How does management accounting information criteria conflicted with each other?

Answer 1

Each criteria of management accounting information is to satisfy the management needing for information useful for planning, controlling and decision making. However, these criteria also face conflict amongst one another. Conflict simply refers to the incompatibility or interference of one's idea, event, or activity with another. In this case, the conflict between criteria will happen when satisfying a criterion affects another criterion being difficult to fulfill as they are in collision with each other.

Accounting information should be useful for decision-making, must have relevance and reliability of these two main qualitative characteristics. However, these qualities often can conflict, requiring a trade-off between various degrees of relevance and reliability. A forecast of a financial variable may possess a high degree of relevance to investors and creditors. However, a forecast necessarily contains subjectivity in the estimation of future events. Therefore, because of a low degree of reliability, generally accepted accounting principles do not require companies to provide forecasts of any financial variables.

For examples, accounting information requirements associated with the timeliness, predictive value and feedback value, while the predictive value of accounting information may be due to a lack of verification, so that the reliability of damage; on the contrary, if always insisted truthfully, then wait until the conditions are ripe when the accounting information may have lost its predictive value. As the reliability and relevance cannot have both, one can only depending on the degree of emphasis by choosing one of the two, leading to a different accounting treatment. One of the most typical is the right choice of accounting measurement attributes.

Besides that, another conflict can be a result of the criteria of Timeless and verifiability. Information is useful when it is timely. To be timely, the information must be available when needed to define problem or to be begin to identify possible solutions. Those criteria might conflict with verifiability. It is because when needed verifiability information, it may take time to calculate or to get it after production process is end. Verifiability is the useful information when it is accurate. Before relying on information to make decisions, it is important to ensure that the information is correct.

For example, a production manager has to decide the actual amount of pineapple to be used in produce of 10000 units of pineapple juices. But, because of the time given is limited, he has to prepared the report to top management by forecast the amount of pineapple will be used. Although he is meet the criteria of timeliness, he is might not meet the criteria of verifiable. He do not used the actual amount of pineapple will be used. It is because there are some problems may occur during the production process: cost of pineapples is lower or others factors. When the production is end, he will able to know the actual amount of pineapple will be used. So, the criteria timeliness is conflict with the criteria verifiability.

Another conflict is between timeliness and reliability of information. Information is said to be reliable when they incorporate all aspects of a transaction as well as other events in order to facilitate users in deciding on any issue regarding the latter. However, most of the times in providing timely reporting, those aforesaid transactions or events are never taken into account as it occurs after the report is prepared and thus impairing reliability. In interest of timeliness, the reliability of the information is sacrificed, every loss of reliability diminishes the usefulness of information and as time pass, and either the reliability of the information drops or increase accordingly.

For example, the material supplier decides to supply only one of the Material A. Company Y is very interested and is capable to buy the Material A. The supplier is interested on selling the Material A to Company Y, but there is no contract signed between them. As time passes, the supplier received an offer from Company Z's, with a higher price and shorter time compared to Company Y. Therefore, Material A is selling to Company Z and Y loses the Material A. Company Y is reliable on material supplier to get the Material A yet the supplier needed to sell the Material A in a shorter time to get the profit. So, supplier decides to sell it to Company Z. Thus, the criterion of timeliness is conflict with criteria of reliability.