home · Planning · Methodology for maintaining management accounting in an organization. Management accounting and analysis of labor costs in an organization

Methodology for maintaining management accounting in an organization. Management accounting and analysis of labor costs in an organization

Management accounting is the intra-company operational management of financial and economic activities, aimed at satisfying the information needs of the company's managers, not necessarily at the highest, but at the middle level, who solve problems in a large enterprise. This is achieved by comparing actual results with calculated ones. Management accounting also generates quite extensive information to support planned management decisions, not only current, but also strategically perspective, therefore it cannot be reduced only to the accounting system.

The responsibility centers that are possible in an enterprise are presented. Cost centers, as the initial stage of development of management accounting, represent only one type. There are other centers (for example, income centers). This means that this structural unit incurs expenses, but they are so insignificant that there is no point in controlling them, and the income that the center generates far exceeds the expenses that this object incurs. Profit centers are a symbiosis of a cost center and a revenue center where this can be organized.

Let's consider the necessary conditions for creating and identifying responsibility centers. Among them are:

  • - the formation of a set of responsibility centers to which a certain part of the overall responsibility for costs, income or profits is delegated, to create a system of responsibility centers so that each lower level (center) is accountable to the corresponding upper one;
  • - determination of the circle of responsibility. It should not repeat the functional management structure of the enterprise, which exists for other purposes; it can be used only partially and where appropriate.

Well-established feedback information is essential for intra-company management at UAZ OJSC. The experience of implementing management accounting in an organization indicates the need for a systematic approach to obtaining this information. A systematic approach to organizing feedback information involves at least three system blocks: management accounting accounts, internal reporting, and a document flow plan.

Management accounting accounts at UAZ OJSC are methodically and organizationally separated from other accounting accounts, since they create information for in-plant management, and also, unlike other accounts, reflect not only actual, but also planned and budgetary information in a detailed breakdown by center responsibility, calculation objects, other sections. Reflection of planned and actual data on accounts allows you to obtain deviations from planned and budgetary indicators in the form of account balances.

Separate information for management accounting can and should be obtained from the accounts of Section III of the Chart of Accounts, approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated October 31, 2000 No. 94n (as amended on November 8, 2010). Their content should be expanded in order to obtain all the necessary information for internal management in a closed system of accounts. The expanded list of management accounting accounts at UAZ OJSC includes, preserving the names of those accounts that are already in effect in the approved Chart of Accounts, and occupying free account numbers, other necessary management accounting accounts, the following accounts:

  • 20 "Main production";
  • 21 "Semi-finished products of own production";
  • 22 "Product release";
  • 23 "Auxiliary production";
  • 24 "Finished products";
  • 25 "General production expenses";
  • 26 "General administrative and commercial expenses";
  • 27 "Reflection of costs and income";
  • 28 "Investments in non-current assets";
  • 29 "Service industries and farms";
  • 30 "Sales".

Another option for a more consistent arrangement of these accounts is also possible, since management accounting is an internal matter of any company.

Let's look at some accounting entries in management accounting accounts.

Accounting for calculation objects, sales nomenclature, responsibility centers, business processes, activity segments and other grouping grounds is organized on separate sub-accounts for each account. The classification of subaccounts should be uniform and end-to-end for all management accounting accounts.

Since management accounting accounts are separated into a separate system that has an internal balance, usually with a zero balance, it is necessary to allocate independent cost accounting accounts in the accounting (financial) accounting system. In these accounts, it is advisable to organize accounting by elements of expenses in order to combine in single registers the receipt of information on expenses in the interests of both accounting and tax accounting. For this purpose, UAZ OJSC uses the following accounts from Section III of the Chart of Accounts:

  • 31 "Material costs";
  • 32 "Labor costs";
  • 33 "Depreciation";
  • 34 "Other costs";
  • 37 "Reflection of costs."

It is advisable to close the balance on accounts 31, 32, 33, 34 only based on the results of work for the year. This will make it possible to reflect actual costs on an accrual basis throughout the year, from the beginning of the year according to account balances with a detailed breakdown of actual costs by element, which significantly increases the visibility of the information received. The total amounts of expenses reflected in accounts 27 and 37 must be equal. The computer data processing program should automatically transfer them and reflect them on account 27 in the management accounting system.

The cost of manufactured finished products is reflected without general business expenses.

Accounting accounts used in a separate system for managerial analytical accounting, as evidenced by the experience of implementing management accounting:

  • - create a complete information structure that allows you to obtain internal management information with the reliability and accuracy inherent in accounting, but in a closed mode, replacing accounting in in-plant management;
  • - allow you to accumulate information on analytical management accounting accounts in real time, reflecting deviations from planned and budgetary indicators, which increases the efficiency of control and management, and reflect, along with actual planned data, through accounting records, which increases internal planning discipline and eliminates unreasonable changes in budgets and estimates of responsibility centers;
  • - allow you to quickly summarize indicators that are significant for senior management and orderly present information to all levels of management.

The structure of management accounting accounts acts as the fundamental core that consolidates the entire management accounting system without violating its necessary flexibility and efficiency.

An effective in-plant accounting system should include:

  • - a justified structure of in-plant management by financial reporting centers, business processes, and activity segments;
  • - estimates and budgets for the entire management structure with instructions to performers on their preparation and implementation;
  • - chart of accounts for management accounting, adapted to the structure of in-plant management;
  • - methodological instructions for maintaining management accounting accounts in accordance with the agreed chart of accounts;
  • - forms of in-plant reporting and guidelines for their preparation, presentation and analysis;
  • - methods of cost rationing, accounting and analysis of deviations from norms with the necessary instructions to performers;
  • - methods of calculating direct and full costs with the distribution of costs by function, instructions to performers;
  • - transfer pricing methods, instructions to contractors;
  • - document flow plan.

Modern approaches to management accounting assume its complex organization. Individual elements of management accounting cannot solve the problem of improving in-plant management.

What is management accounting and how does it differ from financial accounting? What are the principles of management accounting? What are the features of various methods of organizing management accounting in an enterprise?

Hello, regular readers of the HeatherBober business magazine and everyone who visited our resource for the first time! We have an expert with you - Anna Medvedeva.

Everything related to finance and reporting is always difficult and responsible. Today we will deal with the topic management accounting, and also see how it fundamentally differs from financial accounting.

At the end of the article, I have prepared for you an overview of companies that will help you establish management accounting at a professional level.

1. What is management accounting

The primary task of management accounting- outline this for management a real picture of the state of the enterprise, help distribute reserves and improve efficiency.

Purpose of management accounting- provide the company management and department specialists with planned indicators, actual figures and forecast information regarding the activities of the enterprise.

The extent to which this data is correct, the more effective and justified it will become. management decisions.

Let's define the concept.

This is a technique for preparing and assessing information about the work of an organization. It shows the results of the economic activity of the enterprise and is used for management purposes.

What principles is management accounting based on:

  • isolation- both the enterprise as a whole and its departments are considered independently of others;
  • continuity- information for accounting should be received regularly and not randomly;
  • completeness- information should be as complete as possible;
  • timeliness- data must be provided at the time of need;
  • comparability- identical parameters for different time periods should be formed according to the same principles;
  • clarity- data must be presented in a form understandable to the addressee;
  • periodicity- external and internal reporting must be prepared within the prescribed time frame;
  • efficiency- the costs of operating the accounting system must be compensated by the benefits from its use.

For implemented management accounting to justify itself, three conditions are necessary: ​​good specialists, active participation of management and the allocation of special resources.

What does it look like? In small companies, management accounting is set of spreadsheets . For large amounts of information, it is advisable to choose special software product.

Closely related to management accounting budget of income and expenses And cash flow budget ().

2. What methods of management accounting exist - 7 main methods

Because by law there are no clear requirements to maintaining management accounting, it is allowed to vary and select methods and methods that are convenient for a particular institution.

Management Accounting Problem- This is cost estimation and cost control. We have identified the most common approaches to organizing this process.

Method 1. Determining the break-even point

This term, also called critical point, indicates the volume of products produced and their sales at which the organization begins to make a profit from the sale of its goods. That is, income begins to cover expenses.

The break-even point is indicated in units of production or in financial terms.

Method 2. Budgeting

The definition speaks for itself. This method of management accounting helps to allocate enterprise resources as efficiently as possible through careful planning and subsequent monitoring and analysis of deviations from the plan.

Budgeting helps you save and collaborate smoothly

It is based on the use of data on the economics of the enterprise. Therefore, the most important function of a budget management program is to facilitate objective analysis and decision making.

Method 3. Process costing

So-called process method relevant for serial production of similar products or when the production process cannot be interrupted for economic or safety reasons.

In the process calculation, the ratio of costs to products produced for a specific period is compiled.

Method 4. Project cost calculation

Used in cases where a product is manufactured to special order.

For each project or batch of manufactured products, costs are calculated:

  • for materials;
  • payment to employees;
  • other expenses.

This method is also called custom-made.

Method 5. Transfer cost calculation

Transverse method needed in mass production. Here the defining process is sequential transition of raw materials into the final product.

Groups of production processes form redistributions. Each such processing stage either produces an intermediate product ( semifinished), or completes the entire process and produces the final product.

Method 6. Standard cost calculation

This method takes into account deviations of actual costs from planned ones. Calculation of standard cost is carried out for each type of product.

At the end of the period, deviations are recorded:

  • negative - excessive consumption of raw materials;
  • positive - rational consumption of materials.

A separate point is the consideration of conditional deviations. They appear due to discrepancies in the preparation of calculations, therefore they can be both negative and positive.

Method 7. Direct costing

In fact, this is cost control. primary goal direct costing- divide them into constants and variables.

To make it easier to distinguish the essence of these concepts, let's make a table.

Fixed and variable costs:

The most significant feature of direct costing is ability to see relationships between production volumes, costs and profits.

3. How management accounting is established - 5 main stages

Now let's write it down in detail, how to organize management accounting.

For clarity, I have compiled a step-by-step algorithm of actions.

Stage 1. Determination of the main consumers of management accounting data

The main customers and recipients of management accounting information are: company executives And members of the board of directors, managers at different levels, as they make major business decisions.

If you need to convey to decision makers the essence of a problem or a plan of action, then the best way is prepare a presentation to present information clearly and in a structured manner.

Stage 2. Formation of a list of required reporting

Next, it is necessary to create and agree with all interested parties a list of documents - that is, reports directly that are to be drawn up. For each report, it is determined when and with what frequency it will be submitted - a clear and detailed description is made.

Stage 3. Preparing a sketch of the methodology

The preparation of a management accounting system is carried out by specialists, delving into all the details company activities. Otherwise, there is a risk that the management reporting system will not meet its implementation goals and will not bring the desired results.

