Handbook of Cost and Management Accounting

Book excerpt: This handbook is intended primarily for practitioners such as accountants, auditors, financial analysts, business managers, and chief executives. The primary focus of this book is on techniques and concepts of cost and management accounting for strategic business decisions. In order to survive in the changing business environment, organizations should rethink their strategic philosophy and the role of management accounting. Management accounting systems exist to help managers make economic decisions. In preparing and assessing their strategic plans, organizations need information on many areas of their business environment. Management accounting is also in a process of change. While some businesses continue to use conventional methods of costing, performance measurement and cost analysis, increasing numbers are adopting activity based cost allocation system, strategic oriented investment decisions models, and multiple performance measures such as the Balanced Scorecard. This handbook focuses on both conventional and contemporary issues in cost and management accounting. It presents an intriguing combination of 20 chapters, separated for presentation purpose into seven themes, dealing respectively with: organizational planning and controls; costing for business decisions; pricing decisions; capital budgeting decisions; performance measurement and benchmarking; contemporary management accounting tools; and management accounting for the public sector. All chapters in this handbook provide both retrospective and modern views and commentaries by knowledgeable scholars in the field, who are able to offer unique insights on the changing role of cost and management accounting in today's businesses.