Bookkeeping All-In-One For Dummies

Chapter 1

Managing Profit

In This Chapter

Facing up to the profit-making function of business managers

Scoping the field of managerial accounting

Centering on profit centers

Making internal P&L reports useful

Analyzing profit for fun and more profit

As a manager, you get paid to make profit happen. That’s what separates a manager from the other employees at a business. Of course, a manager should be a motivator, innovator, consensus builder, lobbyist, and maybe sometimes a babysitter, but the hard-core purpose of your job is to make and improve profit. No matter how much your staff loves you (or do they love those donuts you bring in every Monday?), if you don’t meet your profit goals, you’re facing the unemployment line.

Competition in most industries is fierce, and you can never take profit performance for granted. Changes take place all the time — changes initiated by the business and changes from outside forces. Maybe a new superstore down the street is causing your profit to fall ...