What needs to be done at this stage:

  • identify reporting blocks and accounting areas;
  • develop interim reporting documents and calculation methods;
  • determine methods for entering and processing information into the system;
  • ensure effective data control;
  • distribute responsibilities among specialists who perform data preparation;
  • prepare a test version of the methodology and make trial calculations;
  • evaluate the feasibility of the developed draft methodology.

Then the prepared model is approved by the company management.

Stage 4. Introduction of management accounting methodology

If all previous activities have been successful, the management accounting system is put into operation.

The implementation of a management accounting project will reveal shortcomings made in the preparation of the methodology. Perhaps this will be a heterogeneous approach of different departments to data processing, or inconsistency of information intersecting in different reports, or imperfect software, etc.

There may also be other overlaps in the interaction between departments.

Example

At the enterprise "ChelyabinskStroyMotazh" There were problems with the reliability of information about the sale of goods.

During the inspection it turned out that accounting department did not timely enter information into the database about the funds received. Because of this, the closure of the institution’s balance sheet was delayed.

Stage 5. Organization of control over the implementation of the management accounting system

A fundamental part of control is to assess how cost effective selected management accounting system. But first you need to make sure that all performers are trained, the goals are clear, and there are no errors in the methodology.

Continuing the topic, we offer some practical advice from an expert.

4. Professional assistance in setting up management accounting - review of the TOP 3 service companies

Below I present a list of companies that professionally organize management accounting in different organizations.

It is worth turning to them for help if you understand the need to take the enterprise management process to a fundamentally new level.

Financial management service offers financial and management accounting for small business. Full automation of the functions of accounting for income and expenses, financial planning and control of all money will help you take your business to a new level of development.

There is no need to install the program; you can work with the service immediately by going to the main page. The site is designed for maximum convenience - by entering data into the system, you will clearly see results and plans and have complete control over your business.

Working with the service will significantly save money that you previously spent on correcting deficiencies in the financial service.

2) GBCS

This consulting company has developed a unique management accounting business model for various institutions. Thanks to it, you will maximize the productivity of management decisions in your company.

The management accounting system, created by highly qualified GBCS specialists, will give you the opportunity to have a real understanding of assets and collect information regarding the financial situation of the enterprise.

In addition to the management accounting project, you will additionally be provided with other services: preparation of profit and loss statements, cash flow statements and management balance sheet. The relevance of the solutions offered by GBCS is an undoubted advantage of this consulting company.

The company has the largest regional network- 49 cities of Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, UAE and Canada. They offer modern accounting and management programs and create opportunities for successful business development of any industry and size.

"BitFinance" will help you with treasury and contract management, preparation of financial reports and IFRS reporting.

18 years of experience and professional assistance in achieving results are the greatest strengths of the BitFinance company, which have allowed it to complete more than 2,500 successful projects.

5. What is the difference between management accounting and financial accounting - 5 main differences

In this section I will talk about the differences between management and financial types of accounting.

Difference 1. Management accounting is not required for an enterprise

Financial statements limited by clear legal requirements. It is drawn up and submitted to the appropriate authorities, regardless of whether the management of the enterprise considers it appropriate.

Compiled at the discretion of the company administration. This is usually done when the benefits of the data available in the report justify the costs of their preparation, processing and execution of the report itself.

Difference 2. Degree of openness of information

Financial statements represent more open information for a number of companies. For example, federal law requires that accounting information for public companies be published so that all interested parties can review it.

Management accounting information, on the contrary, completely closed and for third parties, and even within the company, not everyone has access to it.

Difference 3: Financial accounting should be as accurate as possible.

Financial reporting is serious business. The well-being of the entire company depends on the information contained in financial reports. Therefore, for financial accounting specificity and accuracy are required and vagueness is unacceptable.

Sometimes, in order to quickly make management decisions (if the situation requires it), it is necessary that data be provided quickly, but there is no time for their complete collection, detailing and reconciliation. Therefore, in management accounting Errors are allowed in numbers.

When it comes to speed of decision making, even approximate data is quite enough, since minor deviations still do not change the decision itself.

Difference 4. Frequency and timing of reporting

For change financial reports there are mandatory deadlines. Usually this monthly, quarterly or annual reporting periods. Deviation from deadlines may result in penalties.


To make it easier to study the material, we divide the article Management Accounting into topics:

The goal is achieved by diagnosing the existing accounting system (financial accounting according to Russian standards, IFRS, US GAAP; management accounting), analysis of economic activity, control, management decision-making; development and implementation of a management accounting system.

Objectives of the management accounting system:

Ensuring control over the availability, movement, effective distribution of property, material, monetary and to achieve the goals of the enterprise.
Monitoring the activities of the enterprise and responsibility centers.
Identification of reserves for increasing operational efficiency.
Improving the enterprise operational management system.
Formation of indicators that contribute to making effective management decisions.
Reducing costs in the enterprise.
Application of modern methods of product cost (Direct-cost, Standard-cost, ABC system, TS) for making management decisions on the product range and other purposes.
Determining the effectiveness of the functioning of the organization's divisions and their contribution to the formation.
Ensuring a sustainable position of the enterprise in the market.
Management of current liquidity of the enterprise.
Minimization of receivables and .
Development of recommendations to improve the financial condition of the enterprise.
Redistribution of the enterprise in order to maximize profits;
Formation of an information base for enterprise management;
General concept of organizing management accounting;
The organization of the management accounting system is carried out using one of two possible approaches, which is determined depending on the tasks assigned by the Customer;
Full development and implementation of a management accounting system;
Development and implementation of elements of a management accounting system necessary to solve the tasks set by the Customer.

Scope of work performed by specialists:

1. Diagnostics:
o Company development strategies.
o Main activities and .
o.
o Analysis of management efficiency and financial condition of the enterprise.
o Analysis of the break-even of the enterprise.
o Determination of “bottlenecks” of the enterprise.
2. Development:
o Development of financial structure.
o Development of internal reporting forms for the enterprise.
o Organization of internal document flow.
o Improving methods of cost accounting and distribution of the enterprise.
o Organization of a transfer pricing system.
o Optimization of product range.
o Organization of control over the state of the enterprise.
o Organization of control over receivables and payables of the enterprise.
o Construction of management accounting.
o Organization of the enterprise pricing system.
o Development and improvement of the company's accounting policies for accounting and management accounting.
o Development of a system for using management accounting data to justify decisions at different levels of management.
3. Implementation of a management accounting system:
o Development of technical specifications for automation of the management accounting system.
o Supporting the implementation of an automated accounting system.

The main results of the specialists’ work are:

Regulations on the financial structure of the company, identification and assignment of key performance indicators to divisions.
Management accounting methods: analytical sections, methods of cost accounting and cost calculation (analytical reference books, provisions on cost accounting).
Management accounting regulations and procedures; information flows in the company that support management accounting procedures and processes (regulations for the formation and provision of management reporting, document flow regulations, accounting policies).
A register of management reporting forms that meet the needs of various levels of management.
Recommendations for choosing the optimal configuration of an IT complex for management accounting in a company.
Recommendations for building a management accounting system at a specific enterprise.
Development of a process-oriented management accounting model with interrelated KPIs (key performance indicators) tied to responsibility centers.

Advantages of involvement in the development and implementation of a management accounting system:

Management information is generated according to the principle of minimum information - maximum efficiency of decision-making, which makes it possible to significantly reduce the amount of processed information.
The accounting system covers all levels of management, is maximally unified with other accounting systems, and is linked to strategic and production management.
A well-founded choice of methods for calculation, planning and cost analysis is provided.
A well-founded set of standard solutions and methods for their support by the accounting system is provided.
Extensive experience in organizing management accounting in key sectors of the Russian economy.

Management accounting system

Recently, the topic of management accounting has been most popular in periodical literature on management. Publications on this topic do not dry out, but the issue, oddly enough, remains unresolved for many enterprises.

The fashionability of this topic is determined by its relevance and at the same time insufficient “scientific elaboration”. In my opinion, the reasons for such a long maturation of the topic lie in the following. Firstly, habits of thinking according to accounting rules and associated stereotypes bring a lot of confusion. Secondly, the information about their enterprise that financial directors have is structured, again, for the needs of accounting, and its rules do not entirely coincide with the needs of management. Thus, with the obvious difference between management and accounting, there is a situation where neither the information collection system nor the apparatus for processing it stimulates the movement of the situation towards the needs of managers.

This situation is partly supported by suppliers of information systems, who persistently position their products as “systems very similar to ERP” and “integrated management systems.” When I worked in some of these companies, I noticed that when selling systems, the following dialogue was typical.

What tasks can your system solve? - asked the buyer.

Any you say, you just need to present them correctly,” answered the salesman-implementer.

“I see,” said the buyer, and his face saddened. And he himself, most likely, thought that “they” either did not understand anything, or could not offer him something that he himself did not yet fully understand.

Thus, to the problem of inconsistency between the principles of accounting and management accounting is added the problem of the lack of formalization of the key tasks of the financial director.

What does a manager really need? And what is management accounting? These questions can be answered very simply, at the level of common sense. However, usually such answers are not accepted, they are simply filtered out: “Well, this is already clear, nothing new, we already know that.” Apparently, this is why many managers do not like the advice of consultants, calling them trivial. The reason for this attitude is the fact that common sense has two sides. When we approach it from one side, we really say: “Yes, this is already clear, I already know this.” But we are based only on the knowledge that we already have. And when we learn something new, we approach it from a different angle. Formally, everything can be described by the same words at the level of common sense, but behind them there will be completely different knowledge.

Therefore, defining management accounting or the tasks of a financial director is a futile exercise; they will seem familiar. Instead, it is better to show what complex of problems is solved at the enterprise, which tasks from this complex we agree to classify as management accounting and how they are interconnected with other tasks. And then you can decide for yourself whether you know this, or whether this is something new, giving a new perspective on what is already known.

None of us want to be treated by a specialist in the right ear, but when it comes to running a business, the holistic approach gives way to specialization. To avoid tug-of-war between line managers of different departments, we need to consider the enterprise as a system.

Despite the numerous groups influencing an enterprise, the parents of the enterprise's purpose are its owners. They are interested in one thing: for the company to make money. Regardless of what is written in any company's mission statement, its goal is simple - to make money. Otherwise, she simply will not be able to complete her mission.

If you look from the perspective of market relations, then it is not difficult for the owners of the enterprise to sell their brainchild and invest the proceeds in some more profitable enterprise. Here, questions about the ethics of such behavior are not in the foreground. Despite the fact that there are trade unions, laws and other levers of other pressure groups, investors can do this. And they do. The only question is the mobility of converting their capital. In the end, consumers themselves decide which type of product is more preferable for them and for which they are willing to give more added value to capitalist investors.

From the point of view of the macroeconomic situation, the struggle for resources determines the need for enterprises to earn as much money as possible. This, in turn, requires the most advanced technologies in both material processing and capital management. Is it possible to replace this struggle for resources, for example, with a struggle for clients? In general, no. Technologies for improving customer service allow a company to make money in the long term, but are not an end in itself. The company's goal is to provide maximum capital growth to investors. If this goal disappears from focus, then sooner or later the company will find itself without money, and therefore without the opportunity to develop. In addition, if a more profitable line of business emerges, a smart investor will want to redirect his capital there, rather than prove the quality of customer service.

