A STUDY ON THE ADOPTION OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION AS THE MAJOR TOOL FOR DECISION MAKING

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: Almost every business worked toward achieving its intended, planned, and overall goals. Every company, especially small businesses, strives for efficiency and proper effectiveness, and the quality of accessible accounting information and how the information is used by the organization play a big role in achieving these goals (Fatai, 2011). However, as defined by Coster et al (1978), information is the lifeblood of every business, so for any business to succeed in today's rapidly changing environment, management must keep up to date with all current and relevant information that will help them achieve their predetermined goals, or risk stagnation. The manager who is making a choice usually wants to be sure that he or she has all of the facts (Joshua, 2008). This is only feasible with a successful presentation and its application in the right conditions (Coster et al, 1978). When considering the value and use of accounting information to management, particularly in small businesses, it is important to note that management also makes decisions based on other data. Engineers, Lawyers, Doctors, Architects, and other corporate officials provide valuable information; nonetheless, accountants' knowledge is critical in identifying a firm's assets and liabilities, as well as in pricing its goods and determining when profits or losses are realized. Accounting data is used to track the growth of a business and to make decisions about the course of action to take out of a number of different and unconnected options (Joshua, 2008). Although it has been noticed that decision making is the final step in the managerial process, the relevance of a management choice is dependent on the quality and relevance of accounting data provided by the accountant. Accounting information is critical to the decision system when it comes to business and economic concerns since it offers quantitative information for three functions: planning, control, and assessment (Onugu, 2005). Setting a goal, identifying various means of achieving the objective, and determining which alternative is the best course of action are all part of the planning process (Bush, 2010). Control is the process of ensuring that plans are carried out as intended. To put it another way, do plans match up with actions? At this stage, the accountant may be requested to provide information on actual expenses as opposed to previously projected expenditures.