...Introduction and background Cost accounting is the process of accumulating, measuring, analyzing, interpreting and reporting of the information related to the cost. This type of process is useful and relevant for all internal and external stakeholders of the business entity. In the management accounting, the term cost accounting includes the works of establishing budget and actual cost of operations, processes, departments, analysis of the variances and profitability or social use of the funds. In the external stakeholders we include all those who have invested money in the company, such as banks, financial houses, investors and others. Internal stakeholders are those people who work within the premise of the company, such as business or company directors, division heads and managers. Cost accounting has long been used to help managers understand the costs of running a business. Modern cost accounting originated during the industrial revolution, when the complexities of running a large scale business led to the development of systems for recording and tracking costs to help business owners and managers make decisions. In the early industrial age, most of the costs incurred by a business were what modern accountants call "variable costs" because they varied directly with the amount of production. Money was spent on labor, raw materials, power to run a factory, etc. in direct proportion to production. Managers could simply total the variable costs for a product and use this as...
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...CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study The need for Environmental Accounting has become the concern and focus of nations and responsible corporate managements. It became one of the foremost issues on the agenda of nations and businesses earlier in the 1990s and the reasons for this were varied emanating from both within and outside of the firm and particularly at the global level (Okoye and Ngwakwe:2004:220-235). A lot of government enactments, laws and regulations on environmental protection have been made in several nations of the world. In the light of the awakening to environment protection, various laws and regulations such as the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, 1992 have been enacted. These require corporate managements to consider the environmental implications of all internal decisions of their managements. Also, all organizations monitored by environmental policy agencies in Kenya are expected to demonstrate much consideration in decision making. Environmentalists agree that it could be more cost effective and beneficial for companies to acquire pollution prevention or clean technology than those of pollution clean-up. It is also observed that in environmental regulations, there is a shift from the ‘command and control’ approach to market-driven forms in which pollution prevention alternatives are replacing pollution cleaning approach. It follows therefore, that determining the appropriate pollution prevention approach may lead to additional decisions...
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...401, EMBA; Fall 2000 Accounting courses are usually separated into five general categories. Two, taxes and auditing, are usually quite technical and often focus on CPA preparation. The other three categories are more general: 1. Financial accounting deals almost strictly with financial statement preparation. It focuses on pronouncements issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the SEC, and on accounting concepts such as materiality, matching revenues and expenses, relevance, and consistency. It also considers highly technical details about consolidated financial statements, leases, pensions, income taxes, and inventory valuation methods that are often found on the CPA exam. 2. Financial accounting from a management perspective covers many of the same topics as financial accounting but it does so from the view of a manager using financial accounting information to help make decisions or to report an organization’s performance to others. This is the typical focus of an MBA financial accounting course, or a financial accounting course in a non-degreed program for executives. It is the primary focus of Accy 401, EMBA. 3. Cost and managerial accounting deals almost exclusively with accounting as a tool to help manage and understand a business. These courses focus on areas such as fixed and variable costs, how costs behave over time (e.g., the learning curve), cost systems, and ways to allocate fixed costs to products or product lines...
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...consumable stores also because they may use to the process of production. Types of Materials Direct Materials: Materials that became a part of the units produced and incur expenditure, that are easily traced to the units of output and included in the cost goods sold. Example: Timber in cases of furniture making. Indirect Materials: Materials that are not directly associated with production and are part of operating expenses. Example: Bottom in case of shirt making. Material control Material control is a systematic control over the purchasing, storing and using of material to minimize the possible cost. Material control may be defined as the level of material maintenance so as to ensure uninterrupted production and minimizing the investment of funds. Objectives of material control Material controls basically aims at efficient purchases, storage and consumption of materials. The following are the major objectives of material control: ➢ To ensure better quantity of material at right quantity at right time for efficient and uninterrupted production of output. ➢ To maintain the cost of materials at the minimum level. ➢ To purchases materials at a reasonable price ➢ To minimize the handling cost and time of storing and using of materials. ➢ To protect materials against loss by fine, theft and leakage etc. ➢ To avoid obsolescence of materials. Purchase Procedure The purchase procedure may how ever vary with individual concerns...
