Martin LeFevre - An Introduction to Managerial Accounting

Martin LeFevre is an accountant who has worked with many large organizations, including the largest produce growing operation in the state of Florida.

Accounting that helps decision-makers in organizations make better choices, be in control, and plan more effectively is called managerial accounting. Managerial accountants primarily deal with two kinds of business units. These two kinds are profit centers and cost centers.

Profit centers are separate units that generate sales revenue and have their own expenses. A profit center can be a store, territory, line of products, or distribution channel. Managerial accountants usually follow the organizational structure in creating statements and providing relevant information to the managers. It is up to a business to decide how it looks at its activities.

Cost centers are departments or units within the organizations that have costs and expenses but do not generate any revenue. Examples of cost centers include the human resources department, the legal department, and the security department. The managers in charge of these departments need accounting information to stay informed about the costs of running their units.

The reports for cost centers are usually very straightforward. They have a lot of detailed information, details of all the costs and expenses, budgeted targets, and comparisons with previous report periods. This does not necessarily mean that template creation for such reports is simple or easy.

However, things usually get much more complicated with reports for profit centers because even a small business can have a variety of sources of profit. There are no definitive rules for classification of costs or sales revenues with the objective of profit identification in business or accounting. Every business has to make its own decisions in regards to this matter. This is something experienced accountants like Martin LeFevre can often help them with by sharing their thoughts and best practices. 

Martin LeFevre - Accounting and Organizational Management

Martin LeFevre is an accounting professional who feels comfortable doing all-around accounting for businesses.

Business managers and C-level executives usually are responsible for making profits happen on the organizational levels. That’s what separates them from employees who work in operations, production, and customer service. They need to be innovators, lobbyists, creatives, and motivators. Competition in most markets in developed countries such as the United States is absolutely fierce. Changes take place all the time and businesses need to anticipate them and be ready for them.

A business can increase profits in one of two ways. It can either bring more revenues in or it can reduce its expenses. One of the most important roles of accounting in organizations is to provide management with critical financial information about profits and expenses. Income statements that are provided to investors and the public usually don’t include all the information that managers need to make decisions on a regular basis.

Small businesses would often have one person in charge of profits. As companies grow, they usually start adding more people who share this important responsibility. The first rule of accounting that helps managers make decisions is to follow the structure of the organization and report relevant information to parties that need it. This principle is also known as responsibility accounting. For example, if a manager is in charge of a department, an accountant like Martin LeFevre needs to prepare sales and expenses reports about the department for the person in charge.