Understanding Management Accounting and Non Financial Reporting: A Case Study of Alimentation Couche Tard Inc.

This report explores the concept of management accounting and its implementation in non financial reporting, using Alimentation Couche Tard Inc. as a case study. It discusses the importance of non financial information, the company's sustainability initiatives, and the disclosure of non financial information. The report concludes by highlighting the company's approach to non financial reporting and its recommendations for voting on social and environmental issues.

Running head: MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING
Managerial accounting
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Discussion:.................................................................................................................................2
Management accounting in non financial reporting:.................................................................2
Disclosure of non financial information:...................................................................................3
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................4
Reference list:.............................................................................................................................6

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Introduction:
The report is prepared to demonstrate the concept of understanding of management
accounting and their implementation in the business reporting process. For the purpose of
evaluating the non financial reporting with the implication on the concept of management
accounting, the chosen company is Alimentation Couche Tard Inc. Couche Tard is
multinational convenience store that operates in Canada and has stores across many countries
such as Europe, Mexico, United States, China, Indonesia and Japan. It is one of the leading
convenience retailers that have been created as new convenience brand (couche-tard.com
2019). The logo of the company has been created for incorporating the gear assets of the
brand. The management accounting incorporates non financial reporting as a tool that is used
as a prudent and rational corporate strategy. Such reporting enables business to creative
effective relationship with stakeholders.
Discussion:
Management accounting in non financial reporting:
Management accounting deals with the presentation of the concept of business
activities and focus on how the organizational resources are effectively and efficiently used
for supporting the manger in enhancing the value of shareholder and customers. For this
purpose, organization discloses the non financial information which is equally important to
shareholders as the financial information. Over the years, Couche Tard has evolved its
business practices both internally and externally. The non financial reporting aims to reports
on the approach to the opportunities and business risk related to the social and environmental
issues associated with the operations (Maas et al. 2016). It cannot be denied that a better
understanding of the opportunities and risks to the stockholders and management,
improvement in reputation, increasing efficiency and cost reduction is provided by the non

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financial report. There are two proposals of shareholders on which Couche Tard is modifying
its position that is sustainability and compensation of executive. The company is committed
to develop a strategy for reporting on its sustainability initiatives for increasing the
transparency by communicating the present efforts and future targets to the shareholders.
There are identified focus areas of company based on the model of current business. It is
believed by the company that for the next annual shareholder meeting, the company would
produce its first sustainability report (Diouf and Boiral 2017). However, the proposal of
shareholder for conducting an accountability exercise on social and environmental exercise is
intended to vote against such proposal in their recommendation.
Disclosure of non financial information:
The non financial reporting of Couche Tard is disclosed in a separate page on its
website saying that the company that the communities and environment served is seriously
taken. The journey of Couche Tard comes with the adoption of ethical and environmental
sourcing standard and to be environmentally responsible in all the activities. For ensuring that
the suppliers meet the standards of International Corporate responsibility, a platform of
EcoVadis has been adopted by the company. The company started the evaluation of its
suppliers for the first time at the end of fiscal year 2018 (Stacchezzini et al. 2016).
Consumption of water and management of electricity is actively done by company
employing water and energy efficient technologies and other conservation practices. The
company focuses on both acquisition and organic growth by the way of exercising brand
creativity that is outstanding. For safeguarding the best interest of shareholders, it is believed
by the board of directors of company that there is a need to support the best practices of
governance (cspdailynews.com 2019). The company thinks that the current time when the
company is globalizing the brand is best to employ a transparent reporting regarding the

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initiatives of sustainability reporting. The company take initiatives and efforts in terms of
community involvement and environmental at local level through its decentralized business
model with further commitment of enhancing sustainability reporting. It is required by
organization to have a clear strategy for identifying the priorities, focus areas and targets
which is dedicated in the efforts and accordingly communicating the intentions of going
forward. In the current point of time, the company does not prepare any report for disclosure
of the non financial information as they think there are several risks associated with the value
of shareholders. Such risks include long term effect of transition of energy to electric vehicles
on the business model of company, effect of products such as energy drinks on the safety and
health of consumers (Appelbaum et al. 2017). Other risk also include respecting of human
rights in the supply chain in connection with tobacco and food products. Any foregoing risk
and uncertainties are set forth as business risk in the Annual report published every year. It
also includes the risks filed by the company from time to time with regulators of security in
Canada. The annual report includes some of the sections disclosing non financial information
such as key risk non financial risk factors that has a negative impact on the objectives and
ensuing performance of business. Some of the non financial information impacting the
overall performance of business includes road transportation fuel, changes in behavior of
customers, regulatory, information technology system, brand reputation and image,
competition, any risk and hazard associated with the fuel products, electronic payment modes
and legislative requirements (Inc 2019).
Conclusion:
The non financial reporting based on the concepts of management accounting is not
separately presented by Couche Tard. For viewing the non financial information and the
efforts taken by organization concerning any non financial issues, the organization has a

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sustainability web page depicting the measures taken by organization to create shareholder
value by accounting for non financial information. No separate emphasis is created by
organization on reporting of the non financial information via the preparation of sustainability
report. In order to ensure continuous effective oversight of management, the company strives
for improvement in their practices of corporate governance. There are sustainability metrics
built by business for comparing and understanding the benchmark and trend of industry.
However, it has been found from the analysis of the report that the company is
recommending to vote against the accountability exercise of social and environmental issue.

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Reference list:
Appelbaum, D., Kogan, A., Vasarhelyi, M. and Yan, Z., 2017. Impact of business analytics
and enterprise systems on managerial accounting. International Journal of Accounting
Information Systems, 25, pp.29-44.
Couche-Tard. (2019). Global Circle K | Couche-Tard. [online] Available at:
https://corpo.couche-tard.com/en/our-company/our-brands/global-circle-k/ [Accessed 8 Apr.
2019].
CSP Daily News. (2019). Couche-Tard Updates Positions on Executive Pay, Sustainability.
[online] Available at: https://www.cspdailynews.com/company-news/couche-tard-updates-
positions-executive-pay-sustainability [Accessed 8 Apr. 2019].
Diouf, D. and Boiral, O., 2017. The quality of sustainability reports and impression
management: A stakeholder perspective. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability
Journal, 30(3), pp.643-667.
Inc., A. (2019). Alimentation Couche-Tard's Board of Directors updates its outlook on certain
shareholder proposals. [online] Newswire.ca. Available at: https://www.newswire.ca/news-
releases/alimentation-couche-tards-board-of-directors-updates-its-outlook-on-certain-
shareholder-proposals-693639451.html [Accessed 8 Apr. 2019].
Maas, K., Schaltegger, S. and Crutzen, N., 2016. Integrating corporate sustainability
assessment, management accounting, control, and reporting. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 136, pp.237-248.
Stacchezzini, R., Melloni, G. and Lai, A., 2016. Sustainability management and reporting: the
role of integrated reporting for communicating corporate sustainability management. Journal
of Cleaner Production, 136, pp.102-110.

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