Abstract Management Accounting is not an entirely new development in the broad field of accounting but rather one of added emphasis on the recording and reporting of operating data to meet the needs of a new group, the hired managers of large corporations. Management accounting functions largely through operating reports based upon standard costs and budgets compared with actual expenditures, through internal auditing, and through special studies and reports pertaining to the probable effect of proposed plans and programs. Undoubtedly, management accounting with its many opportunities for rendering additional and more valuable services to management has opened new and challenging frontiers to the accountant. To the practitioner it means adjusting himself to new methods of collecting and recording operating data, new demands for additional services, and new concepts of reporting. To the teacher it means added emphasis upon the uses of accounting data as well as staunch adherence to the teaching of basic theory and principles.

Reviews the book "Cost Accounting," 2nd ed., by Adolph Matz, Othel J. Curry and George W. Frank.

Abstract In January 1957, the Executive Committee of the American Accounting Association appointed the first committee on management accounting; the primary charge being "to clarify just what is meant by the term management accounting. In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the potential utilization of accounting data by management for internal purposes. At the same time there has been an increasing recognition of the limitations of accounting as it exists today in meeting these needs. Management accounting is the application of appropriate techniques and concepts in processing the historical and projected economic data of an entity to assist management in establishing a plan for reasonable economic objectives and in the making of rational decisions with a view toward achieving these objectives. It includes the methods and concepts necessary for effective planning, for choosing among alternative business actions and for control through the evaluation and interpretation of performance. Management accounting concepts are especially important in that they deal with the fundamentals of maximizing return on investment, a primary objective of the business entity. This is especially true in the field of marketing where the broad and complex problems of pricing, methods of distribution, marginal cost and product mix must be met and solved.