This article looks at the role, management accounting can play in an organization and then to see what sort of qualification/criteria require if an organization recruits a management accountant.

It is important to understand that management accounting or also known as managerial accounting is an activity that is carried WITHIN an organization. It is not to do with any formal reporting like financial statements to the public or external parties.

Internally, management accounting touch on the following four key areas in providing information to assist the managers of an organization:

1. Planning namely making plans like the budgets which set out where the business should be at some time in the future and hw it should get there;
2. Controlling namely measuring progress against the plan and identifying the reasons for any differences between actual or forecast performance so that corrective action can be taken if necessary. Examples are budgetary control and standard costing systems to assist management to control the business;
3. Decision-making namely choosing between alternative courses of action. Management accounting assists the managers on short term decision-making like choosing which products to produce or maximise profit and with long-ter decisions such as deciding whether to invest in new equipment and
4. Appraising performance namely examining the performance of managers, products and business and comparing it with target(s) so that good performance can be recognized and poor performance discouraged. Management accountng can provide the quantitative and financial information from which performance ratios such as return on capital employed can be calculated.

So, assuming if you want to recruit a management accountant into your organization what’s then should he or she needs to have?

The selection of the appropriate candidate can be categorized into three areas:

1. Technical knowledge

• able to set up and operate information gathering systems;
• design reports and set up reporting systems;
• able to differentiate relevant and non-relevant information;
• choose the correct analytical technique to apply to solve a problem and
• interpret the information produced by the management accounting systems to assist managers in planning, controlling, decision-making and appraisal(refer above)

2. Experience of the candidate

• able to understand the way business works namely how it is organized, its products, what its production methods are, what its market are and who its major customers are;
• what it is the managers of the business will want to know, namely the strategic, tactical and operational information needed to run the business effectively and
• how to take advantage of the latest IT systems ad software to be able to use them effectively to gather,analyze and report information

3. Personal characteristics of the candidate:

• he or she should be numerate;
• a good communicator both verbal and written;
• forward looking;
• good at estimating(estimating requires judgement as well as experience);
• a skilled investigator,able to discover how the business works,where information can be obtained and why the figures are as they are;
• a tactful and persuasive teamworker so as to gain the confidence and co-operation of colleagues and
• able to organize and control staff
• high integrity, attention to details and reliability

Based on the above, the candidate seems to know a lot on management/managerial accounting which implied that he or she should at least be a highly qualified accountant.

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