TOPIC: This assignment's associated forum asks you to consider the following major question and its related subquestions (as stated below, plus any other related subquestions that may come to your mind when addressing these).

Major Question: How is decision-making in organizations best supported by Management Accounting (a descriptive nature) and how should it be supported by Management Accounting (a prescriptive nature)?

Related Subquestions: Is there a gap between how Management Accounting does, and how it should support organizations in general? Is it more important for users of Management Accounting information to know how the system collects, processes, and reports the information to decision-makers or is it more important that those users be able to take the information and make decisions with it? What should users of Management Accounting know with respect to the quantity of information they are provided? What are the qualitative characteristics associated with Management Accounting information, and what should the user of Management Accounting information be aware of with respect to those qualitative characteristics? Are there phases of the decision-making process or is it all just one step, that of deciding? Does Management Accounting do a better job of supporting decision-makers in some parts of the decision process than other parts? What characteristics must the user of Management Accounting information possess to be a good user of that information? Does the level of the organization where the information is being used affect how well Management Accounting information can support decision-making? What other considerations regarding how Management Accounting supports decision-making are important and why? What is the ideal for supporting decision-making with Management Accounting information? Does the ideal change based upon the nature, type, or characteristics of the organization in which it is applied? Why or why not? What other factors must be present for Management Accounting to be successful in supporting decision-making in an organization? How should a firm evaluate and potentially improve its support of decision-making?