Fiona wanted to know which is better for mangaement information purposes financial or management accounting? Here's what I advised Dear Fiona, This is a popular and interesting question that faces many first year students. The basic rule is that while both financial and management accounting have the same transactions and documentation as each other (materials arrive, invoices and goods received notes flow around the organisation, goods are produced ...), it is management accounting that is the highly focused, internal management information system that provides management with the additional decision making information they need to manage their business as optimally as possible. Financial accounting is a stewardship, externally focused, reporting system. Fiona, you need now to go to my web site and look in the management accounting section where you should find all of the material you need: there's even a table that compares financial with management accounting that should form the basis of your answer. My own text book, Cost and Management Accounting published by Prentice Hall has this table in Chapter 1 and it also has supporting discussion: see if this book is in your library. Take a look at the free trial on my web site, too, Fiona, as I am launching a new commercial side of my site and that will effectively be a text book on the web when it's finished: text, examples, questions and answers, how to work with spreadsheets, real life tips and examples ... ideal for a student such as yourself both now and for the rest of your time as a student. The site will be modular in that you will be able to buy just what you need and no more. I have finished the first section, Introduction to Management Accounting, and once I've got the ecommerce part of the site up and running I will go live. Section two is nearing completion, too, The Behaviour of Costs. That's enough to get you started, Fiona. See how you get on and let me know if you need any more help. Best wishes DW