Lean Accounting: Financial Management for the Lean Organization

To achieve success, a lean organization must develop an effective and efficient management accounting function that complements its financial accounting system to provide a knowledge base for effectively making decisions about the future (this is critical because the focus of financial accounting is on past activity). A lean management accounting system makes relevant information available to decision makers on a timely basis.

In a broader context, lean accounting is a financial learning system for the entire organization, not just the accounting function. Because the economics of lean changes the relationships between operations and financial numbers, the whole business must learn the new relationships and incorporate the dynamic context of these relationships in all financial analysis.