Introduction The purpose of this paper is to answer a few important questions: Why do companies allocate costs? How do companies allocate costs? And how this cost allocation can affect the decision making of the company. It is important for the companies to find the proper method to allocate the costs. Cost allocation is an important issue in many companies because many of the costs associated with designing, producing and distributing products and services are not easily identified with the products and services that are created. It would have been easier for companies to allocate cost if costs were directly traceable with the products and the cost allocation would have been minor issue for the company. The decision-making …show more content…
A direct cost can be traced to a product or service which includes: Direct labor- which is the cost of the labor that’s directly connected to a product or services. Direct labor is sometimes called touch labor, since direct labor workers typically touch the product while it is being made.( Ray H. Garrison, Eric W. Noreen and Peter C. Brewer p 39-40) An example of direct labor is an assembly line worker. Labor cost that cannot be physically traced to the creation of products, or that can be traced only at great cost and inconvenience, are considered to be indirect labot.( Ray H. Garrison, Eric W. Noreen and Peter C. Brewer p 40) Direct material are those materials that become an integral part of the finished product and whose cost can be traced to the finished product.( Ray H. Garrison, Eric W. Noreen and Peter C. Brewer p39-40) Manufacturing overhead is the third element so manufacturing cost, it includes all costs of manufacturing except direct materials and direct labor. Manufacturing overhead includes items such as indirect materials; indirect labor; maintenance and repairs on production equipment; and heat and light, property taxes, depreciation, and insurance on manufacturing facilities. Only cost associated with operating the factory are consider to be manufacturing overhead cost. A company also incurs other costs associated with its selling administive functions, but these costs are not included as part of manufacturing overhead. Only those
Machine hours, direct labor hours, and direct labor costs can all be used to allocate manufacturing overhead.
Direct labor assembly costs are, by their nature, directly traceable to individual products. Therefore the relevant cost driver for this cost is the number of Direct Assembly Labor Hours. The other 21 cost categories are indirect costs.
Direct material costs change due to the quantity, range, quality and price of materials required according to the specification for the order each time a unit of the product or service is produced. Direct labour costs are driven by the number of hours required and the rate per hour each product unit that has been set for each labour grade.
Indirect manufacturing costs are a manufacturer's product costs other than direct materials and direct labor. Indirect manufacturing costs are also referred to as manufacturing overhead, factory overhead, factory burden, or burden.
This is an excellent short case to introduce the managerial accounting issues related to the "joint cost" problem. Classic microeconomics argues unequivocally that attempts to assign cost to individual products in a "joint" set constitute a complete waste of time--"just maximize the total revenue over the batch." Like the comparable adage to "price so that marginal cost equals marginal revenue," the economists' advice about joint costing is certainly accurate, given the assumptions, but not particularly useful in practice. Most managerial accountants, including this author, believe that there are important managerial issues involved in accounting for joint cost in real companies. This case covers those issues for a real company.
The manufacturing overhead budget takes care of all other costs associated with production of units. Direct materials and labor have been accounted
Included in cost allocation are direct, indirect, and incremental costs. Direct costs, or separable costs, are costs that are related to a single type of service and are related to one type of output or user such as, a sector-to-sector hand-off. Indirect costs, or common costs, are related to more than one type of service, such as, the physical en-route facility. Incremental costs change with the level of
Muddled is an ACFI2003 student and as many others has problems with several aspects of the course including a fundamental principle, the differences in the costing systems and cost management systems. The purpose of this essay is help Muddled understand the fundamental costing principle that management systems should reflect the fact that different costs are relevant for different purposes, and how this principle affects the way that job costing and process costing systems are designed. Along the way several costing concepts will be explained and laid out for Muddled to understand in a more simplified method. The axiom will be covered first with particular reference to the costing systems, the differences between the job
Cost allocation courses of action have a tendency to impact an organization’s conduct essentially if, as the platitude goes, "what accomplishes measured gets" - giving that its recognized and remunerated. In the event that an organization's picked methodology to allocation inspires the wrong conduct, this might be industrially sub-optimal even from an optimistic standpoint and broken at most exceedingly terrible. Case in point, if a firm assigns costs to items - smart phone Pcs, say - this frequently centers chiefs' consideration on the amount of laptops in ownership rather than the accurate cost execution measurements. Alternately, a well arranged and developed allocation strategy can help to enforce powerful business method. Heading worldwide organizations have figured it out the vitality of cost allocation and have created suitable methodologies that permit them to oversee allocations and recuperations in a way that is adjusted to their methodologies. They are likewise progressively recognising that utilizing the right technique is just part of the voyage. A definitive
The proper measurement of direct labor costs is essential when manufacturing a product. The management and accounting departments of a company need to know the actual costs of manufacturing a good so that effective business decisions can be made.
Manufacturing overhead, the third element of manufacturing cost, includes all costs of manufacturing except direct material and direct labor.
Cost allocation decisions are important. There are several ways to support allocation method decisions by documenting the activity that caused the costs to be incurred, identifying the benefits received as a result of incurring the cost, Justifying that the cost is reasonable or fair with the other party in a contract, and showing that the cost object has the ability to bear the cost. Some of the different allocation methods are joint costs, sunk costs, and opportunity costs. For example, a company might allocate or assign the cost of an expensive computer system to the three main areas of the company that use the system. A company with only one electric meter might allocate the electricity bill to several departments in the company.
Application of appropriate cost performance strategy is a vital tool for the organizational objective. Budgeting procedure & its implementation is an important element of the cost accounting practice. The organization that has a substantial history of efficient budgeting methods can easily read the market. The total costing system is a basic of all small and independent cost measurement technique. An organization must have an accounting fit to the infrastructure and management development team. Any kind of variance in the performance must be dealt with due diligence. Cost has a relationship with the whole production process. Whenever this kind of fit is well suited to the performance of the company, there is a strong possibility that the company will improve.
This paper explores various components within cost management, which business owners and managers should to take into consideration when entering the business environment. Additionally, prior to starting a company, owners and managers should already have a mission and vision in place, to avoid pitfalls that may cause the firm to close down its operations. Implementing a strategic and operational plan will help managers achieve the firm’s goals, through constant evaluation and monitoring of the firm’s progress. Furthermore, managers should evaluate other firms’ within the same industry for performance and consumer management and demand for products. The success of a business depends heavily on various components of the firm’s operations.
Indirect cost,(for example, an extraordinary task, gimmick, capacity or item) as an expense thing that expenses are not straightforwardly responsible. Backhanded expenses may be altered or variable. Circuitous expenses, organization, work force and security expenses are incorporated. These immediate expenses are those that are not identified with generation. Some may be roundabout overhead expenses. Be that as it may some overhead expenses straightforwardly ascribed to the task and can be utilized to control using.