Organizations use various performance measures to motivate managers and other employees to invest their effort and skills into decision-making and work in general. When evaluating business units that have decision making authority over activities that impact revenues, costs, and investments (assets) in those units, organizations can use various performance measures. One of them is residual income, which we will discuss in this article.

Certified Management Accountant (CMA) is a globally recognized accounting certification for management accounting and financial management. This certification is issued by the Institute of Management Accountants. In this article, we will discuss important aspects related to becoming a CMA: what a CMA is and is not; how to apply for and receive a CMA certification; how to prepare for and take the CMA exam; and finally, how to maintain your CMA license after you received it.

Organizations often use various metrics to measure and benchmark their performance. Performance measurement is used to understand how organizational activities translate into profits or other indicators of success, make strategic and operational decisions for the future, and control (benchmark) performance.  Performance measurement can be done at multiple levels: individual manager, business unit, a set of business units, or entire organization. Performance measurement can include financial and non-financial performance measures. In this article, we will discuss a common financial measure used to evaluate performance: Return on Investment (ROI).

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffet. Reputation is very important for organizations because it leads to a sustained competitive advantage by making the organization more attractive to its stakeholders (e.g., customers, employees, suppliers, business partners). There are multiple factors that can destroy reputation. One of them is low-quality products and services. In this article, we will discuss costs that are reported as part of cost of quality reporting.

Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is a widely recognized and respected accounting certification. In this article, we will discuss all important aspects related to becoming a CPA: what a CPA is and is not; how to apply for a CPA license in your state, and what different requirements for a CPA license may be; how to prepare for and take the CPA exam; and finally, how to maintain your CPA license after you received it.

Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) is an accounting certification for internal auditing recognized around the world. This certification is issued by the Institute of Internal Auditing. In this article, we will discuss all important aspects related to becoming a CIA: what a CIA is and is not; how to apply for and receive a CIA certification; how to prepare for and take the CIA exam; and finally, how to maintain your CIA license after you received it.

In accounting, there are a lot of costing methods, and it may be overwhelming to know how they relate to each other. In this article, we discuss various costing methods: job costing, process costing, standard costing, absorption costing, variable costing, throughput costing, activity-based costing, target costing, and kaizen costing.

As you are considering your steps towards an accounting degree, you may be asking yourself which accounting classes you can take and whether accounting classes are hard. You may also be wondering what topics are usually covered in accounting classes. In this article, we discuss the core and advanced accounting courses and what accounting knowledge you can expect to gain by enrolling in them.

Fundamental analysis is used to estimate a true value of an asset such as a company or a stock. Financial statements prepared by accountants and tested by auditors are used extensively in fundamental analysis.

You are an accounting professional considering switching careers and pursuing an academic track or maybe you just want to teach accounting in your spear time. You could be a student thinking to become an accounting educator in the long run. You are wondering about available options, and which option would better fit your personality or lifestyle choice. In this article, we will describe the usual track(s) to become an accounting educator. We will also discuss the pros and cons about working in academia.