Deck 1: The Changing Business Environment - a Managers Perspective

Question 1

Financial accounting comprises all rules governing the accounting for and reporting of financial information that must be disclosed to people outside the company.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Management accounting provides reports that are future oriented.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Financial accounting is defined as the use of management information to plan, evaluate, and control within the organization and to ensure appropriate use and accountability for its resources.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Management accounting information is more subjective than financial accounting information.

Question 5

Similar to financial accounting reports, management accounting reports are standardized in format.

Question 6

Financial accounting is concerned primarily with planning and control of internal operations.

Question 7

The analyses and flow of accounting data inside a company need not depend on the double-entry format.

Question 8

Financial accounting usually involves analyses of various segments of a business, such as cost centers, profit centers, or departments, or of some specific aspect of its operations.

Question 9

Management accounting must observe both financial accounting standards and cost accounting standards if it is to be useful to the organization's management.

Question 10

Rules applicable to accounting information created and prepared for management use are the same as those for information reported to the general public.

Question 11

The overall guideline or limit for management accounting information is that the report or analysis must be meaningful and must answer the questions or issues under review.

Question 12

Management accounting is the process of identifying, measuring, accumulating, analyzing, preparing, and communicating financial information used by management.

Question 13

Financial information included in financial statements prepared for external use is past data, summarized for the user as of a particular date.

Question 14

Internal accounting reports should be prepared when they are needed, without regard to calendar dates or regularity of issue.

Question 15

Financial accounting information is determined objectively and is verifiable, whereas management accounting usually represents subjective estimates of future events.

Question 16

Management accounting data may be gathered for small segments or large divisions and may be expressed in units of measurement other than historical dollars.

Question 17

Management accounting exists primarily for the benefit of people outside the company.

Question 18

Financial accounting's main emphasis is on full and accurate accounting for and disclosure of a company's operating results.

Question 19

Most management decisions are based on analyses using expected future dollars.

Question 20

Management accounting is not a subordinate activity to financial accounting.

Question 21

In a JIT system, materials and parts are not stockpiled.

Question 22

Support services, such as legal services, are critical to making an efficient and effective value chain.

Question 23

Hiring a janitorial service firm rather than employing full-time employees is an example of outsourcing.

Question 24

Total quality management has many of the same characteristics as the JIT philosophy.

Question 25

Management accounting accumulates, maintains, and processes an organization's financial and nonfinancial information.

Question 26

The four stages of the management process are plan, perform, evaluate, and communicate.

Question 27

Comparing actual performance with expected performance levels is an evaluation activity.

Question 28

Management accounting complements each stage in the management process.

Question 29

In a JIT system, workers are trained to specialize in one specific task.

Question 30

Management executes a plan by overseeing the daily operations of an organization.

Question 31

Each of the management tools can be used individually, or parts of them can be combined to create a new operating environment.

Question 32

Like balance sheets and income statements, management accounting formats are much the same from company to company.

Question 33

Neither the amount of detail nor the format of a management accounting report is affected by those to whom the report is sent.

Question 34

The keys to successful report writing include identifying the who, what, when, and why of the report.

Question 35

An advantage of value chain analysis is that it allows a company to focus on what a company does best.

Question 36

A value chain includes only processes and services that add value to the final product or service.

Question 37

A manager should write the purpose of a report before preparing it.

Question 38

If a report is urgently needed, some accuracy may have to be sacrificed in the interest of timeliness.

Question 39

The management process and management accounting are identical.

Question 40

A business plan is a comprehensive statement of how a company will achieve its objectives, but does not include budgets or performance goals.

Question 41

Activity-based costing (ABC) is used most often to improve the assignment of overhead costs to products.

Question 42

In order to obtain information about benchmarks, a manager might join a trade association for the company's particular industry.

Question 43

Performance measures are limited to financial data.

Question 44

"Hours of inspection" is an example of a nonfinancial performance measure.

Question 45

Financial performance measures are useful in reducing waste and inefficiencies in operating activities.

Question 46

Performance measures are used only in the evaluation stage of the management process.

Question 47

TQM seeks to improve the quality of both the product and the work environment.

Question 48

In making the transition from financial accounting to management accounting, you must become accustomed to using the historical dollar as the primary unit of measurement.

Question 49

The main goal of total quality management is to reduce product costs.

Question 50

Benchmarking enables a company to determine whether it is making continuous improvement in its operations without regard to competition.

Question 51

The costs of quality consist entirely of rework costs and customer complaint costs.

Question 52

Activity-based management focuses on enhancing activities that add value to the product and reducing those that do not.

Question 53

JIT, TQM, and ABM all seek continuous improvement in operations.

Question 54

JIT, TQM, ABM, and TOC all make a contribution to continuous improvement and are applicable in service businesses as well as in manufacturing and retail businesses.

Question 55

Comparing the number of bytes processed per nanosecond by each computer is an example of using nonfinancial data analysis.

Question 56

The balanced scorecard has gained little acceptance as an approach to establish effective performance measurement.

Question 57

In analyzing nonfinancial data, it is important to link the performance measures to the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard and to the objectives that are to be achieved.

Question 58

Total quality management focuses on reducing waste.

Question 59

Evaluating employees based upon their performance is an example of developing benchmarks.

Question 60

Activity-based management is an extension of activity-based costing.

Question 61

When unable to resolve an ethical conflict, the accountant should consider consulting with an attorney as to the legal obligations and rights concerning the ethical conflict.

Question 62

The management accountant who is responsible only for nonfinancial reports to management does not have to remain objective, using the doctrine of fairness, when preparing all reports and analyses.

Question 63

When there is an ethical conflict, the management accountant should resign if the immediate supervisor is involved with the conflict.

Question 64

Which of the following types of information is not essential for a manager to run a business effectively?

A) Product or service costing information
B) Data for planning and controlling of operations
C) Special reports and analyses to support decisions
D) Quote of the current price of the company's stock

Question 65

Although the purpose of the confidentiality standard is to encourage management accountants to remain loyal to their company, failure to disclose knowledge of internal illegal acts to outside authorities can result in the accountants being charged as an accessory to the crime.

Question 66

Practitioners of management accounting and financial management have a responsibility to communicate information fairly and objectively.

Question 67

Accumulating, interpreting, and reporting financial information is important for

A) service-related firms only.
B) manufacturing firms only.
C) virtually all types of organizations.
D) not-for-profit organizations only.

Question 68

Although management accountants should try not to engage in activities that would prejudice their ability to carry out their duties, they are not obligated to refrain from such activities after business hours, as long as these activities take place off company premises.

Question 69

The unit of measurement used in management accounting is

A) primarily the historical dollar.
B) usually current replacement cost.
C) any measurement unit that is useful in a particular situation.
D) the measurement unit used by competing companies.

Question 70

Management accountants working in purchasing must decline gifts from company vendors, because acceptance of a gift might influence or be perceived as influencing their performance or decision analyses.

Question 71

If a management accountant gives information about a future merger of his or her company to a relative, the accountant has acted unethically.

Question 72

In comparing management accounting with financial accounting, which of the following statements is true?

A) Both use historical costs as their primary unit of measurement.
B) Both depend on the double-entry system of accounting.
C) Both require adherence to GAAP.
D) Financial accounting reports are more objective, whereas management accounting reports are more subjective.

Question 73

The management accountant must be knowledgeable about all relevant laws, regulations, and technical standards that pertain to his or her duties.

Question 74

The management process includes all of the following stages except

A) evaluate.
B) communicate.
C) plan.
D) record.

Question 75

Which of the following is a characteristic of management accounting?

A) It must follow generally accepted accounting principles.
B) It is used primarily by internal users.
C) It is concerned primarily with reporting past performance.
D) It uses historical costs as the sole measurement unit.

Question 76

Management accounting

A) deals primarily with people and organizations outside of the business entity.
B) requires only periodic reporting on a regular basis.
C) uses any type of useful measurement unit, including physical as well as monetary measures.
D) deals only with the double-entry recording system.

Question 77

Management accounting and financial accounting are similar in which of the following respects?

A) Both use the same unit of measurement.
B) Both rely heavily on the double-entry system.
C) Both produce almost all of their respective informational reports on a routine monthly basis.
D) Both provide relevant and useful information to management.

Question 78

Management accountants who alter reports to meet targeted levels of performance are not acting unethically, because their job is to provide information that will aid in communicating the goals of the business.

Question 79

Although some management accountants strive to update their knowledge and skills, such updating is not within the realm of management accountants' ethical standards.

Question 80

Management accounting reports can

A) use a flexible format.
B) use financial and nonfinancial data.
C) be prepared for any time period.
D) include all of these.