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...traditional cost management VS lean cost management by Mahanim Hanid, Lauri Koskela and Mohan Sinwardena, the term of cost management is not a well defined term. It’s built on both cost accounting and management accounting, but goes beyond these two terms (P. Agrawal and Mehra 1998). For Brinker (1996) defines it as a set of techniques and methods for controlling and improving a company’s activities and processes, its products and services. In addition, Maskel (2009) also described that the cost and management accounting is used internally to help the company’s manager control and improve the business. Although there is an accounting standards associated with these tasks, there is no legal requirement to perform these tasks in any particular way or to perform them at all. A company can do as much or as little cost and management accounting as it wishes and it can be done in any way it wants. Furthermore, cost accounting practices are seldom exactly similar in different companies (P. Agrawaland and Mehra 1998). According to text referred, cost management is equally important to all companies, regardless of size. Small companies generally have tighter monetary controls, mainly because of the risk with the failure of as little as one project, but with less sophisticated control techniques. Large companies may have the luxury to spread project losses over several project whereas the small company may have few projects. Cost management is not only “monitoring” of costs and recording...
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...Paper 1: Accounting (100 marks) Paper 2: Law, Ethics and Communication Part I: Law (60 marks) Business Laws (30 marks) Company Law (30 marks) Part II: Business Ethics (20 marks) Part III: Business Communication (20 marks) Paper 3: Cost Accounting and Financial Management Part I: Cost Accounting (50 marks) Part II: Financial Management (50 marks) Paper 4: Taxation Part I: Income-tax (50 marks) Part II: Service Tax (25 marks) and VAT (25 marks) Group II Paper 5: Advanced Accounting (100 marks) Paper 6: Auditing and Assurance (100 marks) Paper 7: Information Technology and Strategic Management Section A: Information Technology (50 marks) Section B: Strategic Management (50 marks) The level of knowledge expected of students in the above subjects is ‘working knowledge’. INTEGRATED PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE COURSE (IPCC) Syllabus GROUP I OF IPCC/ ACCOUNTING TECHNICIAN COURSE (ATC) Paper 1: Accounting (One paper – three hours – 100 marks) Level of Knowledge: Working Knowledge Objectives: (a) (b) (c) (d) To lay a foundation for the preparation and presentation of financial statements; To gain working knowledge of the principles and procedures of accounting and their application to different practical situations; To gain the ability to solve simple problems and cases relating to sole proprietorship, partnership and companies; and To familiarize students with the fundamentals of computerized system of accounting. Contents 1. 2. A General Knowledge of the framing of the accounting standards...
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...Management Accounting-- Wilkerson Company Case - Essays - Rain820420 RESEARCH PAPERS AND ESSAYS FOR ALL Search 350,000 Essays Question? 888-442-7499 SEARCH Join Login Writing Service Help Contact Us Saved Papers Get Better Grades Today By Joining OPPapers.com and Accessing Over 350,000 Articles and Essays! GET BETTER GRADES Save papers so you can find them more easily! Join Now Get instant access to over 350,000 papers. JOIN NOW Management Accounting-- Wilkerson Company Case Home Page » Science » Engineering Management Accounting-- Wilkerson Company Case The purpose of this report is discussing the case of Wilkerson Company that confronting tough competition in price cutting in pumps which caused to a big drop of pre-tax operating income from 10% to 3%. After observing the existing costing allocation, we found out there is an issue on the existing costing report that the manager could not be able to see the real situation. In light of this, there will be brought to the discussion on the feasibility of using an alternative costing method – Activity based costing (ABC) in the latter paragraphs. The issue of misallocation cost With the use of Traditional Absorption Costing (TAC) which means Wilkerson Company is now only put the costing of direct labor and material in place. As we can see the table 1 below, the percentage of total direct cost allocation in Valves, Pumps and Flow Controllers are 46%, 46% and 52% respectively, and so for...
