Part of this process is subdividing the broad "selling and administrative" expenses into smaller, more useful subgroups. For example, a company's marketing budget will certainly be reviewed independently of its engineering expenses. However, it could be useful to review marketing and sales expenses together as one group relative to sales or sales growth. These choices are at the management's discretion based on the company's business model and objectives. Again, with managerial accounting, there are no regulated standards; the reports and modeling should be designed to fit what the company's management needs to run the business, not what investors need to understand its performance.
That said, don't underestimate the significance of these managerial decisions on how the company drives investor returns. These reports frame management's view of the business. How management decides to group and analyze its expenses implicitly defines how they view and understand the company. Management makes decisions based on the data they have available, and these managerial accounting decisions give context to the data. A poorly structured selling and administrative expense budget can affect not just tactics but also strategy.
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