Management accounting focuses on providing information to managers to aid in planning, controlling, evaluating performance, and decision making. It assists with routine operations, long-term planning, inventory valuation, and income determination. The planning and control process involves setting standards, measuring actual performance, and comparing the two. Management decision making identifies problems, objectives, alternative solutions, consequences of each, and selects an alternative. Management accounting differs from financial accounting in its internal focus, special purpose reports, consideration of future plans, and allowance for subjective data. Areas not governed by accounting principles include identifying relevant decisions and organizing the most useful information.