What is cost management, and how does it differ from management accounting and cost accounting?

Ans.

How does "Cost management" differ from management accounting and cost accounting can easily be understood by the purpose and the process of each item. All the purpose and the process are explained in detail below. These all purpose and the processes are the main differences among all the items.

Cost management definition :

The term "Cost management" is nothing but the process of estimating, allocating, and controlling project costs. This cost management process also allows a business to predict coming expenses in order to reduce the chances of budget overestimation.

Differences :

Management accounting which is also known as managerial accounting and can be defined as a process of providing financial information and resources to the managers in decision making. Management accounting is only used by the internal team of the organization, and this is the only thing which makes it different from "Cost management". In this process, financial information and reports such as invoice, financial balance statement is shared by finance administration with the management team of the company. Objective of management accounting is to use this statistical data and take a better and accurate decision, controlling the enterprise, business activities, and development.

Cost accounting is the process of  classifying, recording and appropriate allocation of all expenditures for the determination of the costs of products or services, and for the presentation of properly arranged data for purposes of control and guidance of management. It includes the ascertainment of the cost of every order, job, contract, process, service or unit as may be appropriate. It deals with the cost of production, selling and distribution. So this process is also different from cost management. It is a part of cost management as it helps estimating, allocating, and controlling project costs but it is not completely a same process with same purpose.