Differences Between Management and Cost Accounting

Though Management accounting uses the tools of cost accounting like standard costing, marginal costing etc…and many people think that both cost and management accounting are same which is not the case because there are many differences between the two, here are some of them –

1. Cost accounting is concerned with historical cost that is the costs which have been already incurred while management accounting is concerned with forecasting of the costs and hence it looks into future unlike cost accounting.

2. The objective of cost accounting is to ascertain the costs and control it while the objective of management accounting is to provide management all information as and when required by them so that they can take right decisions at right time.

3. Cost accounting is done for internal parties like top management, owners as well as external parties like creditors, employees, government, While management accounting is done for top management only.

4. Cost accounting was evolved many years back and it is limited in its scope while management accounting is still evolving but its scope is much wider than that of cost accounting because it uses along with cost accounting other principals of subjects like statistics, economics etc…

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  • vidya. h.r Link

    it is too good. i learned a lot from it.

  • greatbob bob Link

    cost accounting is prepared only for internal use not for external use

  • aparnapraveen Link

    Thanks. It is very useful for me….

  • MUYIWA OLOMITUTU Link

    Very useful to the public