Management Information Flashcards
CHAPTER 1 (33 cards)
Planning
Establishing an objective/identify a problem then choose a strategy to achieve the objective/alleviate the problem
Vision
Set what to achieve / Long term aspiration
Goal
General statements of how to achieve vision / Medium-Long term aspiration
Objectives
Aim of organisation
S M A R T statements of the goal / Short-Medium term aspiration
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Realistic
T - Time-bounded
Budget
Financial plans based on action plan
1 year –> follow action plan timeframe
Strategy/Action plan
Possible course of action/ Detailed plans to achieve objective
Are planning & decision-making linked?
YES/NO
YES
You decide to plan in the first place and the plan you make is a collection of decisions
Main internal source of management information
- Accounting records
- Personnel records
- Production department records
- Detailed time records
Is non-financial information less important to managers compared to financial information ?
YES/NO
NO
Non financial information must be monitored carefully, recorded accurately & taken into account as fully as financial information
Trainee accountant job scope :
1) Produce regular performance statements
2) Review product costs
3) Assess product’s profitability
4) Put value to inventories
Cost centre
Essential building blocks of a costing system
Collecting place for overheads
Etc : Production/service location, function, activity, item of equipment
Cost unit
A unit of product/service which has costs attached to it
Cost centre is also known as……?
Responsibility centre
Department/organisational function whose performance is the direct responsibility of a specific manager
Transaction files
Contains records related to individual transactions
Etc : Invoices
Master files
Contains ‘standing’ or reference data and cumulative transaction data (such as year-to-date figures)
Files
Collections of records with similar characteristic
Etc : Payable ledger
Records
Consists of data relating to one unit of information.
Consists of several fields.
Etc : Supplier account in payable ledger
Fields
Item of data relating to a record
Etc : Account number of supplier, credit limit, name
Key field
Each record in a file includes a key field – an item of data used to identify it.
Etc : Unique supplier code
Efficient & effective coding system
- Easy to use & communicate
- Unique code
- Allow for expansion
- Flexible
- Comprehensive
- Brief
- Minimise error
- Uniform (same length & structure)
- Significant
Block/Group codes
Improvement of sequential code
1st digit indicates the classification
Faceted codes
Improvement of block/group code
Each digit of the code gives information about an item
Hierarchical code
Type of faceted code
Each digit further to the right represents a smaller subset than those to the left
Advantage of faceted code
Give users the ability to find items based on more than one criteria