ACCOUNTING TYPES OF INFORMATION CATEGORIES

OPERATING INFORMATION :Operating information we mean the information which is required to conduct the day to day activities. Examples of operating informatin are : Amount of wages paid and payable to employees, information about the stock of finished goods available for sale and each one's cost and selling price, information about amounts owed to and owing by the business enterprises, information about stock of raw materials, spare parts and accessories and so on. By far, the largest quantity of accounting information provides the raw data (input) for financial accounting, management accounting and cost accounting.

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING: Financial accounting information is intendent both for owners and managers and also for the use of individules and agencies external to the business. The accounting ic concerned with the recording of transaction for a business enterprises and the periodic preparation of various reports from such records. The records may be for general purpose or for a special purpose. A detailed account of the function of financial accounting has been given earlier in this lesson.

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING: Management accounting employees both historical and estimated data in assisting management in daily operations and in planning for future operations. it deals with specific problems that confront enterprise managers at various organizational levels. The management accountant is frequently concerned with identyfying alternative courses of action and then helping to select the best one. For e.g the accountancy may help the finance manager in preparing plans for future financing or may help the sales managers in determing the selling price to be fixed on anew product by providing suitable data. Generally management accounting information is used in 3 important management suggestions.

1) Control
2) Co-ordination
3) Planning

Marginal costing is an important technique of management accounting which provides multi dimension that facilities decision making.

COST ACCOUNTING : The industrial revolution in England posed a challenge to the development of accounting as a toll of industrial management. This necessetated the development of costing techniques as a guides to management action. Cost accounting emphasizes the determination and the control of costs. It is concerned primarly with the cost of manufacturing processes. In addition, one of the principal functions of cost accounting is to assemble and interpert cost data, both actual and prospective. for the use of management in controlling current operation and in planning for the future.

All of the activities described above are related to accounting and in all of them the focus is on providing accounting information to enable decision to be made. More about cost accounting can be gained.