Financial and Managerial Accounting: What's The Difference?
Whether it is a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or a limited liability company, all businesses survive on the buying/selling of goods and services for cash or credit. They may buy land and build office complexes, stores, or factories. They may buy supplies, equipment, merchandise to sell, and/or the raw materials required to manufacture goods. They hire employees, pay salaries and benefits. All of these "business" activities need to be measured, analyzed, and recorded. Accounting is the set of procedures used to analyze, measure and record said activities. For this reason, accounting is often referred to as the "language of business". Within the accounting realm, there are two main types: financial accounting and managerial accounting.
Financial accounting generally abides by the GAAP to record the activities of a business and to report the results of a business's operations. Every transaction that occurs, both big and small, are recorded as an entry in a journal, and each type of activity is given an account in a general ledger (i.e. account payables and account receivables). Journal entries are then sorted by posting them in the appropriate general ledger account. This information (i.e. balances) in the general ledger accounts are what financial accountants use to prepare financial statements such as the income statement and balance sheet.
There are numerous individuals, both inside and outside, the business that use these financial documents:
? Managers use the information to ...