Financial or Management Accountants Services: What Do You Need?

Not all accountants have the same set of responsibilities: financial accounting is a very different kettle of fish to managerial accounting. But what are those differences? And which of the two titles would be the best fit for your company?

The differences between financial and managerial accounting

Financial accounting is all about recording a business’ financial affairs accurately, before summarising them and reporting the information to relevant external parties. Essentially, it’s the job of a financial accountant to meticulously track a company’s income and expenses, before forwarding that information onto the likes of HMRC for external auditing.

Management accounts services, on the other hand, focuses on in-depth analysis of the data recorded by a financial accountant. Managerial accountants scrutinise these figures to predict future trends in the company’s performance and provide management with insight and advice to help grow the business.

Unlike a financial accountant – who collects data for external use by authorities – a management accountant presents information internally to colleagues within the same organisation: their reports and analyses are for company eyes only.

In a nutshell:

• Financial Accountants record a business’ income and outgoings accurately, and are responsible for ensuring that tax regulations and the like are complied with.
• Management Accountants pore over this data to make recommendations to an organisation’s management team and board of directors. This can include advising on investments and suggesting areas for potential cost-cutting. Their overall goal is to help the business perform better financially.

Which is right for you – Financial or Management Accountant services?

If you’re currently responsible for overseeing your small business’ finances and would like to free up time to concentrate on other day-to-day operations, a financial accounting service would be most appropriate for you. Meanwhile, if you’re looking to take your company to the next level and want to benefit from expert financial insight to inform your decision-making, you’ll want to consider a management accounting service.

At Ratiobox, we offer both outsourced financial accounting and management accounting services, so we can cater for both requirements independently or together depending on your preferences. All of our services are tailored to your specific needs, meaning that our experienced professionals will be on-hand only when you need them. This makes our services significantly more affordable than hiring someone in-house.

Find out more about our outsourced accounting services for businesses of all sizes.