THE IMPORTANCE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING PRACTICES (MAPs) IN CREATING SUSTAINABILITY OF SMEs IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) have a vital social and economic role because they make up roughly 97 percent of all active businesses in Malaysia. SMEs, which are at the core of every economic system, have a significant impact on sustainable growth. Unfortunately, many SMEs struggle for survival in the contemporary worldwide economic environment as a result of the pandemic COVID-19. SMEs are essential to the health of any economy because of their contributions to GDP and employment. Apart from pandemic, there are numerous more causes for the decline in business among SMEs. These include a lack of sufficient operating capital, ineffective management, and insufficient application of crucial business and management techniques. Since SMEs prioritize economic performance over social and environmental factors in order to remain competitive, sustainability is a big challenge. The use of Management Accounting Practices (MAPs) that can provide essential information to management is crucial to ensuring the business's effectiveness and efficiency. Management accounting is a part of accounting that provides economic and relevant financial information to managers and other internal users for them to make business-related decisions. Thus, management accounting information has an important part to play with respect to planning, monitoring, and controlling of the activities of SMEs. MAPs which comprise financial and non-financial information is one of the important management accounting information that should be utilized by the SMEs in order to enhance their sustainability. Consequently, the goal of this study is to outline the MAPs that SME's can use to improve their sustainability.