evaluate and control."
Click here for the full answer, in plain English
The Chartered Institute of Management Accounting (CIMA) defininition of management accounting is:
"The process of identification and communication of information used by management to plan, evaluate and control."
Or, to put that into English, management accounting is about using information to help you make important decisions regarding the future of your business. It is about taking your financial accounts (that you use for your tax and VAT returns) and interpreting them to help your business work more efficiently.
You can use the financial information you have available to ask "What if...?"
What if ...we take on five new clients next month? How will that affect our cashflow? Do we have the resources to cope with the increase?
What if ...we hire a new member of staff this year? Can we afford it? How much new work will we need to take on to cover the wages?
What if ...we increase our prices this month, or offer a discount? Will we still meet our targets? How will this affect our budget?
Management accounting does not rely only on financial data. It looks at the whole of your business and the effect that change could have.
In the simplest terms, management accounting takes your financial information as a starting point and uses it to help you plan the future of your business, so there are fewer surprises