Difference between Financial, Cost and Management accounting

	FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING	MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
PRIMARY USERS	External( Investors, government authorities, creditors)	Internal(Managers of business, employees)
PURPOSE OF INFORMATION	Help investors, creditors, and others make investment, credit, and other decisions	Help managers plan and control business operations
TIMELINES	Delayed or historical	Current and future oriented
RESTRICTIONS	GAAP FASB AND SEC	GAAP does not apply, but information should be restricted to strategic and operational needs
NATURE OF INFORMATION	Objective, auditable, reliable, consistent and precise	More subjective and judgmental, valid, relevant and accurate
SCOPE	Highly aggregated information about the overall organisation	Disaggregated information to support local decisions
BEHAVIOURAL IMPLICATIONS	Concern about adequacy of disclosure	Concern about how reports will affect employees behaviour
FEATURES	Must be accurate and timely Compulsory under company law Is an end in itself	Usually approximate but relevant and flexible Except for few companies, it is not mandatory Is a mean to the end
SEGMENTS OF ORGANISATION	It is primarily concerned with reporting for the company as a whole.	Segment reporting is the primary emphasis.

	FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING	COST ACCOUNTING
OBJECTIVE	It provides information about financial performance and financial position of the business.	It provides information of ascertainments of costs to control costs and for decision making about the costs.
NATURE	It classifies records, presents and interprets transactions in terms of money.	It classifies, records, presents and interprets in a significant manner materials, labour and overhead costs.
RECORDING OF DATA	It records historical data.	It records and presents estimated, budgeted data. It makes use of both historical costs and predetermined costs.
USERS OF INFORMATION	External users like shareholders, creditors, financial analysts, government and its agencies,etc.	Used by Internal management at different levels.
ANALYSIS OF COSTS AND PROFITS	It shows profit/loss of the organization.	It provides details of costs and profit of each product, process, job,etc.
TIME PERIOD	They are prepared for a definite period, usually a year.	They are prepared as and when required.
PRESENTATION OF INFORMATION	A set format is used for presenting financial information.	There are no set formats for presenting cost informations.