PACE Academic IG

One of my more contentious perspectives is that management accounting is an exceptional set of tools but lacking a unifying conceptualization. Yes, it is accounting for decision makers inside the firm, but that is such an excessively broad umbrella every discipline could fit under it.

On the other extreme, some have tried to separate components into separate disciplines. I tend to think this waters down the discipline and creates unnecessary strife. I've mostly seen this with some trying to argue Financial Planning and Analysis is something different than Management Accounting (from my perspective FP&A is very much a component of Management Accounting).

Somewhere in between being everything to everyone and being so cracked apart we're just arguing amongst ourselves, there should be a good articulation of what the discipline is and is not. Taking a stab a vision of this, which is surely inadequate, I might start with the notion that management accounting is the set of financial professionals within an organization preparing information for planning, controlling, and evaluating organizational performance. Well, it's a start....