Career Summary

A management accountant (MA) is a privately employed accountant in charge of a company or firm's financial matters. Management accountants, also called cost accountants or private accountants, perform a range of internal financial management duties for their company. This is separate from public accountants (PAs), who sell their services to the general public and may work for more than one company.

One duty of a management accountant is to verify company receipts and balance expenses. Other management accountants may oversee only employee expenses in one department. Depending on the size of the company, a management accountant may provide many services at once, or may oversee several individual accountants who each handle a different aspect of the company's financial matters.

Some qualities that shape good management accounting professionals include communication and interpersonal skills, the ability to be accurate and thorough, as well as negotiating skills and the ability to keep track of multiple expenses.

According to the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), Management Accounting is "the process of identification, measurement, accumulation, analysis, preparation, interpretation and communication of information used by management to plan, evaluate and control within an entity and to assure appropriate use of and accountability for its resources."

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