Management Accounting Best Practices: A Guide for the Professional Accountant

Preface

The typical accountant receives a thorough grounding in accounting standards in school, but then arrives on the job and asks—What do I do now? The unfortunate realization strikes that only a small proportion of the accounting job involves that painfully acquired knowledge of accounting standards. Instead, many other questions arise, with no obvious answers:

• How do I create a budget?
• What is a bottleneck asset, and should I invest in it?
• Should I approve a request for a capital expenditure?
• How do I grant credit to customers?
• How do I accelerate cash collections?
• Which controls should I set up?
• How do I conduct a throughput analysis?
• Should we outsource work?
• How do I collect payroll information?
• How do I achieve accurate inventory records?
• How do I allocate costs?
• What kinds of responsibility reports should I use?
• Should I set up a target costing system to assist the development of a new product?
• How do I set product prices?
• Where do I place quality review stations to improve profitability?

Management Accounting Best Practices provides the answers to all of these questions (and over 100 more) that show both the aspiring and seasoned accountant how to set up and manage an accounting department. Furthermore, when other members of the management team come calling with questions, the answers now lie on the accountant's bookshelf.

The information in this book is culled from eight of the author's best-selling books: Accounting Control Best Practices, Billing and Collections ...