Management Accountancy
A management accountant works within businesses to provide the systems and management information which is required to control that business. Typical tasks carried out by an independent management accountant are:
- implementing a new computer system.
- setting up the management information system and training staff to
produce the information.
- sorting out the accounts after a fraud.
- determining the true costs and margins of a specific product range
- one-off analyses, eg reconciling stock discrepancies, or producing
figures for a claim.
Typical assignments include:
Part-time management accountant for small and medium organisations. I work with small and medium companies who require a part time, director level financial controller, typically for 1 day per month. Clients include a building contractor (t/o £3m), a manufacturer (t/o £2m) and a firm of solicitors. I ensure that all accounting functions are correct and that the directors / partners receive pertinent management information.
Activity Based Costing. Activity based costing is used when the company really needs to know the true costs and margins for specific product / service groups sold to specific customer sectors. This information is then used to decide where the most profit can be made and where to concentrate the marketing and production resources. I review the business with you to determine the appropriate products / services / customers etc for the analysis. I then set up the system to get the information as easily as possible.
Implementing accounts, management information, and costing systems. Examples are building contractors, from completely manual systems (typical turnover £2 million), an adhesives plant, a clothing manufacturer, a stockist, a plant hire company, a freight forwarder, a charity, a firm of solicitors, a wholesale and mail-order company (turnover £10 million).
Reconciling stock discrepancies at a major cash and carry warehouse, whose 3 stock systems showed significant differences month on month. I identified the cause of the differences, and wrote procedures to enable accurate consistent records to be kept. This enabled the accounts department to produce information that management could rely on.
Elaine Harrison MA FCMA has been an independent management accountant for over 15 years. After obtaining her degree from Cambridge University, she worked in electronic engineering before moving into management accountancy with 3M. She then spent three years in cost control for construction projects, and three years in management consultancy with Ernst & Young. She founded Quality Information in 1987.
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