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... | COST ACCOUNTING AREA: CONTROL IMBA NUMBER OF SESSIONS: 20 PROFESSOR: SALVADOR CARMONA □ Ph.D (Accounting). Universidad de Sevilla. □ Last version, November 2006 COURSE DESCRIPTION A cost accounting system collects and classifies costs and assigns them to cost objects. The goal of a cost accounting system is to measure the cost of designing, developing, producing (or purchasing), selling, distributing, and servicing particular products or services. Cost allocation is at the heart of most accounting systems. Cost behavior -how the activities of an organization affect its costs- is also fundamental to cost accounting systems. The data provided by a cost accounting system is used for various purposes, which include product costing, planning and control, and decision making. This course mainly focuses on the first of these objectives -products costing. COURSE GOALS Students, as future managers, will utilize, at a minimum, the output of cost systems, which are the primary internal information systems in a firm. Students taking this course will gain an understanding of cost accounting systems, which includes a familiarization with: The goals of cost accounting systems; the fundamental features and design of cost accounting systems; and the various uses of the data provided by cost accounting decisions. A sound understanding of these issues is necessary to interpret cost accounting system outputs; to transform them from...
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...on Activity Based Costing (ABC) tends to define the ‘success’ of an ABC system in relation to the decision-making and strategy formulating opportunities it provides based on the ‘logic’ or technical attributes of ABC (Shields, 1995; Malmi, 1997). This paper argues that there is a logic of ABC and tries to identify and illustrate how people relate to, misunderstand and still ‘appropriate’ this logic and start “talking accounting”. This paper shows that the ABC system implemented in this organisation did indeed provide information for decision-making and did to some extent support the logic of ABC. The paper also shows how this knowledge was emergent, the logic was articulated, but not fully understood and it was only when the system was implemented that many attributes of the system were recognised and, in some cases misunderstood. The paper argues that the ‘success’ of this particular ABC system was dependent on the organisational context, and the changing context as well as the logic. This is reflected in the change in attitudes, awareness and understanding of costs in the department where it was implemented. Key words: Activity Based Costing, financial services, and organisational change. 2 Introduction This paper examines the introduction of an Activity Based Costing (ABC) system in a UK Clearing Bank. The development and implementation of the ABC system is traced...
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...the institute of cost accountants of india(ICAI) (A Statutory body under an act of parliament) SYLLABUS 2012 STRUCTURE & contents Evaluation Synthesis ANALYSIS ANALYSIS APPLICATION APPLICATION COMPREHENSION COMPREHENSION COMPREHENSION KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE LEVEL A LEVEL B LEVEL C FOUNDATION COURSE - Syllabus 2012 the institute of cost accountants of india(ICAI) (A Statutory body under an act of parliament) SYLLABUS 2012 STRUCTURE & contents The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (Statutory Body under an Act of Parliament) Page 1 FOUNDATION COURSE - Syllabus 2012 The Following table lists the learning objectives and the verbs that appear in the syllabus learning aims and examination question. Learning objectives Level A COMPREHENSION What you are expected to understand List Make a list of. State Express, fully or clearly , the details/ facts of. Define Give the exact meaning of. Communicate the key features of. Distinguish Highlight the differences between. Explain Make clear or intangible/state the meaning or purpose of. Identify Recognise, establish or select after consideration. Illustrate What you are expected to know Definition Describe KNOWLEDGE Verbs used Use an example to describe or explain something. The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (Statutory Body under an Act of Parliament) ...
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...Chapter 1 Cost Accounting: Information for Decision Making Solutions to Review Questions Financial accounting is designed to provide information about the firm to external users. External users include investors, creditors, government authorities, regulators, customers, competitors, suppliers, labor unions, and so on. Cost accounting systems are designed to provide information to internal users (managers). This difference is important, because it affects the design of the systems. Financial accounting systems are based on standards or rules. This allows the user to compare the results of different firms. Managerial accounting systems do not require rules. Each firm is free to develop managerial accounting systems that best serve the needs of the decision makers (managers). B Providing cost information for financial reporting A Identifying the best store in a chain C Determining which plant to use for production The value chain is the set of activities that transforms raw resources into the goods and services end users purchase and consume. The supply chain includes the set of firms and individuals that sells goods and services to the firm. The distribution chain is the set of firms and individuals that buys and distributes goods and services from the firm. The customers of cost accounting are managers, from plant managers to the CEO. Value-added activities are activities that customers perceive as adding utility to the goods or services they purchase. Nonvalue-added...
