Historical cost accounting is the accounting practice that measures a value of an asset on the balance sheet based on its acquisition cost or original cost when it is acquired by the business. For example, a building purchased twenty year ago cost RM 300,000 and is still owned by the business is still reported at RM 300,000 in the balance sheet even though the value of the building had increased. The main principle in historical cost accounting is that the asset should be report at its cost when purchased. Whereas the liabilities, prices were carried out at which when they were incurred. This usual way of accounting does not make any provisional change when item is purchased. The main function of this method is for accountant in reporting financial …show more content…
The advantage of historical cost accounting of that it is relevant for making economic decision. Like the example given above, investor will look at the pass financial report of the business before making an investment. The financial report will show how the business operates in the past. As the past financial records give assurance to the investor that the business is in good hand. For example if the business financial reports shows a good amount of profit and growth in the business every year, investors will feel assured about the company and thus make the decision to invest in the business. Historical costs are also more consistent in showing data in a way that the prices record in the balance sheet is the acquisition price of the asset. Therefore the price of the asset recorded are not easily manipulate because all they have to do is to record the exactly value of the original price which they are then measured objectively. Another advantage is that the historical cost can be verified. The acquisition cost of the product at that time of purchase is documented with invoices, payments and tax bill. When auditing or balancing the company’s accounting it is much easier to trace because it is a straight …show more content…
The current cost accounting presents the economic status of the business in relation to the economic which present the reality of the transaction which in turn provides better and more useful information than historical costing. As business environment are rapidly changing and current cost accounting will show the underlying business performance in align to the economy to present a fair value in the balance sheet. As the information acquired is debatable it can provide much more meaningful information to the user as it reflects the current price. Another advantage is that current cost accounting provides better measurement of efficiency. The rapid development and abundance use of contract based business means that under cost-based system there are some assets and liabilities are not included in the balance sheet at all because it has not been incurred or are not showed due to circumstances like the exchange rate, interest rate and even tax rates. Current cost is the only way to get these changes in prices to be record as it reflects on the market price. The disadvantage of current cost accounting is that understanding current cost accounting and interpreting it to useful and relevant data can be much more difficult to be achieved as it requires much more in depth knowledge. Some investor thinks that the financial information report is too little as they are no
B) assets are generally listed on the balance sheet at their historical cost, not their current value.
Activity-based costing (ABC) is a costing method that is usually used as a supplement to a company’s usual costing system, and is therefore used for internal decision-making. It is designed to inform managers of costing information for decisions (strategic and others) that potentially affect capacity and consequently “fixed” as well as variable costs. In addition, ABC can also be used to pinpoint activities that would benefit from process improvements.
Based off of the data provided in the case study it would appear that under the traditional costing. Which are the cost that were incurred to produce OS-367. It appears that those cost were being allocated to GS-157 and HS-241. The cost per unit for OS-367 was $10 under the traditional costing system and the same has become $13.75 under the ABC system.
Accounting is “a systematic process of identifying, recording, measuring, classifying, verifying, summarizing, interpreting and communicating financial information” (Accounting, n.d.). Financial information mentioned above includes any financial transactions done by the business. There are two types of accounting. The first one is accrual accounting, which realizes transactions at the time they occur and disregards whether or not cash transaction has occurred. This method is widely used in business, because it allows transactions to be completed over time and distance. Financial statements produced by accrual accounting reflect a sophisticated trade and a much more accurate snapshot of the business’ current situation. The opposite of accrual accounting is cash accounting, in which transactions are realized only when cash payment is made or received. This is the method used in personal finance.
Even though a myriad of tools and techniques learnt in the Strategic Cost Management and Strategic Business Analysis courses are not fully exploited in this essay, it is generally recognised that those techniques are useful for a corporate to formulate strategy, do strategic planning, control costing and quality, as well as eventually elevate its values, regardless the nature and size of organizations.
This can provide a more accurate view of the operational costs without having to include large one time transactions that hurt the value of the company. The use of pro forma reporting is usually beneficial to companies with specific industry characteristics. One example of this is cable and telephone companies. These companies struggle to produce an operating net profit due to large depreciation costs that are recorded. Reporting income using pro forma statements allows for companies in this industry to display a better projected profit number.