As one of the models, managing an enterprise can be thought of as running a money-making machine. If you go to a store that sells such machines, what requirements will you make for this machine? The very first questions are: how much is she worth and how much money does she make? If you are going to operate such a machine, then you will need to consider the answers to them in the process of the company and understand how to manage this process so that the machine makes more money at a minimum cost.

Let's look at the process. Purchasing or starting a business will require an investment of money. This will be the cost of the car. Further, as the enterprise operates, it will generate some income and require some expenses, which will change in each period. Its cost will also change. Eventually, the machine may wear out and become unusable. In other words, the manager will be interested in changes in the following indicators - the rate of income generation, tied up capital, operating expenses. These indicators were proposed by E. Goldratt and are discussed in some detail in his book “The Goal”.

The distinction between expenses for tied capital and operating expenses is carried out on the basis of the possibility of getting them back. So, the generated income is the money coming into the system. Tied capital is money that is temporarily in the system. Operating expenses are money that leaves the system forever.

The manager's role comes down to a fairly routine monitoring of how his management decisions affect the instantaneous values ​​of Goldratt's three indicators and the entire picture of these indicators in the future, which he can calculate.

Thus, management accounting is a kind of system of indicators that reflects the process of capital movement and is intended to obtain answers to the question - how does each management decision in the short and long term satisfy the interests of the investor?

When did management accounting emerge? It didn't exist before, and suddenly it was needed. It has long been no secret that the accounting system does not allow us to answer such simple questions as whether we ended the quarter with a profit. The reason here is not in the accounting itself, but in the principles that are embedded in it.

Initially, the system of accounts was conceived by Luca Pacioli as a system that reflected the movement of value. Later, a cost model came into accounting, which today is already accepted as law, although it adequately describes a fairly small number of business types. Based on the cost model, many management doctrines are built, which are considered immutable.

The main assumption that this model makes is the adequacy of the mechanism for distributing semi-fixed costs. This operation allows you to analyze various product groups as independent units of accounting and independent from the rest of the production. Although the degree of interdependence of processes greatly increases with the increase in assortment, accounting is maintained as “independent”.

What does this lead to? It’s not hard to guess that when making decisions, the numbers show one thing, but in reality “it’s as if something doesn’t add up.” The reason is simple. Nowadays, the degree of interdependence of processes has greatly increased. In many types of businesses, making money comes from economies of scale and cutting off all sorts of fat. And this is only possible by taking into account the entire enterprise. The need for holistic management has given rise to systems such as “just in time”, ERP, etc. Intuitively, experienced managers make decisions systematically, based on knowledge of the interconnection of processes. But in reality, the formal model does not take this into account.

The general system model of an enterprise’s operation reflects the income generation cycle: tying up capital, reimbursing costs, converting tied up capital into income. If we consider this model in more detail, it will become clear that the flow of tied capital through various business processes of an enterprise has its own bottlenecks, which determine its rate of income generation. Taking into account this system model, it is possible to build an adequate management accounting system.

Using the cost model, it is impossible to see the entire flow of capital and make the right decisions. On the contrary, each unit is forced to “pull the blanket over itself.” It reduces costs, it produces additional units of production, but it is not necessary for the entire enterprise as a whole. There are bottlenecks that require intervention, but they are not visible. As a result, each department reaches its local optimum, and the entire enterprise ends each period with unpredictable results only because the enterprise is not managed as a whole.

Another interesting topic is budgeting. Fashion is fashion, but why should an enterprise, which seems to be moving away from the flawed management of local optima, again split itself into conditionally independent units?

If we turn to the theory of constraints, then budgeting is justified if money for an enterprise is not its bottleneck. In other words, there is enough cash available that this resource does not need to be constantly balanced between departments. There is enough “fat” to provide each of the divisions with a reserve of cash, not to worry about the synergistic effect and to focus the company’s efforts, for example, on customer service. In this way, some orderliness is achieved (sometimes bureaucratic) and it is understood that when making decisions, money is far from the most important resource for the company.

In this case, divisions do not have to seek a global optimum for the entire enterprise, and, therefore, they can each pursue their own goal. Then why are they not independent business units?

The fact is that the desire to integrate management processes as much as possible and at the same time force the available tied capital to generate the greatest income generation is met with an opposing force. There comes a time for enterprises when it is more profitable for the owner to have several independent enterprises rather than one large one. The fact that there must be an optimum is obvious. It is interesting to understand what will be the criterion that determines the turning point of the situation?

The reason that does not allow enterprises to be enlarged indefinitely is the interdependence of the processes of such an enterprise. Considering the fact that all processes have their own instability (and in our country this is the most significant factor), when a certain scale is reached, a failure in one process entails consequences for the rest of the enterprise. Sometimes very deplorable. Which exit?

The solution is to reduce the degree of dependence. Or reduce the variability (instability) of dependent processes. Dependency can be reduced either by sharing redundant resources or by introducing redundant functions.

Let's consider the first method. Let's assume that three divisions are dependent on each other through the marketing, financial and engineering services. Of these three dependence factors, one is in excess. Let’s say that the engineering service, even if it divides its personnel into three divisions, will be able to cope with its tasks. By dividing the engineering service, the enterprise achieves a reduction in controllable factors, and the department achieves a shorter response time for solving engineering problems.

The introduction of separate budgets can also lead to faster payments, but this is only possible if there is a surplus of funds. And it is advisable only if such acceleration is necessary.

The second way is duplication of functions. For example, for the same three divisions, dependence in the purchase of materials has a strong impact on the launch of the production process. The obvious conclusion is that everyone needs to have their own purchasing department. As a last resort, separation into separate enterprises.

If we return to the issues of dependence of financial processes, here the method of duplicating functions is solved by searching for independent sources of financing.

There is also a third way - to reduce the variability of dependent processes. In this case, for some time now there is no need to reduce the dependence of processes. And you can take advantage of integration.

It may seem that we are deviating from the topic, but this is done only to show the place of this method in the circle of others possible, if you approach management systematically, keeping its goal in mind.

Now let's summarize how this knowledge (or its model) can be expressed in specific actions.

For those enterprises whose goal is to make money, the accounting system should be built on the principle of tracking changes in indicators when making management decisions. For example, the issue of launching a new product is being considered. The launch takes two months.

Since the management process is the planning of indicators based on a certain business vision model and the subsequent comparison of actual results with planned ones in order to find errors or compliance with one’s model and plan more successfully in the future, planning must have a theoretical basis.

Such a theoretical basis for comparing planned and actual indicators is the capital flow model. More precisely, its circulation with the identification of bottlenecks of this flow (by the way, the model of flow and bottlenecks is also applicable to other organizations whose goal is not money). The information system should be built on the same principle.

In this flow, it is necessary to identify narrow links, determine their relationships and the characteristics of their variability. In order to further, by reducing the variability of all processes, increase the throughput of the narrowest link and thus increase the speed of income generation.

Management cost accounting

The approach has been established according to which any commercial enterprise strives to make decisions that would ensure it receives the maximum possible profit. Profit, as a rule, depends mainly on the price of the product and the costs of its production and sale.

The price of products on the market is a consequence of the interaction of supply and demand. Under the influence of the laws of market pricing in conditions of free competition, the price of products cannot be higher or lower at the request of the manufacturer or buyer; it is automatically equalized. Another thing is the costs that form the cost of production. They can increase or decrease depending on the volume of consumed labor and material resources, the level of technology, the organization of production and other factors. Consequently, the manufacturer has many cost-cutting levers that it can use with skillful management.

In economic literature and regulatory documents, terms such as “costs”, “expenses”, “expenses” are often used. An incorrect definition of these concepts, in our opinion, can distort their economic meaning.

A careful familiarization with the essence of the terms listed above allows us to conclude that basically all these concepts mean the same thing - the costs of the enterprise associated with the performance of certain operations.

In the article, without going into theoretical discussions, we will use the following definitions to designate these categories.

The term "costs" is used, as a rule, in economic theory. These are the total sacrifices of the enterprise associated with the performance of certain operations. They include both explicit (accounting, settlement) and implied (alternative) costs.

Explicit (calculated) costs are actual costs expressed in monetary form, caused by the acquisition and expenditure of various types in the process of production and circulation of products, goods or services.

Alternative (opportunity) costs mean the loss lost by the enterprise, which it would have received if it had chosen to produce an alternative product, at an alternative price, in an alternative market, etc.

By costs we will mean explicit (actual, estimated), and by expenses a decrease in the enterprise’s funds or an increase in its debt obligations in the process of economic activity. Expenses mean the fact of using raw materials, supplies, and services. Only at the moment of sale does the enterprise recognize its income and the associated part of the costs - expenses.

Standard 18 IFRS “Revenue”, as well as domestic PBU 9/99 “Income of the organization” and 10/99 “Expenses of the organization” guide us towards this understanding of the above terms. According to these documents, expenses typically take the form of an outflow or reduction of an asset. Expenses are recognized in the income statement based on the direct relationship between the costs incurred and the revenues from certain items of income. This approach is called matching expenses and income. Based on this, in accounting, all income must be correlated with the costs of obtaining them, called expenses. From the point of view of accounting technology, this means that costs should be accumulated in the accounts “Materials”, “”, “Payroll calculations”, etc., then in the accounts “Main production”, “” and not written off to sales accounts until the products, goods, services with which they are associated are sold, since only at the time of sale will the organization recognize its expenses. Among the qualitative indicators of the enterprise's activity, an important place is occupied by such an indicator as the cost of production. It, as a synthetic indicator, reflects all aspects of the production and financial and economic activities of the organization. The amount of profit and the level of profitability depend on the level of production costs. The more economically an organization uses labor, material and financial resources in the manufacture of products, performance of work and provision of services, the greater the efficiency of the production process, the greater the profit.

Currently, the composition of costs included in the cost of production is regulated by relevant regulations, first of all, the provision “On the composition of costs for the production and sale of products (work, services), included in the cost of production (work, services), and on the procedure for the formation of financial results taken into account when taxing profits" (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation on August 5, 1992 No. 552 with subsequent amendments and additions).

Even from a simple listing of the component costs that form the cost of products (works, services), it is clear that they are not the same not only in their composition, but also in their significance in the manufacture of the product, performance of work and services. Some costs are directly related to the production of products (costs of raw materials, materials, wages of workers, etc.), others - with the management and maintenance of production (costs of maintaining the management apparatus, providing the production process with the necessary resources, maintaining it in working condition, etc.). etc.), and still others, not having a direct relationship to production, are nevertheless included in the current legislation (contributions for the reproduction of the mineral resource base, social needs of the population, etc.). In addition, part of the costs is directly included in the cost of specific types of finished products, and the other part, in connection with the production of several types of products, is indirectly included. Therefore, for the effective organization of management accounting, it is necessary to use economically justified accounting according to certain criteria. This will help not only to better plan and take into account costs, but also to analyze them more accurately, as well as identify certain relationships between individual types of costs and calculate the degree of their influence on the level of cost and profitability of production.

