Economic sciences/7. Accounting and audit
Post-graduate student
Volkovska I.V.
Simon Kuznets Kharkov National
University of Economics, Ukraine
The necessity
of the management accounting features reflection
in the company accounting policy
Today
in the market economy and the strong competition in every field of activity it is
very important to have actual, accurate and complete information to make
appropriate management decisions. Accounting data are the basis of any
enterprise information system. This implies the need of improving the accounting
organization in order to obtain more information, but there is not enough
financial accounting data and management accounting is settled only by some
businesses, while management accounting is not prescribed in the accounting
policy of the company. This confirms the necessity to investigate the role of
management accounting in the enterprise and its reflection in the accounting
policy. It should be noted that the definition of the amounts of costs depends on
the features of conducting management accounting that directly affect the taxation
base of income tax. It increases the actuality of this research.
Fundamental studies of management accounting’s
essence and modern concepts of its development are considered in the works of
foreign and domestic scientists and economists-practitioners such as K. Drury,
M. Hornhren, M. Pushkar, M. Chumachenko, O. Karpenko, I. Lazaryshyna and others.
However, without denying the results of
these studies, it should be noted that the organization of management accounting
requires further investigation due to
the emergence of the new systems of calculation and the problems of their implementation in Ukrainian enterprises.
The topicality of the research consists of the role of management accounting
and its reflection in the accounting policy of the company.
The object of the research is
theoretical and methodological aspects of management accounting.
The subject of the research is management
accounting’s aspects in the accounting policy of the company.
There are polar views of some
scientists about the existence of management accounting. Some scientists claim
that there is only a single accounting and managerial is missing. It denies the
experience of developed countries in which managerial accounting in the last
50-60 years has been widely spread in the practice of large corporations [2, p.
204]. In the author’s opinion, management accounting presents
in every enterprise regardless of the
kinds of activities, but the system of management accounting is established properly not in every company.
This is confirmed, for example, the use of certain approaches
to accounting costs, which are in every enterprise. These are one of the objects of management accounting. In addition, there are different results of taxation depending on the particular method
of distribution costs, calculation system and so on, and therefore
future payments for taxes that can not be ignored in management decisions.
Managers of specific business
oftentimes need or desire far more detailed information. This information must
be tailored to specific decision-making
tasks of managers, and its structure becomes more “free formed”. Such
managerial accounting information tends to be focused on products, departments,
and activities. In this context, the management process is intended to be a
broad reference to encompass marketing, finance, and other disciplines.
Managerial accounting is quite different from financial accounting. External
reporting rules are replaced by internal specifications as to how data are to be accumulated and
presented. These internal specifications are sufficiently logical that they
enable good economic decision making. For example, specific reporting periods
may be replaced with access to real-time data that enable quick responses to
changing conditions. And, forecasted outcomes become more critical for planning
purposes. Likewise, cost information should be disseminated in a way that
managers can focus on those business components (“segments”) under their focus
of control [1]. Roger Tabor, Chair of the Professional Accountants in Business
Committee of the International Federation of Accountants, notes that good
costing information is essential to interpret and analyze past performance. And
it can be used predictively to guide decisions about many aspects of an
organization's future operations [3].
In accordance with the Guidelines
for the accounting policies approved
by the order of Ministry of Finance of
Ukraine of 27 June, 2013 №635 (hereinafter
- Guidelines) regulatory document
of accounting policy determines, in particular:
- methods of the stocks disposal evaluation;
- periodicity
of the identification average unit cost
of inventory;
- order of the accounting for the distribution of transport and procurement
costs, maintaining a separate sub-account
of transport and procurement costs;
- cost features
of objects that are part of the
low-value non-current tangible assets;
- approaches
to the revaluation of fixed assets;
- application
of Class 8 and / or
9 according to Chart of accounts of assets, capital, liabilities and business
operations of enterprises and organizations,
approved by the order of the Ministry of
Finance of Ukraine of 30 November, 1999 №291;
- list and
composition of variable and fixed overhead cost, base of their
distribution;
- list and composition of calculation
articles of production costs of goods
(works, services);
- determination of analytical accounting
unit of inventory;
- approaches
to assign costs related to the
improvement of fixed assets, the
initial cost or reporting period
costs, etc. [6].
As we can observe, the accounting policy of any company
should include issues
related to management accounting, as it was mentioned earlier. However, according to the Guidelines a company
is not obliged to prescribe
the selected costing system of products (goods and services),
features of the integrated production
cost accounting, costs of quality
of goods (works, services), refuses and rejects and so on.
D. Lozovytsky claims
that instrument of the accounting
policy should be a lever in the effective management not only on the basis of accounting but also fully involved
modern management tools such as:
- management
accounting system;
- strategic
analysis;
- strategic
planning (budgeting) and forecasting;
- controlling
system, etc. [4, p. 362-363].
Creating management
accounting system that
would be adequate
to the needs
of enterprise
management system is a difficult complex issue. The complexity of this problem is also related to the fact that each company has its own specific activities, so the creating of such system for
each company will have specific
features along with the general criteria [4, p. 362-363]. Thus, in author’s opinion, the accounting
policy of the company must
have the following aspects of management accounting as part of accounting:
- definition
of calculation of the cost of
goods (works, services);
- choosing the method of adjusting the value of overhead
costs for the use of the normal
calculation of the cost of goods (works,
services);
- the using of budgeting and features
of the accounting according to responsibility centers in the enterprise;
- features of cost-sharing
between departments, workshops;
- features
of the joint costs distribution;
- methods of sharing
of the complex productions costs;
- byproduct accounting
methods;
- features
of the reject accounting;
- approaches
to assessment and recording
of refuses.
Thus, we
can conclude that management accounting provides more complete information for decision-making, but in the Ukrainian
enterprises management accounting is hardly ever used. In addition, the legislative requirements for the management accounting are missing, the company is recommended to prescribe only certain aspects relating to both management
and financial accounting in accounting
policy. This means that it is
necessary to amend the requirements
for management accounting as part
of accounting to streamline
the conducting of the accounting in the company.
Areas for future research
is studying the features of management
accounting organization
in the company.
References
1. Larry M. Walther
Managerial and Cost Accounting / Larry M. Walther, Christofer J. Skousen // [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: http://bookboon.com/en/managerial-and-cost-accounting-ebook
2. Lazaryshyna I.
The problems of accounting, analysis and financial reporting: experience of
Ukraine and Poland / I. Lazaryshyna, H. Ronek and oth. // monograph. – Rivne:
National University of Water Management and Nature Resources Use. – 2012. – 284
p.
4. Лозовицький Д. С. Роль
облікової політики у побудові системи управлінського обліку на підприємстві /
Д. С. Лозовицький // Вісник Львівської комерційної академії. – 2007. - №25. –
С. 358-367.
5. Наказ Міністерства
фінансів України «Інструкція про застосування Плану рахунків бухгалтерського
обліку активів, капіталу, зобов’язань і господарських операцій підприємств і
організацій» №291 із змінами та доповненнями [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу:
http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/
6. Наказ Міністерства
фінансів України «Методичні рекомендації щодо облікової політики підприємства»
№635 із змінами та доповненнями // [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/