It was the year 1987 when the Gartner Group popularized the form of full cost accounting named Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)(author, Gartner Total Cost of Ownership). Originally TCO was mainly used in the IT business sector. This changed in the 1980’s when it became clear to many organizations that there is a distinct difference between purchase price and full costs of a products ownership. This brings us towards the main strength of conducting a TCO analysis, besides taking the purchase costs into account, which consist of the amount a money an organization pays for the required service, product or capital outlay. It also considers 1. Acquisition costs; these can consist of sourcing, administration, freight, and taxes. 2. Usage costs, which consists of the costs associated with converting the given product or service into a finished product. And finally 3. End of life cycle costs; the costs or profits incurred when disposing of a product. TCO can be seen as a form of full cost accounting; it systematically collects and presents all the data for each proposed alternative.
This, in order to identify what are the true costs of each customer and each order, enables the company to fully understand its cost structure thereby providing the base for better business choices and higher profitability. These are very sensible goals indeed. Even though the company is profitable, implementing a new, activity-based cost accounting system will allow the company to improve its margins and become even more focused and competitive in the future. 2.2. What is the difference between a.... ...
The contained paper has been prepared with objectives of elaborating over the three different costing methods namely, Absorption/Full Costing, Variable/Marginal Costing, and Activity Based accounting. The first segment of the report seeks to define and illustrate the costing methods based on the personal understanding of the writer gained through the class room and the academic readings. Part two of the report takes a form of short essay, written critically to evaluate the application of standard costing and variance analysis to any size of business, and concludes with a verdict that whether or not standard costing and variance analysis is applicable to each business with consideration of its costs and benefits of the system.
The overall purpose of cost accounting is to advise top administration and the management team on the most suitable and cost effective methods and actions to employ based on cost, capability and efficiencies of a given product or service. It can be defined as the method where all the expenditures used during execution of business activities are gathered, categorized, examined and noted down (Horngren & Srikant, 2000). Once these numbers are gathered and recorded the information is used to determine a selling price and/or to identify possible investment opportunities. Although the principal aim or function of cost accounting is to help the business administration with their decision making and business planning process, the cost accounting data
Cost Accounting: Its role and ethical considerations Introduction: Accounting is the process of identifying, measuring, and communicating economic information about an entity for the purpose of making decisions and informed judgements. The major areas of within the accounting are: Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting/Cost Accounting and Auditing- Public Accounting Managerial accounting is concerned with the use of economic and financial information to plan and control the activities of an entity and to support the management in planning and decision-making process. Cost accounting is the subset of managerial accounting and it helps management in determination and accumulation of product, process or service cost. Role of Cost Accounting: Increased competition and uncertain business conditions have put significant pressure on corporate management to make informed business decisions and maximize their company?s financial performance. In response to this pressure, a range of management accounting tools and techniques has emerged.
First we will talk about activity based costing and we will start by giving the definition of it ; Activity based costing means refining the costing system by concentrating on individual activities as essential or primary cost object or tool . ABC system has a lot of benefits and we will discuss them now, ABC helps in understanding overhead much better and the percentage of prim cost and overhead is the same in both ABC and traditional system; but what gives advantage of ABC over traditional is by using ABC system it helps to know the detail of overhead so that it can identifies how is the activity to avoid.
Accounting has been a living part of history since the Neolithic period and remains a prevalent and ever-evolving profession still to this day. This essay therefore proposes to look at the significance and role of history specifically related to the accountancy field. In order to substantiate this claim of the importance of accounting history, numerous benefits of accounting history will be presented. Factors such as the use of historical research and its availability thereof to constantly develop accounting policies will be discussed as well as how historical accounting practices can be used to understand current practice and assist in the training of individuals in the accounting field. Lastly, the importance of history in the development
Accounting dates back as far as first centuries, is the language of business. As everything has gone through many changes, accounting has also changed many times through out the centuries. It went from the use of abacus to the most advanced softwares, and computers. With these drastic improvements nowadays accounting, financial accounting and management are facing big challenges. From the presentation of the reports to communication to the users, investors, and owners, the accounting field has gained totally a new shape from two decades ago. Today with the dynamic change in every aspect of life, the accounting field has to act fast and be able to adapt these new changes and challenges in order to survive.
Activity-based costing (ABC) is a costing method that is designed to provide managers with cost information for strategic and other decisions that potentially affect capacity and therefore “fixed” as well as variable costs. Activity-based costing is mostly used for internal decision making and managing activities while traditional costing method is used to provide data for external financial reports. Most organization uses activity-based costing as an addition system for using traditional absorption costing as sometimes the traditional cost system misleads the product’s profitability. In a company, there are many products on sale, if one product is sold at a high price with low product margin and a product with high product margin at a low price, it may result in a loss. In addition, due to the reason that cost drivers and enterprises business may change, activity-based costing analysis also needs to be revised periodically. This amendment should be prompted to change pricing, product, customer focus and market share strategy to improve corporate profitability.