In management accounting, the purpose of any cost classification is to assist the manager in making correct, informed decisions, since the manager, when making decisions, must know what costs and benefits they will entail. Therefore, the essence of the cost classification process is to highlight that part of the costs that the manager can influence.

The practice of organizing management accounting in economic terms provides for different options for classifying costs depending on the target setting and areas of cost accounting. Consumers of internal information determine the direction of accounting that they require to provide information on the problem under study.

In this regard, the classification of costs proposed by K. Drury deserves attention. In his opinion, first of all, accounting accumulates information about three categories of costs: costs of materials, labor and overhead costs. Then the generalized costs are distributed according to accounting areas:

1) for calculating and assessing the cost of manufactured products;
2) for planning and making management decisions;
3) to carry out the process of control and regulation. In addition, in each of the three areas listed above, in turn, further detailing of costs occurs depending on management goals.

Without in any way detracting from the merits of the proposed classification of costs, we believe that narrowing the capabilities of management accounting within the framework of only these areas does not entirely meet the requirements of the present time. As you know, management accounting is designed to achieve the intended goal through its functions. Each function has its own purpose, purpose, objectives, as well as methods, techniques and ways to achieve them. In this regard, we propose to expand the areas of cost classification, subordinating them to the capabilities of each management accounting function. It must be borne in mind that the same classification criterion in different directions can give different results and vice versa.

An important point in management activities is the decision-making process, during which the tactics and strategy for the development of the enterprise are determined. For these purposes, the costs of an enterprise are divided into explicit and alternative, relevant and irrelevant, effective and ineffective.

For making management decisions, it is important to divide them into explicit and implicit (alternative).

Explicit are the expected costs that an enterprise must bear when carrying out production and commercial activities.

The costs caused by the refusal of one product in favor of another are called alternative (imputed) costs. They represent lost profits when choosing one action precludes the occurrence of another action. Opportunity costs arise when resources are limited. If resources are unlimited, opportunity costs are zero. Opportunity costs are sometimes called incremental costs.

Depending on the specifics of the decisions made, costs are divided into relevant and irrelevant. Relevant (i.e. significant, significant) costs can only be considered those costs that depend on the management decision under consideration. In particular, past costs cannot be relevant because they can no longer be influenced. At the same time, opportunity costs (lost profits) are relevant for making management decisions.

The results of decisions made can be significantly influenced by dividing costs into effective and ineffective.

Effective - these are productive costs, as a result of which income is received from the sale of those types of products for the production of which these costs were incurred.

Ineffective are costs of an unproductive nature, as a result of which no income will be received, since the product will not be produced. Ineffective costs are losses in production. These include losses from defects, downtime, shortages and damage to inventory items, etc. The obligation to highlight ineffective costs is interpreted in order to prevent losses from penetrating into planning and rationing.

Any enterprise seeking to maximize its profits must organize its production in such a way that the cost per unit of output is minimal. This means that the decisions made should be focused on the task of minimizing costs. In fulfilling this task, important importance is attached to the forecasting process, during which the costs of the enterprise are considered in the short and long term.

In the short term, individual factors do not change: they are called constant (fixed) factors. These usually include resources such as industrial buildings, machines, and equipment. However, this could also be land, the services of managers and qualified personnel. Economic resources that change during the production process are considered variable factors. In the medium term, all input factors of production may change, but the basic technologies remain unchanged. Over the long term, underlying technologies may also change.

Management decisions cannot be implemented unless they have a direct connection with the planning process, during which the expected costs associated with the implementation of production and commercial activities are considered from the point of view of the possibilities of their coverage by the plan. For these purposes, enterprise costs are divided into planned and unplanned.

The planned ones include the productive expenses of the enterprise, due to its economic activities and provided for by the production cost estimate. In accordance with norms, regulations, limits and estimates, they are included in the planned cost of production.

Unplanned are unproductive expenses that are not inevitable and do not arise from the normal conditions of the enterprise’s economic activity. These costs are considered direct losses and therefore are not included in the production cost estimate. They are reflected only in the actual cost of marketable products and in the corresponding accounts in accounting. These include losses from defects, downtime, etc. Their separate accounting facilitates the implementation of measures aimed at their prevention.

In management accounting, it is important to classify costs depending on their relationship to the norms, regulations, limits and standards in force at the enterprise. According to this criterion, all costs included in the cost of production are grouped according to the established standards in force at the beginning of the current month, and according to deviations from the current standards that arose during the production process. This division of costs underlies regulatory accounting and is the most important means of current operational control over the level of production costs.

The process of enterprise management is impossible without its clear organization. It forms the basis of daily management activities and without it, neither plans nor programs usually work. In the process of organization, management structures, places and areas of costs, as well as persons responsible for their implementation and behavior are formed.

According to the places of occurrence, costs are grouped and taken into account in the context of production, workshops, sections, departments, teams and other structural divisions of the enterprise, i.e. by responsibility centers. This grouping of costs allows you to organize internal cost accounting and determine the production cost of products. Accounting by responsibility centers “ties” cost accounting to the organizational structure of the enterprise. This grouping of costs directly depends on the current organizational structure.

Closely related to the above classification is the grouping of costs depending on the areas and functions of the enterprise. Based on this criterion, costs are divided into supply and procurement, technological, commercial and sales and organizational and managerial.

This grouping of costs makes it possible to organize functional accounting, in which costs are first collected in the context of the areas and functions of the enterprise, and only then - by costing objects.

Functional cost accounting helps to strengthen intra-business accounting and strengthen the relationship and interdependence between cost centers, and ensures more accurate provision of information about costs incurred. This helps managers make joint informed decisions about the type, composition, price, ways of selling products and helps improve the efficiency of the enterprise’s production and commercial activities.

All measures taken to implement management activities can be nullified if the enterprise does not have an effective accounting system. This area bears the main responsibility for information support for the processes of making and implementing the necessary management decisions. To implement accounting procedures, enterprise costs are grouped by composition, economic content, role in the technological process of manufacturing products, relation to production volume, method and time of inclusion in the cost of production, etc.

Based on their composition, costs are divided into single-element and complex.

Single-element costs are those that consist of one element - materials, wages, depreciation, etc. These costs, regardless of their place of origin and intended purpose, are not divided into different components.

Complex costs are those that consist of several elements, for example, general production and general business expenses, which include wages of the relevant personnel, depreciation of buildings and other single-element costs.

According to economic content, costs are classified according to costing items and economic elements.

The economic element is usually called the primary homogeneous type of costs for the production and sale of products, which at the enterprise level cannot be decomposed into its component parts.

The regulation on the composition of costs included in the cost of production establishes a single list of economically homogeneous costs for all enterprises:

Material costs;
labor costs;
contributions for social needs;
depreciation;
other costs.

An element-by-element grouping of costs shows how much of certain types of costs were produced throughout the enterprise as a whole over a certain period of time, regardless of where they arose and for the production of which specific product they were used.

The grouping of costs by economic elements is the object of financial accounting and is used when compiling an annual report in the form of an appendix to the balance sheet (form No. 5). This grouping makes it possible to establish the need for basic and, determination of the wage fund, etc.

However, the classification of costs by economic elements does not allow calculating the cost of individual types of products or establishing the amount of costs of specific structural divisions of the enterprise. For example, electricity at enterprises can be used both in the technological process of product production and for lighting the enterprise’s office, workshop premises, etc. In turn, in the technological process, electricity can be spent on the production of various products in different quantities: more for one product, less for another. To solve these problems, a classification of costs by costing items is used.

A costing item is usually called a certain type of cost that forms the cost of both individual types and all products as a whole.

Grouping costs by costing items allows you to determine the purpose of expenses and their role, organize control over expenses, identify qualitative indicators of economic activity of both the enterprise as a whole and its individual divisions, and establish in which areas it is necessary to search for ways to reduce production costs. On the basis of this grouping, analytical accounting of production costs is built, and planned and actual cost calculations of individual types of products are compiled.

The grouping of costs in relation to production volume is important in choosing an accounting and costing system. Based on this criterion, costs are divided into fixed and variable.

Variables are costs whose value changes with changes in production volume. These include the consumption of raw materials, fuel and energy for technological purposes, wages of production workers, etc.

Constant costs include costs whose value does not change or changes slightly with changes in production volume. These include general business expenses, etc.

Some costs are called mixed because they have both variable and fixed components. These are sometimes called semi-variable and semi-fixed costs. All direct costs are variable costs, and general production and general expenses include both variable and fixed cost components. For example, a monthly telephone fee includes a constant amount of the subscription fee and a variable part, which depends on the number and duration of long-distance and international telephone calls. Therefore, when accounting for costs, they must be clearly distinguished between fixed and variable costs.

The division of costs into fixed and variable is of great importance for planning, accounting and analysis of product costs. Fixed costs, while remaining relatively unchanged in absolute value, with production growth become an important factor in reducing production costs, since their value decreases per unit of production. Variable costs increase in direct proportion to the growth of production, but calculated per unit of production they represent a constant value. Savings on these costs can be achieved through the implementation of organizational and technical measures that ensure their reduction per unit of output. In addition, this grouping of costs can be used in analyzing and forecasting break-even production and, ultimately, in choosing the economic policy of an enterprise.

According to the method of inclusion in the cost of production, enterprise costs are divided into direct and indirect.

Direct costs are the costs of producing a specific type of product. Therefore, they can be attributed to calculation objects at the time of their commission or accrual directly on the basis of data from primary documents. These include: costs of raw materials, materials, wages of production workers, etc.

Indirect costs are associated with the production of several types of products, for example, costs of management and maintenance of production (overheads).

Indirect costs are first collected in the appropriate collection and distribution accounts, and then included in the cost of specific products using special distribution calculations. The choice of distribution base is determined by the characteristics of the organization and production technology and is established by industry instructions for planning, accounting and calculating product costs.

The division of costs into direct and indirect is conditional. Thus, in mining industries, where, as a rule, one type of product is extracted, the costs are direct. In complex industries, in which several types of products are made from the same types of raw materials, the main costs are indirect. Expanding the share of direct costs contributes to a more accurate determination of product costs.

Based on their role in the technological process of manufacturing products and their intended purpose, the costs of an enterprise are divided into basic and overhead.

The main costs are those directly related to the technological process of manufacturing products. These include costs included in the workshop production cost of products (the cost of raw materials, materials and semi-finished products that are materially included in the product; the cost of fuel and energy spent for technological purposes; the cost of paying production workers and contributions to social needs; operating costs production machines and equipment, etc.).

