Who Uses Accounting Data?

Internal and External Users

Internal users are those within your organization - such as marketing mangers, production supervisors, revenue supervisors, finance directors and company officers.  In running a business, internal users must answer many important questions.

• ​Is cash sufficient?
• Can we afford employee raises?
  
• Which service is the most profitable?
  

​In order to answer these questions internal users need detailed information on a timely basis.  Internal reports such as balance sheets and profit and loss reports help users make decisions about the company. 

​External users are individuals and organizations outside a company who want financial information about the company.  The two most common users are investors and creditors.  In a small business, your investors are those seeking to become partners and creditors are your bankers who request financial information when applying for small business loans.

Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out. - Robert Collier