QUESTION : DO SUMMARY FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT
INTRODUCTION Management accounting is very important in an organization where all the information about the economic is within the organization are reporting and measuring. Then the information used by the manager for the purpose of planning, performance evaluation and operational control. Hilton and Platt (2011) shows that management accounting is where there is the process of identifying, measuring analysing, interpreting an communicating the information that pursuit with organization's goals. Obviously, the larger organization is the greater is needed of information by the management. Management accounting is used by businesses (economy sector, service sector and soon), non-profit organization (charitable organization and credit union), individual and government (government agencies such as post office). Management accounting will also use real-time information and budget data to assist managers in day-to-day operations and future operations planning as well as address specific issues faced by managers at various levels of business. Organizational strategic goals need to be achieved with management accounting, financial measurement and data collection and operating systems, guided by motivational and behavioural management activities and developing the company's organizational culture values in general. In order for a business to enhance its revenue and market competitiveness, it requires quick and effective decisions. For those reasons, managers need to have insights into all aspects of business operations to determine future actions. Therefore, management accounting is necessary for management in implementing relevant cost analysis, making effective production decisions, making proper budget decisions and planning future business development.. Timeliness Timeliness refers to how rapidly accounting data is made available to users. The less timely (and thus older) information is the less beneficial it is for making decisions (Abernathy, 2018). Accounting information must be timely since it competes with other information Users of financial statements for example, would have a difficult time determining how well a company is doing in the present if financial statements were issued a year after the accounting period ended. One of the most critical aspects is timeliness and management may need to weigh the relative value of fast reporting versus the provision of solid data. It may take longer to gather more reliable data. Me a result, in order to give timely information, it may be required to report before all features of a transaction or other occurrence are known, compromising reliability. A corporation might for example, test- market a possible new product in a specific city. A protracted wait for an accurate marketing report, on the other hand, may cause management to postpone it: choice to launch the new product nationally and the information will be useless in the decision-making process (Mohsin 2020) As a result, the managerial accountant's key responsibility in the decision- making process is to determine what information is relevant to each decision problem and to deliver accurate and timely data while maintaining a proper balance of these frequently contradictory criteria. Timeliness is am ancillary aspect of relevance if the information is either not available when it is needed or becomes available so long after the reported events that it has no value for future action, it is irrelevant and of little or no use (Ashraf, 2020). While timelines: alone cannot make information relevant, a lack of timeliness can rob information of the relevance it might otherwise have Clearly, there are different levels of timeliness for example, in the event of a takeover bid or a strike, some reports must be prepared fast. A lengthier delay in providing information in some other situations, such as routine reports by a business firm of its annual results, may considerably alter the relevance and hence, the utility of information (Oweti, 2018). However, in order to acquire the greater relevance that comes with improved timeliness, other desirable properties of information may be sacrificed and as a result, there may be an overall gain or loss in usefulness. For example, it may be advantageous to forgo precision for timeliness on occasion because a quick estimate is often more useful than precise data prevented after a long wait.Relevance Relevance refers to how helpful the information is for financial decision-making processes (Ameen, 2018). For accounting information to be relevant, it must possess confirmastory value for provides information about pest events and predictive value for provides predictive power regarding possible future events. Information must be relevant to users' decision-making needs in order to be valuable. When information influences users' economic decisions by assisting them in evaluating past, present, or future occurrences, or by confirming of correcting previous views, it is said to be relevant (Barth, 2021). Therefore, Accounting data that is relevant must be capable of influencing a decision by mesiating users in generating predictions about the outcomes of past, present, and future events, or confining or correcting expectations Different data is often required for different decisions. The main goal is to figure out how to determine what information is important to various choice situations The relevant information also minimizes the uncertainty of future actions for the decision-maker. The ability to forecast occurrences of interest to statement users is a necessary' test of reportable data relevance. To suggest that accounting data has predictive value is not to argue that it is a prediction in and of itself (Givoly,2017). Predictive value refers to the value that is used as an input into a predictive process rather than the value that is directly predicted. Users are likely to prefer information sources and analytical procedures that have the highest predictive value in accomplishing their individual goals. A general-purpose report attempts to meet the common needs of users in today's complicated financial accounting environment, therefore content should be useful to all users. When analysing the relevance of general-purpose information, the focus is on the common needs of users, and the special needs of individual users are not considered (Earth, 2021) It is challenging to create a general-purpose report that will deliver the best information to all potential users and will be universally relevant This has, nevertheless, been recognized as a postable satisfactory answer. For example, an analysis of a project should not include any indirect costs because they are irrelevant to the project's decision-making process, but should include any prime coate since they are crucial to the decision-making process. Another example is, a company experiencing a strong quarter and presenting these improved results to creditors is relevant to the creditors' decision-making process to extend or enlarge credit available to the company.2. How The "Timeliness' Characteristic Be of Useful to The Management Accountants in Making Decisions. In our daily lives, being timely is a very important aspect. It will always give us huge benefits because