What is Management Information?
If you’re a decision-maker in a business you will need the information to support the decision-making process. The more accurate and timely the information, the better informed your decisions will be.
Many accountants spend their whole career preparing financial reports based on historic information, such as statutory accounts and tax information, meeting the needs of directors, shareholders, markets, and tax authorities throughout. However, decision-makers don’t operate in a historical vacuum, they need information about future financial and operational performance to inform investment decisions specific to their business environment. This is where an accountant can help.
What is a management information system (MIS)?
The best management information integrates financial and operational systems, enabling rounded decisions to be taken over the short, medium, and longer term. As an accountant, when you prepare a management information report, you will need access to information about financial and operational performance as well as human resources information. You will need to engage key people across a business to ensure such information is fit for purpose.
The accountant will then need to present the information in an accessible and understandable way to stakeholders. Not all users of management information have a financial background, accountants will need to create reports concisely, avoiding financial jargon.
A modern MIS will use technology and automation to produce periodic reports based on key drivers and performance indicators. This internal data can be complemented with external information, such as environmental, business, or economic factors to ensure the decision-making process is fully informed. Most reports are produced monthly though critical decisions may require more detailed, bespoke reporting.
How can management information be used in a business?
Accountants can prepare management information for any size of business. Information systems to support sales, marketing, purchases, and human resources provide the platform to success for any business.
Many small business owners may feel the time needed to produce management information isn’t worth the effort. However, small business owners are faced with daily decisions about priorities and how to resource them. Informing those decisions with timely and accurate information is essential to the future success of a small business, one wrong decision can have severe consequences.
As an accountant, you will need to understand the various systems needed to manage a business. You will then need to assemble information from these systems in a structured way, identifying the key parts necessary for effective decision-making. If your clients operate in a retail business, you will need information about products and profitability, what is selling and what is not and the level of stock held. You may also need to understand regional variations, customer behaviour or even variations between countries if you have overseas sales.
If you are an accountant for an owner-managed business, such as a personal service company, decision makers will want to know who the profitable clients are, which sectors they are operating in and future developments, as well as how long contracts have to run.
Accountants can prepare management information regardless of business size to ensure decisions are based on the most accurate and timely information possible. The costs of implementing a MIS should be measured against the benefits a business will secure. While there are many sophisticated, software-driven MIS available in the marketplace, these need to be suitable based on how complex a business is.
How Initor Global can help a business thrive with effective management information
Most cloud-based accounting software has options to produce management information. At Initor Global, we ensure management information reports are based on the most up-to-date financial information possible. We also discuss the Key Performance Indicators for a business and the critical information needed to underpin the decision-making process. This allows time and space for decision-makers to focus on growing a business knowing management information reports will be available in real time.
To discuss your management information needs in more detail, you can contact us at hello@initor-global.co.uk or visit our website at initor-global.co.uk.