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Chapter 1 Answer Key - Managerial Accounting

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Chapter 1
Cost Accounting: Information for Decision Making
Solutions to Review Questions
1-1.
Financial accounting is designed to provide information about the firm to external users. External users include investors, creditors, government authorities, regulators, customers, competitors, suppliers, labor unions, and so on. Cost accounting systems are designed to provide information to internal users (managers).
This difference is important, because it affects the design of the systems. Financial accounting systems are based on standards or rules. This allows the user to compare the results of different firms. Managerial accounting systems do not require rules. Each firm is free to develop managerial accounting systems that best …show more content…

Often, these situations arise when managers are using their intuition and their experience to identify new business opportunities and cannot point to data that support their views. For example, a marketing manager might view investment in a new advertising campaign as necessary for remaining competitive even though it appears to increase costs. Because the accountant does not have expertise in this area, she cannot verify the information the marketing manager is using.
In a few cases, however, a marketing manager may wish to pursue a project because of personal reasons (for example, because he was the champion of the product), and hopes to have an economic analysis to justify additional advertising support. In these situations, care must be taken to ascertain the economic merits of the plan, and, if the plan cannot be justified on economic grounds, the manager must make the case for the project on another basis.
The final responsibility for the decision rests with the manager. Therefore, plans that cannot be justified on a cost analysis basis may still be adopted at the discretion of operating management. The controller should be clear that the project is justified on a basis other than (easily measured) costs.

In the control area, the accountant is charged with the responsibility of making certain that plans are executed

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