ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews western management accounting developments in the modem era and examines management accounting techniques, especially the responsibility accounting systems, used in China from 1949 to the present. Western management accounting began its influence on China in early 1980s. Many management accounting techniques, such as cost-volume-profit analysis, standard costing, fixed and variable costs, variances analysis, and long-term and short-term decision methods, have been introduced into China. Workshop and work-team accounting was the basic form of the Internal Economic Accounting System which originated in the Soviet Union. The system was introduced into Chinese enterprises from early 1950s. The workshop or work-team only calculated the product quantity, product quality, cost of production, funds usage, and savings on materials. Target stratification management assigns overall targets such as funds, cost, and profit targets to workshops and work-teams vertically. The funds management concept had been used for forty five years when the first accounting standard was issued by the Ministry of Finance in 1992.