Overhead costs arise in connection with the organization, maintenance of production, sales of products and management. They consist of comprehensive general and selling expenses. Their value depends on the organization of production and commercial activities, the business policy of the administration, the duration of the reporting period and other factors.

The division of costs into basic and overhead is based on the fact that only production costs should be included in the cost of production. They, as necessary, form the production cost of the product and are used to calculate the cost per unit of production. Overhead costs are used to ensure the process of selling products and the functioning of the enterprise as an economic unit, and therefore should be written off as a decrease in profit from sales of products.

In international practice, the main costs are in the form of production costs, and overhead costs are periodic costs. Such a grouping is still rare in domestic accounting practice. Meanwhile, it has long been widely used in countries with developed market economies that use the Direct Cost accounting system. In this case, the resulting accounting information more adequately reflects the process of market pricing and allows for a comprehensive analysis and planning of the relationship between production volumes, prices and production costs.

Of great importance in management accounting is the grouping of costs depending on the time of their occurrence and attribution to the cost of production. According to this criterion, costs are divided into current, future reporting period and upcoming. Current expenses include the costs of production and sales of products for a given period. They have generated income in the present and have lost the ability to generate income in the future. Expenses of the future period are expenses incurred in the current reporting period, but subject to inclusion in the cost of products that will be produced in subsequent reporting periods (for example, expenses for the development of commissioned workshops, production facilities, for the preparation and development of new types of products at existing enterprises ). Such expenses should generate income in the future. Forthcoming includes costs that have not yet been incurred in a given reporting period, but in order to correctly reflect the actual cost, they are subject to inclusion in the production costs for a given reporting period in a planned amount (expenses for paying workers' vacations, paying a one-time remuneration for long service and other costs that have periodic nature).

An important role in cost management is the control system, which ensures the completeness and correctness of actions in the future aimed at reducing costs and increasing production efficiency. To ensure a cost control system, they are grouped into controlled and uncontrollable.

Controllable costs are those that can be controlled by the subjects of management. Uncontrollable costs do not depend on the activities of management subjects. For example, revaluation of fixed assets, which resulted in an increase in amounts, changes in prices for fuel and energy resources, etc.

When building a cost control system, it is necessary to determine:

A system of controlled indicators, composition and level of detail;
reporting deadlines;
distribution of responsibility for the completeness, timeliness and reliability of information contained in cost reports, that is, “tie” the control system to responsibility centers in the enterprise.

In order for the cost control system at an enterprise to be effective, it is necessary to first identify the centers of responsibility where costs are generated, classify costs, and then use a cost management accounting system. As a result, the head of the enterprise will have the opportunity to timely identify bottlenecks in planning, formation of costs and make appropriate management decisions.

The process of managing costs at an enterprise also includes the process of regulating their level. For these purposes, costs are divided into regulated and unregulated.

According to the degree of controllability, costs are divided into fully, partially and weakly regulated.

Fully regulated costs arise primarily in the areas of production and distribution. These are costs recorded by responsibility centers and their value depends on the degree of regulation on the part of the manager. Partially adjustable costs occur primarily in (research and development), marketing, and customer service. Weakly controlled (specified) costs arise in all functional areas.

The degree of cost control depends on the specifics of a particular enterprise: the technology used; organizational structure; and other factors. Therefore, there is no universal methodology for classifying costs according to the degree of adjustability - it can only be developed in relation to a specific enterprise. The degree of cost control will vary depending on the following conditions:

Duration of the period of time (with a long period, it becomes possible to influence those costs that are considered given in a short period);
the powers of the decision maker (costs that are specified at the level of the shop manager may turn out to be regulated at the level of the director of the enterprise).

The division of costs into regulated and unregulated must be provided for in reports on the execution of estimates by responsibility centers. This will allow us to highlight the area of ​​responsibility of each manager and evaluate his work in terms of controlling the costs of the enterprise department.

A modern enterprise management system is not considered effective if it does not put the “human factor” first. The success of any production and commercial activity primarily depends on the efforts of the workforce, the professionalism of management subjects, and their interest in the results of their work. For this purpose, an incentive system is widely used in management activities. Based on this characteristic, the enterprise’s costs are divided into mandatory, associated with the performance of basic job duties, and incentive, aimed at achieving high quality indicators.

The process of making management decisions is impossible without an effective system of economic analysis that allows one to evaluate the achieved results of an enterprise’s activities and identify internal and external reserves for its further development. For these purposes, costs are grouped into actual, forecast, planned, estimated, etc. During the analysis, both the total volume of costs and the individual elements and items that form it are examined, i.e. structure.

Our proposed classification of costs in the context of management functions will improve the efficiency of management accounting, enhance its analyticalness and the ability to identify reserves for increasing the effectiveness of production and commercial activities.

Accounting for management decisions

The division of accounting into financial and managerial is quite common. The classification is based on several key provisions.

Users of information provided by accounting. Any form of accounting is needed in order to obtain a certain amount of information in one form or another. Shareholders and company owners are interested in timely, concise and understandable reports on the value of their investments, the dynamics of the general financial indicators of the enterprise, and current profit levels. Tax authorities want to have information about accrued tax payments, the correctness of their calculation, and, ultimately, about their payment. Lenders want access to information about the company's ability to meet its financial obligations. Managers, in addition to almost all of the above, need information that can help them make decisions, control and regulate management activities. Such information, for example, includes sales prices, level, production costs, demand, profitability of goods produced by their enterprise, etc.

One of the possibilities for separating users could be their division into internal and external, that is, users in the enterprise where accounting is carried out, and those who are not part of this organization. Thus, management accounting aims to provide information to internal users, and financial accounting - to external ones.

Legal reporting requirements. Most financial reports are prepared and provided by the enterprise in the form established by law, regardless of whether the administration of the enterprise considers them useful and necessary. Management accounting is carried out only if the benefits from using the information exceed the costs of its collection and processing.

Accuracy of information. Often the data provided by management accounting must be released quickly, and certain errors in the reports are quite officially allowed. Some decisions simply cannot be delayed until full information is available, and approximate information is sufficient to make them.

Financial reports, on the contrary, must be accurate, since not only the image of the enterprise depends on this, but in some cases its well-being. Thus, management accounting is more approximate than financial accounting.

Scale of accounting. In financial accounting, the accounting object is usually the entire organization. The focus of management accounting is, as a rule, small areas or areas of activity of the enterprise, for example, individual types of products, indicators of different zones or types of sales, since it is at these levels that management decisions are made.

Accounting principles. External users of financial accounting require that reports be prepared on the basis of generally accepted accounting standards, usually established by law at the federal or regional level.

And in aspects of accounting used only within the enterprise, you can choose those rules and procedures for recording, processing and providing information that are most acceptable and useful for decision making, without worrying about their compliance with generally accepted norms or legal requirements. Temporal correlation of information. Financial statements provide information about completed business transactions and accomplished facts. Management accounting also includes forecasts in its area of ​​interest. Many decisions are focused on future events, so managers need forward-looking indicators.

Periodicity. Detailed financial statements are prepared and presented at specific times, most often quarterly or annually. Management accounting information is requested by the administration as often as necessary: ​​daily, weekly, in some cases, hourly.

Making decisions

Decision making in an enterprise is always a choice between options for action with different forecasts of results. Current management decisions are rarely so global that valuable information for them can be obtained from the final figures of financial statements that reflect the state of the company as a whole. As a rule, figures that show individual aspects of the enterprise’s activities are important. To better understand the essence of the process, it makes sense to classify the data used in decision making. Information can be divided according to the following parameters:

Type of data. The scope of interests of management accounting includes such levels of collection and processing of information that in financial accounting are considered exclusively analytical and are not included in the results of the work of financial accounting units, usually measured in monetary terms. Management reports may include quantitative information about products, ratios and indicators that are measured empirically, for example, turnover of current assets, cash, profitability of dishes, stability of markup levels, etc.
The object about which this data was collected. One of the main advantages of management accounting over traditional accounting is that the collected information has a lot of analytical features that allow it to be sorted according to different parameters. Among the most popular forms of classification is filtering transactions and business operations by accounting objects, which are the internal divisions of the enterprise. Thanks to the freedom of choice of accounting policies by the managers themselves, the internal division of the company into accounting blocks is introduced with specific goals, which are subsequently implemented using the management accounting apparatus. In restaurants, these may be categories of dishes for which separate records of sales and markups are kept, for example, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, in-house kitchen products and purchased dishes; separate halls, where sales depend on different parameters and have different effects on the overall financial result of the restaurant; different hall managers, waiters and even cooks. Any restaurateur will be interested in the turnover of each individual table, and not the average figure for seating in a restaurant per month. And the report on food returns is always interesting in connection with the specific manager working in the hall at that time.
The time to which the current report is linked. The restaurant has a huge number of external and internal current parameters that change over time, which makes average reports for a week, and even more so for a month, uninformative. The truly valuable information is statistically processed information tied to specific time periods: from certain hours during the workday (for example, lunchtime and a report on the reaction of guests to a lunch offer) to the time of year in reports on the seasonal dependence of demand for certain products.
Types of decisions for which data is collected and processed. Management decisions are divided into short-term and long-term. Most of the information for both is provided by management accounting. Decisions can also be classified according to the goal to be achieved: control over already completed business operations or forecasting the possible results of planned operations. Tracking the correct execution of tasks by departments is also an extremely important type of application of accounting data, since it is the formalized setting of tasks and agreed upon methods for assessing their implementation that are the main factor for the coordinated work of management and staff.

Based on management accounting data, decisions should be made on pricing, changes in assortment, and employee work schedules. With the help of comparative shift data, you can even evaluate such parameters as the compatibility of the hall manager and waiters. The decision on the need for changes in the menu is not only the art of the manager, but an information-based management procedure.

Of course, information support for decision making does not eliminate the need to attract talented and qualified managers. Any restaurant is a living and rapidly changing organism, requiring the presence of gifted managers capable of solving extraordinary issues that arise daily and hourly. But we should not forget that in today's market conditions the cost of time of such people is growing rapidly. And systems that allow them to free up part of their working time are an important step towards optimizing costs and increasing the efficiency of the enterprise.

And the last, but by no means unimportant, contribution of an effective management accounting system to the activities of an enterprise is to make it easier for business owners to evaluate the work of their appointed managers. A simple operational and formalized system for assessing the actions of management (which is what a management accounting system is) allows owners, including non-specialists in the restaurant business, to understand what is happening at their enterprise and participate in monitoring its activities without a huge investment of time and effort.

Objectives of management accounting

accounting for the availability and movement of material, financial and labor resources and providing information on them to managers;
accounting for costs and income and deviations therefrom from established norms, standards and estimates for the organization as a whole, structural divisions, responsibility centers, product groups, technological solutions and other positions;
calculation of various indicators of the actual cost of products (works, services) and their deviations from standard and planned indicators (full production cost, partial production cost, full cost of goods sold, etc.);
determining the financial results of the activities of individual structural divisions by responsibility centers, new technological solutions, products sold, work and services performed and other items;
control and analysis of the financial and economic activities of the organization, its structural divisions and other centers of responsibility;
planning the financial and economic activities of the organization as a whole, its structural divisions and other centers of responsibility;
forecasting and forecast assessment (providing an opinion on the impact of expected future events based on the analysis of past events and quantifying them for planning purposes);
compiling management reporting and presenting it to management personnel and specialists for production management and decision-making for the future.

Automation of management accounting

The complexity and variety of tasks of increasing business efficiency and transparency, optimizing business processes, rational use of available resources, accelerating management decision-making, and monitoring the achievement of key business indicators make the creation of effective management tools based on a management accounting system a priority measure.

1. Features of management accounting

Management accounting is a system of information support for management, based on the definition, measurement, accumulation, analysis, processing and transmission of information about the external and internal environment of the company’s economic activities.

The main goal of management accounting is to provide company managers with all the necessary information for them to perform basic management functions - planning, organizing, stimulating and controlling.

Unlike accounting, which is regulated by law, management accounting is built exclusively in accordance with the information needs of the management of a particular company.

On projects, managers often ask whether their management accounting system is good or bad. Only managers themselves can answer this question. If a management accounting system allows you to quickly obtain the necessary information for decision-making, then it has been implemented successfully.

In this regard, the establishment of management accounting should be carried out individually for each company, taking into account the characteristics and specifics of its activities. A well-built management accounting system allows you to quickly obtain the information managers need in the most convenient formats, which contributes to the timely adoption of the right management decisions.

Maintaining management accounting involves performing a significant amount of various operations. Without an automated system, the costs of processing such a quantity of information are incredibly high, and the time frame for processing data does not satisfy managers. It is almost impossible to obtain the necessary information of the required quality in the required volume, and most importantly, in the required time frame.

The choice of a method for automating management accounting depends on the tasks assigned to management accounting and the degree of readiness of enterprises to create complex solutions. Different automation methods require fundamentally different approaches to the selection of software tools.

Based on our practical experience in setting up and automating management accounting systems, we will highlight three solution options:

Maintaining full management accounting at the enterprise. Automation of management accounting system based on ERP systems;
Use of management information from various information systems. Automation of the management accounting system using analytical systems of the BPM (Business Performance Management) and BI (Business Intelligence) class based on OLAP technologies;
Complete solution. Building a corporate data warehouse.

2. Maintaining full-fledged management accounting at the enterprise. Automation of management accounting system based on ERP systems

2.1. Description of the solution.

Most modern ERP systems are built on a modular basis, which gives the customer the opportunity to select and implement only those modules that he really needs. Modules of different ERP systems may differ in both names and content. However, there is a certain set of functions that can be considered typical for ERP class software products. These typical functions are:

Maintaining design and technological specifications. Such specifications define the composition of the final product, as well as the material resources and operations required to manufacture it (including routing);
demand management and formation of sales and production plans. These functions are designed for demand forecasting and production planning;
planning of material requirements. Allows you to determine the volumes of various types of material resources (raw materials, materials, components) necessary to fulfill the production plan, as well as delivery times, batch sizes, etc.;
inventory management and purchasing activities. Allows you to organize the management of contracts, implement a centralized procurement scheme, ensure accounting and optimization of warehouse stocks, etc.;
production capacity planning. This function allows you to monitor the availability of available capacity and plan its load. Includes large-scale capacity planning (to assess the feasibility of production plans) and more detailed planning, down to individual work centers;
financial functions. This group includes the functions of financial accounting, management accounting, as well as operational financial management;
project management functions. Provide planning of project tasks and resources necessary for their implementation.

Automation of management accounting on the platform of ERP systems involves the creation of a system for recording all operations across the entire group of companies. At the same time, management accounting uses a general chart of accounts for a group of companies (one for all companies) with maximum detail of sub-accounts and analytics that can be used in other accounting. All primary documents and summary entries are taken into account within the framework of management accounting. To make it possible to maintain other records, data transformation from management accounting is used.

Using data from various ERP system modules in the context of general directories and analytics allows you to quickly generate the necessary management reports.

2.2. Advantages and disadvantages of the solution.

Advantages




Flaws:

Description of business processes and implementation of a unified accounting system take several years
The analytics provided by the ERP system often turns out to be unnecessary - the amount of savings in this case will be less than the cost of implementation
Necessary for most business processes
High cost of implementation

3. Use of management information from various information systems. Automation of the management accounting system using BPM and BI class analytical systems based on OLAP technologies

3.1. Description of the solution.

The growth in the number of projects to automate management accounting using BI and BPM class systems is due to the fact that in most companies information is located in various systems that are not available for centralized viewing and analysis.

Problems solved by analytical systems:

Extraction, structuring of data contained in various information systems and their transformation into useful information and knowledge;
building a unified information space, conducting analysis and extracting useful information;
activity monitoring;
creation of corporate reporting;
data research, forecasting and decision making;
increasing the efficiency of investments in ERP systems.

The main feature of analytical systems is their focus on the end user. Without the involvement of programmers, the user can independently conduct an analysis, draw up the necessary report or make a forecast.

3.2. Advantages and disadvantages of the solution.

Advantages

Relatively fast implementation (2-6 months)


Additional options for consolidating data across multiple companies
Relatively low cost of implementation

Flaws

Analytical systems work only in conjunction with transactional (including accounting) systems

4. Complete solution. Building a corporate data warehouse

4.1. Description of the solution.

Corporate data warehouse – software for archiving data and filtering primary data.

Automation of management accounting using QCD usually involves the use of the following information systems:

Systems of normative and reference information - maintaining classifiers and reference books, incl. management chart of accounts,
Primary document entry systems – modules of accounting, accounting or ERP systems, other purchased or self-written systems,
Accounting systems – maintaining accounting, production, warehouse and other types of accounting,
Data storage,
Analytical systems of the BPM and BI class.

A reference information system is necessary in order to provide the same reference data in all systems used. It contains all kinds of analytical accounting reference books, information on charts of accounts, methodological recommendations, etc. All other systems must be compatible with the master data system.

A BPM system is necessary for planning the company’s activities: Formation (data entry, coordination and approval) of budgets, forecasting results.

It makes sense to entrust input of primary documents to local employees. This is done using even-numbered subsystems (for example, a materials accounting subsystem or a system for accounting for work with clients) or a special program integrated with accounting. Then the entered data goes to the accounting department.

The accountant reviews the received records, compares them with paper originals, makes changes if necessary and imports them into the accounting system, where the documents are transformed into a set of transactions.

If necessary, it is possible to take into account events that have occurred but have not yet been documented.

After the primary information has been entered into the accounting system, it is imported into the corporate data warehouse in the required form with a set of necessary analytics.

The analytical system, in accordance with the tools included in it, generates reports upon request based on the information stored in the QCD. As a result, managers receive reports in the required format and at the required frequency.

4.2. Advantages and disadvantages of the solution

Advantages

Huge capabilities for modeling, planning, analysis and reporting configuration
Opportunities for automation of all planning contours
Providing data on the activities of any employee of the company in real time in any context (that is, detailed management accounting)
Significant increase in the efficiency of the company, its transparency, as well as an increase in the financial and production discipline of employees
Preparation of accounting and management reporting based on the same primary information
Built-in functions for monitoring accounting transactions

Flaws

The need to reorganize most business processes
High cost of implementation
Long implementation times

5. Typical problems and mistakes of Russian companies when automating management accounting

Lack of IT strategy or weak connection with the organization’s development strategy;
Lack of a well-developed formulation of the task of automating the management accounting system and technical specifications for automation;
Attempts to automate management accounting before developing a methodology and solving organizational issues;
Non-participation of management in the process of development and implementation of the system
Incorrect distribution of the roles of the Customer and the Contractor during system implementation;
Lack of motivation when implementing the system;
Using various IT consultants to solve one problem or an interrelated set of problems;
Attempts to automate “everything at once”

It is important that people who see the figures obtained in the course of the company’s activities, any projects and initiatives, can be confident in the accuracy, veracity, reliability and regularity of these indicators.

As paradoxical as it sounds, lately we have increasingly heard from managers that the speed of decision-making is reduced not because of a lack of available information, but because of its excess.

Management accounting

When developing and implementing management accounting and accounting systems, managers are increasingly asking questions related to the integration or compatibility of different accounting standards. Management accounting and reporting can be carried out in accordance with RAS, IFRS, US GAAP or in a mixed version. But each of these standards has its own usage characteristics.

The choice of a management accounting system was determined by the specifics of the company’s activities, the composition of business transactions, as well as the need to present financial statements generated according to certain standards to external users. It should be noted that the influence of the last factor cannot be decisive in the choice of management accounting principles, since reporting in accordance with IFRS or GAAP can also be done by transforming reports generated in accordance with RAS. And this no longer has anything to do with management accounting.

It can be noted that the quality of such reporting is inferior to the quality of reporting generated directly from the data of an accounting system that maintains accounting according to the principles of IFRS or GAAP, and that the transformation process is quite labor-intensive. But the cost of developing a transformation methodology and software is relatively low, which for companies with limited resources can serve as a decisive factor for maintaining management accounting according to RAS.

Advantages of management accounting according to IFRS

Analyzing the main provisions of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the possibility of using information for the purposes of company management, a clear connection is visible with international management accounting practice.

In particular, this concerns cost accounting methods and the budget management system. In international management accounting practice, there are several cost accounting methods:

Absorption costing method;
- accounting method (variable costing);
- direct costing method;
- accounting for marginal costs;
- accounting of costs by function (activity based costing), etc.

The choice of cost accounting method, as well as their classification, depends on what management problem needs to be solved. Analyzing Russian and international practice in management accounting, the following main tasks can be identified:

1. Calculation of the cost of manufactured products and determination of the amount of profit received.
2. Management decision making and planning.
3. Control and regulation of production activities of responsibility centers.

In accordance with IFRS 2 "Inventories", costs are divided into direct and indirect, fixed and variable. This grouping of costs is widely used in management accounting to calculate the cost of manufactured products and determine the amount of profit received. For example, dividing costs into variable and fixed forms the basis of the costing system for management purposes - the direct costing method.

In addition, in accordance with IFRS 2 “Inventories”, the following groups belong to this category:

Raw materials and materials intended for use in the production process or in the provision of services;
- goods purchased and stored for resale;
- finished or unfinished products released by a company and intended for further use in the production process.

When analyzing the accounting object “Finished Products”, you should note that its cost and the amount of work in progress include raw materials, supplies, direct labor costs, other direct costs and corresponding indirect production costs, calculated based on the normal load of production capacity.