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...ACC501 Cost Accounting.txt Cost Accounting or Cost-Volume-Profit Accounting ACC501 - Accounting for Decision Making Module 2 - Case Abstract This paper contains a brief overview of the current primary accounting standard GAAP but also explores CostVolume-Profit analysis and Cost Accounting. In the 1980s accountants and financial managers embraced technology and became the basis for the Personal Computer’s (PC) explosive expansion. The abilities of the computer coupled with the needs of business management supported the development of many new accounting tools and processes. There is universally true method of accounting. The accounting method(s) used in an organization must be acceptable to an internal or external auditing group and flexible so that management can maximize the resources available to the company. With our modern high-speed data processing systems we have the luxury of being able to look at our data in different ways. The “Generally Accepted Accounting Principles” (GAAP) has been the accounting method of choice when preparing statements for viewing by third parties, including both investors and government regulators. This is not to say that the information generated for GAAP accounting statements is not valuable to the leadership of a corporation. Rather, there are additional styles or accounting types that may be more valuable internally, allowing the managers and their Page 1 ACC501 Cost Accounting.txt staff to maximize utilization of their...
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...© 1998 American Accounting Association Accounting Horizons Vol. 12 No. 4 December 1998 pp. 363–373 Financial Information and Quality Management—Is There a Role for Accountants? Leif M. Sjoblom Leif M. Sjoblom is a Professor at the International Institute for Management Development. SYNOPSIS: Different opinions exist with respect to the usefulness of financial information for operational decision making. While academics encourage the provision of accounting information on quality, few companies provide it. This article explores the usefulness (or lack thereof) of Cost of Quality (COQ) and quality-related financial information through the use of a survey and informal discussions and interviews with quality managers. Financial information can be used to flag quality problems, to select and prioritize quality improvement projects and to choose corrective action. The results suggest that financial information has a limited role in supporting these operational decisions. The limitations of current COQ systems, and the lack of relevant, reliable and timely financial information, are among the reasons cited for not using COQ. However, there is a perceived need for additional financial reporting in order to attract the attention of top management and to motivate managers. In order to make COQ more relevant to practitioners, future research must not only focus on improving and disseminating best practices, but also on the multi-disciplinary implementation process. Data Availability:...
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...will cost to produce a product. It plays an important role in the business to predicting the profitability of a product. Traditional costing is also well known as the conversional method costing, which refers to the allocation of manufacturing overhead costs to the product manufactured (Harold, n.d.). Traditional costing assigns manufacturing overhead on the basis of volume of a cost driver, such as direct labor hours, production machine hours or direct material hours, all of which are needed to produce an item and the number of units produced. Different from activity- based costing, traditional costing is emphasis on costing information of external financial report in the business, because it provides the value of cost of goods sold. Many manufacturing companies use traditional costing system in order to divide the total cost of a product by the direct labor cost. Generally, the traditional costing method users make the assumption that the volume metric is the underlying driver of manufacturing overhead cost. Hence, under traditional costing method, accountants regard manufacturing costs only to product. Whereas, some cost such as administrative expenses are allocated as non-manufacturing cost and they are also associated with product of an item, which still cannot be assigned into traditional costing method. ABC concept ABC system is used for the internal decision making in the business. It helps managers with decisions which may have possibly impacts on the fixed costs and...
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...Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/accounting-reporting/methods-standards-cost-accounting/498244-1.html#ixzz1nMWBS5qI By Juras, Paul E. ABSTRACT Descriptions of activity-based-costing (ABC) systems have become a standard part of managerial accounting texts. While ABC implementation issues are the focus of a number of articles, these issues are often not addressed in a typical textbook. This case is designed to familiarize you with the behavioral and technical variables that can aid or impede successful ABC implementation. Anderson's (1995) factor-stage model provides a template to organize the discussion of ABC success factors. In this case, you will be cast in the role of a business consultant. You are asked to synthesize the case study's key "change management" insights into a report that could be shared with co-workers in an intranet-based knowledge management system. In addition, you may be expected to prepare a formal presentation of the report for your peers. Implementing change in an organization is about ninety percent cultural and ten percent technical. This is because the organization dynamics, politics, and search for a champion that go on are the real issues that make or break the project. One of the reasons we were able to implement ABC successfully was because the right people became champions. Chris Richards, Director of MIS, Global Electronics, Inc. BACKGROUND Global Electronics, Inc. (GEI), headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, designs, manufactures...
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