Accounting is the system of recording and summarizing business and financial transactions and analyzing, verifying, and reporting the results; (Merriam-Dictionary, 2012). Cost accounting is described as the evaluating approach to the overall cost of when the business evaluates the cost that is associated with the business. Cost accounting consists of the identification, measurement, collection, analysis, preparation, and communication of financial information (Khan, 2010). In this paper, I will discuss the reasons why cost accounting is important to businesses and what role it plays in order for they to succeed. I will also discuss the different methods of cost accounting and how are they used? What does operating a budget help a firm’s management; what are the elements of a budget and how are they constructed.
Businesses use cost accounting to help manager illustrate potential areas to reduce cost and process for services and goods, describes how goods and services should be priced to reflect their true cost (Conway-Schempf & Ph, 2001). Cost accounting is the process of accumulated, measuring, interpreting and the reporting of cost information that is relevant to the stockholders of the business. Managers as well as management use cost accounting to help in justifying the capacity in helping to cut costs for the company in order to increase that company’s profit. Internal use, versus external use tools allow users such as financial accounting, cost accounting who do not need to follow the General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) because they use a more practical type if accounting. The importance of cost accounting," 2011). It also gives managers a good idea of what the actual cost of the processes, depart...
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...ployee and customers to make the company profitable.
Works Cited
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Conway-Schempf, N., & Ph, D. (2001). Full cost accounting: A course module on incorporating environmental and social costs.
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We Learn. (2011, February 3). An introduction to cost accounting [A continuous learning forum]. Retrieved March 13, 2012, from Welingkar Institute of Management: www.slideshare.com.
[4] Colin Drury, Management and Costing Accounting, (7th edition), Chapter 3, Cost Assignment, p. 54-59
Marshall, M.H., McManus, W.W., Viele, V.F. (2003). Accounting: What the Numbers Mean. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.
"College Accounting Coach." Process Costing-Definitions And Features(Part1) « Process Costing « Cost Accounting «. Feb. 2007. Web
Gibson, C. H. (2011). Financial reporting & analysis: Using financial accounting information. (12th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
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.
In its current practice, the roles and functions of cost accounting includes additional functions. More specifically, it can be described as more than an inventory tracking system. This is because cost accounting entails defining the charges of activities and goods (Horngren & Srikant, 2000). Because of its many roles and functions, this accounting method has been of great help to growth and expansion of business planning and management. Again, the reports offer assistance in the planning and growth projections for different business functions and units within the organization. The information cost accountants offer different uses, some of which aid in the controllership function, as well as the industrial
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.
Others feel that ABC would be more widespread in industry if it were marketed better by the cost accounting profession itself [1]. As the dust has settled, ABC has turned out to be less a revolutionary technique than a useful refinement to proven systems. The costs of products and services must be accurate, or management can be misled. Decisions... ...
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
Furthermore, it is vital that the company not only use effective cost management, but also adopt an effective accounting method that will help managers achieve goals. Blocher et al (2013) compares and contrast the three types of accounting method that will benefit the firm;
Marshall, D. H., McManus, W. W, & Viele, D. (2002). Accounting: What the Numbers Mean. 5th ed. San Francisco: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
Cost accounting system has two types, job order costing, and process cost system. These two cost systems are very different, almost every company uses order costing or process costing. Starbucks, is a coffee shop where citizens congregate to drink there morning coffee, study, and or socialize. Starbucks is one of the oldest and largest privately held specialty coffee retailer in the United States. (Starbucks) Their passion is to discover the flavors you love and always bring it home, delivering the look, taste and aroma of the world’s best coffee and teas. Job order costing is a very easy way in order to help Starbucks managers to know how much profit their company (Starbucks) made.
Marshall, D., McManus, W., & Viele, D. (2004). Accounting: What the numbers mean. [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies.
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.
The company needs to sustain two cost systems and accounts, one for internal use and another for external reports since the direct use of accounting method in analysis of the ABC data cannot be used. Different reports are required to prepare for different purposes in ABC costing lead to additional works that making the resources not using productively.