Management accounting and financial accounting are two branches of modern accounting. The isomorphism of the two constitutes an organic whole of the modern accounting system, which restricts and complements each other. With the development of accounting informatization and the actual needs of enterprise management, the accounting system is also undergoing some changes, and the integration of management accounting and financial accounting has become a trend.

First, the difference between management accounting and financial accounting:

Management accounting, also known as internal reporting accounting, refers to an economic management activity that aims at the current and future capital movement of enterprises, improves economic benefits and provides scientific basis for management decisions for internal managers of enterprises, mainly including cost accounting and management control system.

Financial accounting refers to an economic management activity that comprehensively and systematically accounts for and supervises the completed capital movement of enterprises and provides economic information such as financial status and profitability of enterprises for investors, creditors and relevant government departments.

Second, management accounting and financial accounting have formed their own distinct characteristics in the process of development:

The main characteristics of financial accounting are: serving all parties with economic interests outside the enterprise; For the economic business that has happened in the past, explain it through accounting, accounting, reimbursement, etc. and provide relevant information.

Mainly influenced by generally accepted accounting principles or unified accounting system, accounting procedures are fixed. Vouchers, account books and statements generally have prescribed formats and unified accounting procedures. They are highly accurate and must provide systematic, continuous and comprehensive financial information.

The characteristics of management accounting are: the service object is the managers at all levels within the enterprise; Facing the future, using relevant information to predict the enterprise's prospects and participating in enterprise economic activities such as decision-making, control and evaluation are restricted by the relationship between cost and benefit of improving decision-making in enterprise management activities, and are generally not restricted by fixed accounting principles; Accounting procedures are not fixed.

It can be designed according to the needs of different enterprises, and the technical methods are flexible and diverse. The information provided by developing operational research, statistics and computer information technology is local or has specific management needs.

In short, the objectives of management accounting and financial accounting are different, and there are still conflicts among the three standards. It is for these reasons that the methods in the research institute are different, and the difference between three and complement is the same. In the past 100 years, accounting has been divided into two independent systems, which deal with information from actual economic activities in different ways to meet their different purposes.