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Managerial Accounting
The internal playbook for making profitable decisions
41 TopicsIntermediate to AdvancedDecision-Focused
Managerial vs Financial
Understanding the internal vs external perspective
Cost Behavior
How costs change with activity levels
Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
Understanding the profit equation
Product Costing
Assigning costs to products and services
Manufacturing Costs
Direct materials, direct labor, and overhead
Job Order Costing
Costing for custom products
Process Costing
Costing for mass production
Job Order vs Process Costing
When to use each method
Activity-Based Costing (ABC)
More accurate overhead allocation
Variable vs Absorption Costing
How fixed overhead affects income
Overhead & Cost of Goods
Tracking manufacturing costs through production
Budgeting
Planning and controlling operations
Variance Analysis
Understanding why actual differs from budget
Decision-Making
Using costs for specific decisions
Capital Budgeting
Long-term investment decisions
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Practice Cost Analysis
Practice CVP analysis, break-even calculations, and more with interactive exercises in our Learning Lab.
Try It in the Learning Lab→Frequently Asked Questions
Financial accounting is for external stakeholders (investors, creditors) and follows strict GAAP rules. Managerial accounting is for internal decision-makers and is more flexible - no required format, can focus on future projections, and provides detailed cost information for operations.
Break-even in units = Fixed Costs / Contribution Margin per Unit. Break-even in dollars = Fixed Costs / Contribution Margin Ratio. The contribution margin is the selling price minus variable costs per unit.
Job order costing tracks costs for individual jobs or batches (custom furniture, construction projects). Process costing averages costs across large quantities of identical products (beverages, chemicals). Use job order when products are unique; use process costing for continuous production.
Accept if the special order price exceeds variable costs (positive contribution margin), you have excess capacity, and it won't affect regular sales. The key is to focus on relevant costs - ignore sunk costs and allocated fixed costs that won't change.