Companies' attempts to adapt to today's technological capabilities and globally competitive environment have been greatly constrained by antiquated accounting systems. Improved management accounting systems can be designed: 1) for operational control, to motivate the learning and improvement activities for managers and employees, and to provide feedback on the efficiency of operating processes; 2) for activity-based costing, to calculate accurately the profitability of individual products and customers; and 3) for capital investment decisions, to guide decisions on acquiring advanced technological capabilities. The paper summarizes recent advances in all three applications.