Making the Numbers Count, 2nd Edition

Interlude Bean Counters No More

“Bean Counters No More”^* was the theme of an issue of Management Accounting magazine, the journal of the Institute of Management Accountants in Montvale, New Jersey. Although this issue appeared many years ago, its ideas still resonate today. Most of the magazine was dedicated to case studies of companies in which the accounting people had shed the old image of the “green eyeshade” accountant laboring in a back room to produce irrelevant, incomprehensible, and late reports. These accountants had made the transition to “agents of change.”

Technical Editor Susan Jayson noted:

The number one complaint of management accountants with ten years or more experience is that “management doesn’t listen to us. We have a ...