Thus, in a manufacturing company, where the volume of output often depends on external factors (for example, the supply of materials, components, etc.), the application of the provisions of IFRS 2 will be preferable to RAS, since the amounts of depreciation of workshop equipment and wages of main workers will be attributed at the cost of a unit of production based on the normal level of production.

IFRS 2 also regulates the absorption costing method, which is traditional for Russian accounting. At the same time, in Russian legislation there are no rules governing the inclusion of indirect variables and fixed production costs in the production cost of products formed in accounting. According to paragraph 11 of IFRS 2 "Inventories", variable indirect production costs are included in the cost of production in proportion to the actual volume of production, and fixed indirect production costs are included in the cost of production in proportion to the forecast volume of production when operating under normal conditions.

This provision also has a significant impact on the unit cost of production, and manufacturing enterprises should give preference to IFRS standards.

Capital-intensive enterprises

Fixed assets in reporting according to international standards are reflected at fair value, determined based on the results of their assessment by an independent appraiser and adjusted to take into account subsequent acquisitions, disposals and depreciation.

In accordance with IFRS 16 Property, Plant and Equipment, the frequency of revaluation of property, plant and equipment depends on changes in their fair value. For property, plant and equipment with insignificant changes in fair value, revaluation should be carried out every three to five years. If a single asset is revalued, then the entire class of fixed assets to which the asset belongs is subject to revaluation.

The useful life of an asset and the method of depreciation are subject to review at the end of each year, and if a significant change is detected in the expected pattern of consumption of the future economic benefits embodied in the asset, the period or method must be adjusted.

Russian accounting standards provide for changing the service life of objects only in strictly defined cases. Considering the inflationary processes of the last 10-12 years, the cost of fixed assets, even taking into account officially permitted revaluations, is often far from fair. This leads to the fact that the share of depreciation charges in the cost of a unit of production can be significantly underestimated, which leads to a distortion of the financial result.

Thus, capital-intensive enterprises should consider applying international financial reporting standards for management accounting purposes. But do not forget that revaluation of fixed assets is an expensive undertaking and can cost a pretty penny.

US GAAP - IFRS

When comparing differences in accounting under IFRS and US GAAP, you should pay attention to the following.

1. Accounting for construction contracts. IFRS allows only one method for calculating revenue - “Percentage of completion of the construction project.” Revenue is determined as a portion of all receipts under a construction contract in proportion to the volume of work performed during the reporting period. US GAAP allows two methods for determining revenue: “Percentage of work completed” and “Accounting for revenue upon completion of all work specified in the contract,” which corresponds to Russian accounting standards.

2. Write-off of materials for production. US GAAP permits the use of the LIFO method for both accounting and financial reporting purposes. In IFRS, this method is excluded from the list of acceptable ones.

3. Valuation of fixed assets. In accordance with IFRS, an enterprise has the right to choose whether to capitalize borrowing costs or charge them to current expenses. US GAAP does not allow such an alternative. Interest on borrowed funds aimed at purchasing fixed assets is included in their cost.

4. Accounting for R&D costs. The definition of an intangible asset in IFRS 38 "" does not contain requirements for the results of intellectual activity (patents, certificates, etc.). Therefore, most R&D costs are capitalized if the following conditions are met:

Completion of work is technically possible;
- the asset is going to be sold or used;
- economic benefits can be obtained from the use of the asset;
- the costs associated with creating the asset can be reliably estimated.

Under US GAAP, such costs are treated as current period expenses.

There are a number of other differences related to reporting, but they do not seem important for choosing a management accounting model.

Management accounting methods

In the management accounting system, its objects have a certain specific reflection. First of all, production resources are reflected according to their condition, movement, and feasibility of use in the process of economic activity of the enterprise.

The management accounting method is a set of various techniques and methods by which management accounting objects are reflected in the enterprise information system.

The management accounting method consists of the following elements (methods): documentation; inventory; grade; grouping and summarizing into control accounts; planning; rationing and limiting; analysis; control.

Documentation - primary documents and computer storage media that guarantee management accounting a fairly complete reflection of the production activities of the enterprise. Primary accounting in the general accounting system is the main source of information for financial and management accounting.

Inventory is a way to identify the actual condition of an object. With the help of inventory, deviations from accounting data are determined: either unaccounted for values, or losses, shortages, etc. Inventory helps to preserve material assets, control their use, and establish the completeness and reliability of accounting information.

Grouping and evaluation, the use of control accounts is a method of studying that allows you to accumulate and systematize information about an object.

The main features of the grouping of management accounting objects are: the specifics of production activities, the technological and organizational structure of the enterprise, the organization of management, the target functions of the management system. Grouped information about an object allows you to effectively use it to evaluate performance results and draw the necessary and reasonable conclusions for making operational and strategic decisions.

A control account is a final account where entries are made based on the total amounts of transactions for a given period.

Planning, rationing and limiting are included in the enterprise management system.

Planning is a continuous cyclical process aimed at matching the capabilities of the enterprise with market conditions. It is about solving the problems of the future. Planning is effective only when it is based on statistical research and analysis of business results.

Rationing is the process of scientifically based calculation of optimal norms and standards aimed at ensuring the efficient use of all types of resources and finding ways to most productively convert costs into output. A set of norms and standards constitutes the regulatory framework of an enterprise, which covers all areas of its activity.

Limitation is the first stage of control over material costs, based on a system of inventory and cost standards. Limit - establishing the boundaries of issuance based on the norms. The limiting system should consist not only of calculating the limit for the supply of materials by the workshop, but also of accounting and control operations. Therefore, in the management accounting system, limitation is assigned the role of operational information that allows one to actively influence the formation of material costs.

Analysis - in the process of analysis, deviations and reasons that caused changes in the results and efficiency of production are identified, and appropriate management decisions are made.

Control is the final process of planning and analysis, directing the activities of the enterprise to fulfill previously established tasks, allowing for the discovery and elimination of emerging deviations. The basis of the control system is feedback, which provides reliable, necessary and appropriate information for carrying out control and measurement activities. There are different systems and types of control. They are constantly changing and have distinctive features for each enterprise, reflecting its specific field of activity.

All elements of the method do not operate in isolation from each other, but in a system of organizing internal economic relations aimed at achieving management goals.

Setting up management accounting

Setting up management accounting at an enterprise is a set of works to develop and implement a set of procedures and rules for maintaining management accounting.

Management accounting is an information system and an object of study for managers, accountants, technologists, auditors and financial analysts.

Management accounting is, first of all, a system for collecting and analyzing information about the activities of an enterprise, which fully and objectively reflects the results of its business operations and is focused on the needs of the management and owners of the company. And only secondarily, this system is used to manage costs at the level of responsibility centers and activities.

For more than seventy years, accounting in Russia was based on principles that differed significantly from the principles in force in other countries. Increased professionalism is increasingly forcing enterprise managers to introduce new approaches to management. One of these approaches is the establishment of management accounting.

Here are the most typical problems that the head of an enterprise should take into account when setting up management accounting.

One of the problems is insufficient understanding of the essence of management accounting in a company. In the practice of Russian enterprises, most of them are based on the principle that management accounting is cost accounting and the management accounting system is reduced to a system of cost accounting and their distribution among financial responsibility centers, cost centers, and types of products. Indeed, the role of cost management is great - only by changing the cost accounting system in an enterprise can we significantly influence profits. However, the main goal of management accounting is to orient the management process towards achieving the strategic and tactical goals of the enterprise, and for this reason, the management accounting system should also include a system for collecting information on competitors, customers, information on the effectiveness of the company’s organizational structure, incentive methods, etc. . The management accounting system, therefore, must cover all services of the enterprise and the entire range of data on its activities.

It is a mistake to try to replace management accounting with a modified accounting system. Each enterprise can set up a management accounting system based only on its goals and vision of development prospects.

The problem of identifying accounting and management accounting is mainly due to the fact that financial consulting in Russia grew out of auditing. But today accounting is one of the aspects of developing an enterprise management strategy, and not a form of bookkeeping. As a rule, the process of development and implementation of management accounting at an enterprise is headed by the company's financial director or chief accountant. In different companies there is no common understanding of the role of financiers in the management accounting system. However, the practice of Western enterprises is interesting. Thus, in American companies, the controller is the commercial director of the enterprise, and in German companies, the chief accountant and accounting department, as a rule, do not report to the controlling service. Shifting the emphasis from the financial service to services that carry out the company’s main activity seems important, because financial information should be aimed at increasing the efficiency of sales, advertising, improving product quality, and the financial director must not only monitor indicators, but also provide information to the heads of main departments for their regular management functions. From time to time, at Russian enterprises you can see the opposite picture. It is the revaluation of the role of the financial service that lies at the heart of the conflict between production workers and financiers.

A significant problem is the lack of timely information. If management accounting in a company is organized in such a way that accounting data is the basis of management accounting, then the managers of the enterprise must remember that they will have to change and violate the traditional principles of accounting, bring the process of creating a balance sheet to a maximum of the 5th day of the month following the reporting month, otherwise the whole meaning of innovations will gradually be lost, and budgets will become formal.

The problem in building a management accounting system is the replacement of the management accounting system with the installation of an automation system. Without diminishing the importance of a quality program for an enterprise, I note that setting up an enterprise management system and introducing information technology in a company are not equivalent. According to research by Andersen Consulting, only 8% of large-scale projects for the implementation of information technology are completed successfully and fully comply with the specified requirements, only 16 out of 100 projects comply with cost and time frames, and also ensure proper quality; the excess of the pre-agreed price for such projects ranges from 100% to 200%, and 34% of the time is spent correcting errors.

When implementing a management accounting system, the enterprise, in addition to the listed problems, will face many others: team formation, the need to train personnel, team resistance to innovation, the establishment of strong horizontal connections and the transition to a regular management system. However, the results obtained from the implementation of a management accounting system will exceed expectations, because in modern conditions only an enterprise can stay on the market for a long time, whose costs and results of activity will be completely determined by the degree of management efficiency, the volume and quality of work of each department and each employee.

One of the most important tasks of the manager of any enterprise is to use the resources at his disposal with maximum efficiency. This requires information about the availability of such resources. Standard accounting does not provide such information. Therefore, in the mid-twentieth century, the development of a market economy in industrialized countries revealed the need to supplement accounting (financial) accounting with management accounting.

Management accounting entered the economic life of our country along with the emergence and growth of market-oriented enterprises. In a competitive environment, not only the prosperity of a business, but also its very existence often depends on correct management decisions that are adequate to this environment. Under the influence of various objective factors caused by new technologies, government regulation and the growth of enterprises, the structure of a business becomes more complex, there is a need for its fragmentation into many legal entities, for the simultaneous development of many areas of activity, for the formation of a significant number of structural divisions (departments, services) as at the level of individual legal entities and at the level of holdings. How, under these conditions, can the management of such enterprises know everything about everything so as not to make mistakes in making management decisions? The problem of providing the necessary information is solved by management accounting - a system for collecting and analyzing data on the financial activities of an enterprise, focused on the needs of top management and owners of the enterprise for the information necessary for making strategic and tactical management decisions.