having this quality will give us an open mind to whatever better decision we are going to undertake. Each and every one of us can have the said quality through good time management and great focus on the goal Timeliness is finishing a task before a deadline is met. In the accounting world, it is how an information will be useful through its availableness for use to its users such as the management, creditors, potential investors, government and other stakeholders for them to make decisions and take necessary actions. It is one of the enhancing characteristics of accounting information and is therefore, very useful to our management accountants especially in their decision making. Timeliness characteristic refers to the timely presentation of accounting information to allow users to make viable decisions. Management accountants have to observe timeliness since timely information is more relevant then outdated information Reporting of the accounting information is done regularly buch as monthly. quarterly, semi-annually, or annually to ensure that the information is up-to-date. They have to prepare timely financial information to be used internally and by other external users such as investors. For instance, financial statements presented on a timely besis within 12 months can portray the actual performance of the business which influences the decision-making of the investors. Also, management accountants can assess the performance of the business by comparing various ratios that determine the efficiency and profitability of the company. Management accountants have to maintain a balance between timeliness and reliability. This is because preparation of reliable and accurate information may be time costly. Conversely. information that is not timely may not be relevant to the users. Management accountants have to determine an optimal level between timeliness and reliability which is crucial in the preparation of financial statements. Some of the importance of the timeliness characteristic to the management accountants is: i- Issuance of Financial Statements A management accountant's use of timeliness is very important in financial reporting the issuance of financial statements. Financial statements should be issued annually (for outside users) or whenever the entity wishes (for management purposes). If financialstatements are delayed, important information such as the performance and liquidity of the company that a manager should focus its attention will not be corrected immediately if a false or erroneous information has been given For example, an expense of RIM 501000 which was erroneously recorded as RM 5001000 will render an understated income of RM 450,000. Management accountants should be timely in closing its books and issuing financial statements so that its controller can check its accuracy and take corrective actions. ii- Analysis of Variances Being timely is also useful for management accountants in the analysis of variances. Identification of variances is usually compiled and reported by the accounting department at the end of the month. It is an important thing to do in managing businesses because every variance has a cause and identification of which can help management accountants pin points the areas such as purchasing, materials usage, sales, payroll and overhead where they lack control of. In the analysis of variance, it should be identified whether favourable or unfavourable Irrespective of favourable or not, if it is a significant and material variance, a corrective action must take place If the analysis is delayed, the mixma gement accountants can no longer do any action to rectify the problem. It is better to deal the issue as early as possible. ini- Responsibility Reporting The use of timeliness in responsibility reporting is also important for management accountants. It is where revenue and cost are being assigned for control to various responsibility centres through appointed responsible persons. Responsibilities are being scattered and designated to put emphasis and focus to that specific area and authority is given to persons in order to keep up with their performances. Timeliness is important in responsibility reporting because an information in every area must be communicated on a daily basis rather than monthly in order for management accountants to take actions that would solve the problems encountered to that specific area. iv- Regulatory Reporting In regulatory reporting, being timely is of great use. Employee: of a company must aleo follow company rules because violation means suspension or even elimination Each business has a need to comply to the government and to its every user. Companies must report their financial statements annually to the public and pay taxes to the government which3. How The "Relevance' Characteristic Be of Useful to The Management Accountants in Making Decisions. Relevance is the concept that the information generated by an accounting system should impact the decision-making of someone perusing the information The concept can involve the content of the information and or its timeliness, both of which can impact decision making. In particular, information that is provided to users more quickly is considered to have am increased level of relevance. This impact may be simply to confirm a decision that the reader has already made such as to retain an investment in a companyy or to reach a new decision such as to vell an investment in a business. Relevance te one of the important parts in planning, control and decision-making To be useful, information must be relevant to the decision-making needs of users. Information has the quality of relevance when it influences the economic decision of users by helping them evaluate pest, present or future events or confirming, or correcting their past evaluations. Different decisions typically will require different data. The primary objective is how to decide what information is relevant to various common decision problems. For example, an analysis on a project should not have any information on indirect costs because it is not relevant for making decision of the project and should include any prime cost because it is relevant cast for the decision-making A financial statement is relevant when it has data that is valuable enough to make predictions estimations about future events like calculating the future cash flows, which will be of importance to the investors in making decisions Many stakeholders also use past financial statements to analyse the future performance of the company regarding profitability. It should be of accurate data following accounting standards Amy inaccurate information may be misleading Therefore, any such false data doesn't come under the definition of accounting relevance This kind of information cannot be of any use for the company in making decisions The most important job of the management accountant is to conduct a relevant cost analysis to determine the existing expenses and give suggestions for the future activities Before a company takes any action, it needs to explore all possibilities and figure out the best tactic to increase the profit. This means management accountants ought to malyse different sales channels, products, services, and marketing activities in order to find the most profitable