Types of Accounting

Financial accounting is the field of accountancy concerned with the preparation of financial statements for decision makers, such as stockholders, suppliers, banks, employees, government agencies, owners, and other stakeholders. Financial capital maintenance can be measured in either nominal monetary units or units of constant purchasing power. The fundamental need for financial accounting is to reduce principal–agent problem by measuring and monitoring agents' performance and reporting the results to interested users.

Financial accountancy is used to prepare accounting information for people outside the organization or not involved in the day-to-day running of the company. Management accounting provides accounting information to help managers make decisions to manage the business.
In short, financial accounting is the process of summarizing financial data taken from an organization's accounting records and publishing in the form of annual (or more frequent) reports for the benefit of people outside the organization.

Financial accountancy is governed by both local and international accounting standards.

Management accounting or managerial accounting is concerned with the provisions and use of accounting information to managers within organizations, to provide them with the basis to make informed business decisions that will allow them to be better equipped in their management and control functions.
In contrast to financial accountancy information, management accounting information is:

• primarily forward-looking, instead of historical;
• model based with a degree of abstraction to support decision making generically, instead of case based;
• designed and intended for use by managers within the organization, instead of being intended for use by shareholders, creditors, and public regulators
• usually confidential and used by management, instead of publicly reported;
• computed by reference to the needs of managers, often using management information systems, instead of by reference to general financial accounting standards.

Traditional vs. innovative practices: