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Cost Accounting
Cost accounting is defined as "a systematic set of procedures for recording and reporting measurements of the cost of manufacturing goods and performing services in the aggregate and in detail. It includes methods for recognizing, classifying, allocating, aggregating and reporting such costs and comparing them with standard costs." (IMA) Often considered a subset of managerial accounting, its end goal is to advise the management on how to optimize business practices and processes based on cost efficiency and capability. Cost accounting provides the detailed cost information that management needs to control current operations and plan for the future. Cost accounting information is also commonly used in financial accounting, but its primary function is for use by managers to facilitate their decision-making. Origins of Cost Accounting All types of businesses, whether manufacturing, trading or producing services, require cost accounting to track their activities. Cost accounting h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Management Accounting
In management accounting or managerial accounting, managers use accounting information in decision-making and to assist in the management and performance of their control functions. Definition One simple definition of management accounting is the provision of financial and non-financial decision-making information to managers. In other words, management accounting helps the directors inside an organization to make decisions. This can also be known as Cost Accounting. This is the way toward distinguishing, examining, deciphering and imparting data to supervisors to help accomplish business goals. The information gathered includes all fields of accounting that educates the administration regarding business tasks identifying with the financial expenses and decisions made by the organization. Accountants use plans to measure the overall strategy of operations within the organization. According to the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), "Management accounting is a profession t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Throughput Accounting
Throughput accounting (TA) is a principle-based and simplified management accounting approach that provides managers with decision support information for enterprise profitability improvement. TA is relatively new in management accounting. It is an approach that identifies factors that limit an organization from reaching its goal, and then focuses on simple measures that drive behavior in key areas towards reaching organizational goals. TA was proposed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt as an alternative to traditional cost accounting. As such, Throughput Accounting is neither cost accounting nor costing because it is cash focused and does not allocate all costs (variable and fixed expenses, including overheads) to products and services sold or provided by an enterprise. Considering the laws of variation, only costs that vary totally with units of output (see definition of T below for TVC) e.g. raw materials, are allocated to products and services which are deducted from sales to determine Thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Activity-based Management
Activity-based management (ABM) is a method of identifying and evaluating activities that a business performs, using activity-based costing to carry out a value chain analysis or a re-engineering initiative to improve strategic and operational decisions in an organization. Activity-based costing Activity-based costing Activity-based costing (ABC) is a costing method that identifies activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activity to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each. Therefore, this model assigns more ind ... establishes relationships between overhead costs and activities so that costs can be more precisely allocated to products, services, or customer segments. Activity-based management focuses on managing activities to reduce costs and improve customer value. Kaplan and Cooper divide ABM into operational and strategic: * Operational ABM is about ''doing things right'', using ABC information to improve efficiency. Those ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Throughput Accounting
Throughput accounting (TA) is a principle-based and simplified management accounting approach that provides managers with decision support information for enterprise profitability improvement. TA is relatively new in management accounting. It is an approach that identifies factors that limit an organization from reaching its goal, and then focuses on simple measures that drive behavior in key areas towards reaching organizational goals. TA was proposed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt as an alternative to traditional cost accounting. As such, Throughput Accounting is neither cost accounting nor costing because it is cash focused and does not allocate all costs (variable and fixed expenses, including overheads) to products and services sold or provided by an enterprise. Considering the laws of variation, only costs that vary totally with units of output (see definition of T below for TVC) e.g. raw materials, are allocated to products and services which are deducted from sales to determine Thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Variance Analysis (accounting)
In budgeting (or management accounting in general), a variance is the difference between a budgeted, planned, or standard cost and the actual amount incurred/sold. Variances can be computed for both costs and revenues. The concept of variance is intrinsically connected with planned and actual results and effects of the difference between those two on the performance of the entity or company. Types of variances Variances can be divided according to their effect or nature of the underlying amounts. When effect of variance is concerned, there are two types of variances: * When actual results are better than expected results given variance is described as favorable variance. In common use favorable variance is denoted by the letter F - usually in parentheses (F). * When actual results are worse than expected results given variance is described as adverse variance, or unfavourable variance. In common use adverse variance is denoted by the letter U or the letter A - usually in parenth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
Publicly traded companies typically are subject to rigorous standards. Small and midsized businesses often follow more simplified standards, plus any specific disclosures required by their specific lenders and shareholders. Some firms operate on the cash method of accounting which can often be simple and straight forward. Larger firms most often operate on an accrual basis. Accrual basis is one of the fundamental accounting assumptions and if it is followed by the company while preparing the Financial statements then no further disclosure is required. Accounting standards prescribe in considerable detail what accruals must be made, how the financial statements are to be presented, and what additional disclosures are required. Some important elements that accounting standards cover include: identifying the exact entity which is reporting, discussing any "going concern" questions, specifying monetary units, and reporting time frames. Limitations The notable limitations of accounting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marginal Costs
In economics, the marginal cost is the change in the total cost that arises when the quantity produced is incremented, the cost of producing additional quantity. In some contexts, it refers to an increment of one unit of output, and in others it refers to the rate of change of total cost as output is increased by an infinitesimal amount. As Figure 1 shows, the marginal cost is measured in dollars per unit, whereas total cost is in dollars, and the marginal cost is the slope of the total cost, the rate at which it increases with output. Marginal cost is different from average cost, which is the total cost divided by the number of units produced. At each level of production and time period being considered, marginal cost includes all costs that vary with the level of production, whereas costs that do not vary with production are fixed. For example, the marginal cost of producing an automobile will include the costs of labor and parts needed for the additional automobile but not the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historical Costs
Standard cost accounting is a traditional cost accounting method introduced in the 1920s, as an alternative for the traditional cost accounting method based on historical costs. Adolph Matz (1962) ''Cost accounting.'' p. 584. Overview Standard cost accounting uses ratios called efficiencies that compare the labor and materials actually used to produce a good with those that the same goods would have required under "standard" conditions. As long as actual and standard conditions are similar, few problems arise. Unfortunately, standard cost accounting methods developed about 100 years ago, when labor comprised the most important cost of manufactured goods. Standard methods continue to emphasize labor efficiency even though that resource now constitutes a (very) small part of the cost in most cases ". Standard cost accounting can hurt managers, workers, and firms in several ways. For example, a policy decision to increase inventory can harm a manufacturing manager's performance eva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cost Object
A cost object is a term used primarily in cost accounting to describe something to which costs are assigned. Common examples of cost objects are: product lines, geographic territories, customers, departments or anything else for which management would like to quantify cost. Cost object is anything for which a separate measurement of cost is required. Cost object may be a product, a service, a project, etc. The use of cost objects is common within activity based costing and Grenzplankostenrechnung systems. See also Cost centre (business) A cost centre is a department within a business to which costs can be allocated. The term includes departments which do not produce directly but incur costs to the business, when the manager and employees of the cost centre are not accountable for ... References Costs Management accounting {{accounting-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indirect Costs
Indirect costs are costs that are not directly accountable to a cost object (such as a particular project, facility, function or product). Like direct costs, indirect costs may be either fixed or variable. Indirect costs include administration, personnel and security costs. These are those costs which are not directly related to production. Some indirect costs may be overhead, but other overhead costs can be directly attributed to a project and are direct costs. There are two types of indirect costs. One are the fixed indirect costs, which are unchanged for a particular project or company, like transportation of labor to the working site, building temporary roads, etc. The other are recurring indirect costs, which repeat for a particular company, like maintenance of records or the payment of salaries. Indirect vs direct costs Most cost estimates are broken down into direct costs and indirect costs. Direct costs are directly attributable to the object. In construction, the costs o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Occupancy
Within the context of building construction and building codes, "occupancy" refers to the use, or intended use, of a building, or portion of a building, for the shelter or support of persons, animals or property. A closely related meaning is the number of units in such a building that are rented, leased, or otherwise in use. Lack of occupancy, in this sense, is known as "vacancy". Building codes It is possible to have multiple occupancies (or building uses) within one building. For example, a high-rise building can have retail stores occupying the lower levels, while the upper levels are residential. Different occupancies within a building are separated by a fire barrier with a defined fire-resistance rating. It is common for a penetration (such as a fire door) to have a fire protection rating lower than the wall fire–resistance rating in which it is installed. For example, a two-hour fire separation normally requires fire doors rated at 90 minutes. For some high challenge o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
