Is Managerial Account essential to Business Finance?

[seanmick]

I am a Business Finance major and I did fine in Financial Accounting but I am having trouble understanding much of anything in Managerial Accounting, I am managing to get a B in the class right now but I am wondering if knowing this stuff is a must for a Business Administration: Finance major. I will definitly finish the class off with a B or maybe an A but I will leave learning very little of the material.

Am I doomed if I continue as a Finance major without knowing Managerial Accounting? I have a friend who is a Finance major and he cannot remember any of the homework that I am doing either -- but I just want to make sure I am not screwed when I transfer.

[akula]

sure...
a finance major principally teaches three things:
modigliani/debt valuation/pricing/yield curve, markowitz/capm portfolios and derivatives/black-scholes (in the good schools you'll also do a forth unit on behavioural finance).

you won't be taught any of these three things in management acc, therefore, you not liking the later does mean you won't like the former

the only connection between the two disciplines is financial statement analysis..and if you're hating the statements, you'll probably hate finance

[mbolton2181]

Thats such shame. I am also taking Managerial accounting this semester, and I love it. Although like Akula says it is not nescessarily anything to do with finance, it still teaches you about how to evaluate businesses based on their statements. Hah, my prof. is always saying how its the most important class and whatnot because it teaches the language the business, What could possible be more useful

If you can get an A or B, that generally means you have a good grasp on the concepts. You can seriously get an A, yet still not learn anything!? thats incredible. Yet entirely useless....

[buynick]

I took a Masters level managerial accounting course last semester and we focused on cost accounting instead of valuation (financial). Understanding where the costs are in your company and how to deal with them.

[DPayne]

I am an accounting major and I enjoy the managerial side of accounting way better than the financial side. I like the performance reports, budgets, etc over simply preparing financial statements for shareholders.

I think you'll be ok in a finance major without a managerial acct. stronghold.

[BusinessAdviser]

Two thoughts:

1. It is never the end of the world to have a weakness in a certain area. However, you'll just need to make sure that you compensate for that weakness by strengthening yourself in other areas.

2. On the flip side, knowledge is power. The more you know, the more you grow.

[mbolton2181]

I took a Masters level managerial accounting course last semester and we focused on cost accounting instead of valuation (financial). Understanding where the costs are in your company and how to deal with them.

Yeah I'm due to take cost accounting next year as part of the Entrepreneurship major requirements