Despite the fact that interest in the problems of management accounting is obvious, it is not always possible to observe a consensus among specialists about its essence, role, purpose and place in the enterprise management system, accounting theory; a discussion is unfolding about whether there is management accounting in Russia, if not, then is it necessary and how to implement it? If so, then why didn’t we notice it before or didn’t use such a concept.

There is complete confusion with this concept among practitioners. When asked what “management accounting” is, some answer that it is accounting for managers, others that it is computer accounting for enterprise management, and still others cannot say anything definite.

The absence of a unified approach, a common point of view, at least in the most important, fundamental issues of management accounting can negatively affect the effectiveness of its application in practice and the intensity of study in the theory of domestic accounting.
Fixed assets

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Introduction

The transition of the country's economy to market relations requires effective management, active and consistent implementation of information technology achievements, and everything new and progressive. In these conditions, the role of accounting increases immeasurably, since it is necessary not only to compare the costs incurred with the income received, but also to actively search for the effective use of each invested ruble in the production, commercial and financial activities of organizations and enterprises.

The problem of such a search is solved by management accounting - a system for collecting and analyzing data on the financial activities of an enterprise, focused on the needs of senior management and owners of the enterprise for the information necessary for making strategic and tactical management decisions.

Currently, the survival and success of any enterprise is largely determined by the degree of development of management accounting at it. And if financial accounting is rather aimed at compliance of the enterprise’s reporting with requirements external to the company and its forms are regulated by the state, then management accounting is aimed at improving business management and methods of its implementation - the subject of choice by company managers.

Based on the foregoing, issues related to the organization of management accounting at an enterprise are relevant for Russian managers today no less than for their Western colleagues.

The purpose of the course work is to study the procedure for compiling a balance sheet and its connection with other forms of reporting at the enterprise JSC “Khvoininskaya Distance Put”

Based on the goal, the following tasks are set in the work:

Reveal the essence and content of the balance sheet and other forms of financial reporting;

Study the necessary primary documents of the enterprise;

The object of the study was JSC Khvoininskaya Distance Path.

When writing the course work, regulatory documents and publications of specialists on the purpose of the study were studied.

The work used logical, monographic and statistical research methods.

The information base for the study was the documents of primary, consolidated accounting and reporting of JSC “Khvoininskaya Distance of Way”

1.Theoretical aspects of the organization of management accounting in

enterprise

1.1 Regulatory support for the organization of management

enterprise accounting

The system of regulatory support for management accounting uses the same legal acts developed in relation to financial accounting.

Art. should be fully included in management accounting. 10 Federal Law “On Accounting” dated November 21, 1996 No. 129-FZ, declaring the contents of accounting registers and internal accounting reports a trade secret. (19)

It is also advisable to use PBU in management accounting. Thus, on the basis of PBU 1/98 “Accounting policies of the organization” No. 60n dated December 30, 2001, the management accounting service develops an order on accounting policies, which indicates “general provisions, the formation of accounting policies, disclosure of accounting policies and changes in accounting policies " (13)

The application of PBU 1/98 is necessary simultaneously with the Chart of Accounts for the financial and economic activities of an organization No. 38n dated 05/07/2003, and instructions for its application No. 115n dated 09/18/2006, according to which accounting must be kept in organizations (except credit and budget) of all forms of ownership and organizational and legal forms, keeping records using the double entry method according to the approved working chart of accounts, containing a complete list of synthetic and analytical (including subaccounts) accounts necessary for its maintenance. (6) (12)

The composition, content, requirements and methodological basis for the formation of financial statements of organizations that are legal entities under the legislation of the Russian Federation are established by PBU 4/99 No. 115n dated September 18, 2006 “Accounting statements of an organization.” It also provides notes to the balance sheet and income statement, which should disclose information relevant to the entity's accounting policies and provide users with additional information that is not appropriate to include in the balance sheet and income statement, but which is needed by users of the accounting system. reporting for a realistic assessment of the financial position of the organization, the financial results of its activities and changes in its financial position. (14)

PBU 9/99 “Income of the organization” and 10/99 “Expenses of the organization” No. 156n are also fully used in management accounting. dated November 27, 2006

PBU 9/99 establishes the rules for the formation in accounting of information about the income of commercial organizations (except for credit and insurance organizations) that are legal entities under the legislation of the Russian Federation, provides a classification of income, and also indicates a list of non-recognized income of the organization from other legal entities and individuals persons:

Amounts of value added tax, excise taxes, sales tax, export duties and other similar mandatory payments;

Under commission agreements, agency and other similar agreements in favor of the principal, principal, etc.;

In the order of advance payment for products, goods, works, services;

Advances in payment for products, goods, works, services;

As a pledge, if the agreement provides for the transfer of the pledged property to the pledgee;

To repay a loan granted to a borrower. (15)

PBU 10/99 provides a classification of an organization’s expenses depending on their nature, conditions of implementation and areas of activity of the organization:

Expenses for ordinary activities;

Other expenses;

When forming expenses for ordinary activities, their grouping should be ensured by the following elements:

Material costs;

Labor costs;

Contributions for social needs;

Depreciation;

Other expenses.

For management purposes, accounting organizes the accounting of expenses by cost items. The list of cost items is established by the organization independently. (16)

The rules for the formation and presentation of information by segments in the financial statements of commercial organizations (except for credit institutions) are established by PBU 12/2000 “Information by Segments” dated September 18, 2006 No. 115n. This PBU also specifies the procedure for isolating information on reportable segments, the composition and methods of presenting information on reportable segments. Such information is used by the organization when preparing consolidated financial statements if it has subsidiaries and dependent companies. (17) (18)

Gross violation of the rules of accounting and presentation of financial statements, as well as the procedure and terms of storage of accounting documents, is regulated by Art. 15.11 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses dated December 30, 2001 No. 195 - Federal Law. (7)

1.2 Current issues in organizing management accounting in

enterprise

The relevance of the issues of organizing management accounting at an enterprise is beyond doubt, since the organization of management accounting is a factor determining the survival and targeted development of an enterprise in a market economy with its inherent high competition.

Thus, D. Voloshin, assessing the effectiveness of management accounting of an enterprise, says that an effective means of monitoring the organization of management accounting in modern conditions is the internal audit service, which is associated, first of all, with compliance with confidentiality requirements. The need for internal audit arises due to the fact that top management is not involved in day-to-day monitoring of the activities of lower-level structures, and internal audit provides information about these activities and confirms the reliability of managers' reports. Internal audit is necessary mainly to prevent the loss of resources and implement the necessary changes within the enterprise. (3)

Many experts spoke out on the issue of the working chart of accounts of management accounting. V. Paliy explains that such a chart of accounts should be formed based on the understanding of management accounting accounts as a self-sufficient group of them, outside the scope of accounting (financial) accounting. This condition must certainly be implemented by synchronizing it with financial accounting accounts. The working chart of accounts for management accounting should take into account the specifics of the enterprise, the need for information by types of products and services, by centers of responsibility, by budget items, cost elements, etc. (eleven)

The most common questions about creating your own accounting policies for management accounting purposes (MAU) are considered by M. Vakhrushina. There are three possible aspects – organizational, technical and methodological. The first should determine the approaches chosen by the organization to the formation of financial responsibility centers, approaches to organizing budgeting, accounting and cost control. In addition, the organizational aspect should determine the main users of internal management reporting and its types. The technical aspect involves the creation of a system of accounting registers, the development of a working chart of accounts for the purpose of management accounting, the formation of a system of multi-level management reporting, and the selection of an accounting currency. The methodological aspect should reveal methods of cost accounting and calculation, approaches to the distribution of indirect costs used in individual segments of the organization among objects of calculation. (2) (9)

Management accounting must necessarily focus on the future of the enterprise and what can be done to influence the course of events. To do this, the management of the organization, the accounting department, and all other departments must participate in the organization of management accounting. You can also highlight the special role of the secretary in this process. Y. Krylova notes the basic requirements for this profession. Since the main purpose of management accounting is to provide management with information for decision-making, the role of the secretary in this process can be limitless. The secretary must have basic knowledge in the field of accounting, which will allow him to process information and its initial analysis. Information reports suitable for decision-making are sent by the secretary to the heads of the relevant departments. In such work, in addition to knowledge of various techniques and procedures, it is very important for the secretary to have business experience and intuition to make decisions in a non-standard situation. (8)

The main difference is that financial accounting strictly regulated. The regulation is as follows:

Obligation to maintain financial records, as official for all organizations without exception, is regulated by the law on accounting in the Russian Federation, regardless of its maintenance.

The management of the enterprise itself decides whether to conduct or not to conduct. No government or other organization has the right to dictate what should or should not be done. There is no need to incur expenses, the value of which for management is lower than the cost of obtaining it.

The rules for maintaining financial accounting are clearly regulated state regulations and national standards.

Norms and rules of conduct are established by each enterprise based on its own interests. Enterprise personnel involved in management accounting can follow any internal accounting rules (established by accounting policies) depending on the usefulness of these rules. The main argument in the validity of management accounting rules is whether there is any benefit from it.

The main subject in financial accounting is the enterprise, which acts as a single whole. In large diversified enterprises, only cost and income accounting is carried out by type of activity, which is consistent with the requirements of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Management accounting usually includes information about the activities of individual interrelated divisions of an enterprise, types of activities or different types of products, works, and services.

Forms for presenting financial information are approved by the Government of the Russian Federation. These forms are the same for all organizations, regardless of their organizational and legal form.

The results of management accounting can be presented to users, since there are no mandatory forms.

The degree of openness of financial information is established by the state. This information is of a public nature and is not a trade secret to anyone.

Unlike financial accounting, management accounting is subjective and confidential. The content of management accounting indicators is its trade secret, a secret.


The frequency of preparation of financial statements is established by the relevant regulations. Reports are compiled and submitted at the end of each quarter and for the year.

In management accounting, reports can be prepared daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. The deadlines for the provision of such reports are set by the organization’s management, but there is no strict frequency here. It is important that the report is useful to the user and received by him at the right time.

Methods for grouping costs and income used by an enterprise are indicated in its accounting policies. In financial accounting, costs are grouped by economic elements, and income - generally by enterprise and type of activity. The list of costs is regulated centrally by the Government of the Russian Federation. This grouping allows you to obtain information about the costs incurred by the enterprise as a whole over a certain period of time without a direct connection with their intended purpose, that is, the degree of payback.

In management accounting, costs are grouped and reflected in the context of , and income - in the context of structural divisions and types of products, works, and services. The list of costing items is developed and established by the enterprise itself.

Degree of responsibility for incorrect financial accounting, it is established for managers and accountants at the level of administrative and criminal liability.

In the field of management accounting, liability for distorted data is not provided, except purely moral or loss of promotion.