Question 1) Accounting is “the process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic information to all stakeholders of a business’ (Drury,2008).” Most or all businesses require some sort of accounting to keep track of their business and to track progress of all information that’s linked to the stakeholders. There are two different types of accounting that is going to be looked at and how they vary from each other:
Firstly, management accounting is “The process of preparing management reports and accounts that provide accurate and timely financial and statistical information” (management accounting, 2017) managers require management accounting for short term decisions and day to day business. Financial Accounting differs to
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Financial accounting is done over the year so it is more carefully constructed and is more accurate than management accounting which is sometimes produces guessed findings and results, as managers do not have the time to produce exact numbers when required to make decisions.
Question 2)
“Break-even analysis entails the calculation and examination of the margin of safety for an entity based on the revenues collected and associated costs.” (break even analysis, n.d.) businesses use break-even to calculate how many units need to be sold to level out the amount of sale costs and profit gain. Managers use break-even as part of their business plan, because this allows the organisation to see how practical their business plan is going, and to decide whether it’s the right decision to continue perusing the idea. Even after the organisation has set-up their business plan, managers still use break-even to determine their unit prices, and promotional processes.
The formula used for break-even is:
Break-even Point = Fixed Costs/ (Unit Selling Price – Variable Costs)
Organisations could work out the breakeven point in their business using a graph, fixed costs, variable costs, total costs and total revenue are involved in
Financial Accounting is concerned with the past, while Managerial Accounting is concerned with the future.
The financial management aspect focus on providing the necessary information to the stockholders, stakeholders, and creditors are outside the business. Financial management generates reports and statistics about the business financial health and well being. The financial management enables stockholders to view his or her investments and see how well the investment in progressing. The financial management tools also give future stockholders the opportunity to make future decisions.
Although the financial goal is to create profit, we need to calculate the breakeven point to get started.
“The accounting system generates the information that satisfies two reporting needs that coexist within an organization: financial accounting and managerial accounting” (Schneider, 2012, ch 1.1, para 1). Managerial accounting is the process of preparing reports and accounts required by management to make business decisions for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly projects. Financial accounting is the branch of accounting that organizes accounting information for presentation to interested parties outside of the organization. Financial accountants produce annual reports for external
It helps managers a lot in evaluating future courses of action regarding pricing and the introduction of new services. CVP analysis or Breakeven is used to compute the volume level at which total revenues are equal to the total costs. When total costs and total revenues are equal, the organization is said to be “breaking even”. Managers can utilize P&L statements which are used to project profit or net income. P&L statements can be developed to serve decision making purposes. These can be created for any subunit within an organization, whereas income statements are created only for the overall accounting entity. Break even analysis contains important assumptions and is very essential to the managers to determine whether assumed values can be realistically achieved. Managers can perform CVP analysis to plan future levels of operating activity and provide information about:
The purpose of break-even analysis is to determine the number of units of a product to sell that will
There are some limitations of break-even as well. For example, it cannot give accurate results if the data used for it is predicted. Data such as change in direct cost
As you can see above on the table you, there are different figure number that represents different situations of the business, there are the variable costs figures numbers that may change as the business make more sells, the fixed costs which is the costs that do not change in relation to how the business progress. In the table above you will find a blue line which represent the break-even point, this point will show you when the business will
Financial and managerial accounting are integral functions that allow organizations to manage its operational activities. In addition to budgets and variance analyses, both financial as well as managerial accounting are vital elements of healthcare finance. It is therefore important
The objective of Break-Even Analysis is to establish what will happen to the financial results if a specified level of activity or volume fluctuates. This information is vital to management, as one of the most important variables influencing total sales revenue, total costs and profits is output or volume.
Financial management is important to the organization because it provides pertinent finance and accounting information to help managers accomplish the purpose of the organization. Financial accounting provides accounting information to external users. On the other hand, managerial accounting is more for managers (internal users) to use for things like planning, budgeting, etc. The definition of finance has changed over the years, but it’s used to ultimately evaluate previous decisions and make assessments for future decisions of the organization.
Break-even point analysis is a measurement system that calculates the margin of safety by comparing the amount of revenues or units that must be sold to cover fixed and variable costs associated with making the sales. In other words, it’s a way to calculate when a project will be profitable by equating its total revenues with its total expenses. There are several different uses for the equation, but all of them deal with managerial accounting and cost management (Break-Even Point, n.d.)
A company's break-even point is the amount of sales or revenues that it must generate in order to equal its expenses. In other words, it is the point at which the company neither makes a profit nor suffers a loss. Calculating the break-even point (through break-even analysis) can provide a simple, yet powerful quantitative tool for managers. In its simplest form, break-even analysis provides insight into whether or not revenue from a product or service has the ability to cover the relevant costs of production of that product or service. Managers can use this information in making a wide range of business decisions, including setting prices, preparing competitive bids, and applying for loans.
Break Even Point in Sales = (Total Fixed Costs + Target Profit) ÷ Contribution Margin Ratio
A major difference between financial accounting and managerial accounting is their differing uses in regards to present and future data for decision-making. Financial accountants prepare data from transactions that have already occurred and managerial accountants prepare statements in regards to future decision making for their company. According to countingtools.com, the economy is always changing and not everything can be predicted, therefore, managerial accounting could only be useful to a certain degree.