Cost Accounting A Decision Oriented Approach

Analyzing and managing costs is crucial for business success. Industrial, service, and non-profit companies will not be successful in the long-term if they do not understand their costs.This textbook introduces the basic concepts and current developments in cost accounting. The book features numerous anecdotal examples from a wide range of industries, case studies, Microsoft Excel examples, and exercises to ensure a sustainable learning success.

Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Controlling, grade: 1,3, European Business School - International University Schlo Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel, course: Vertiefung Controlling, 8 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Contemporary times are characterized by quick, dynamic, and continuing changes in the economy. Therefore, companies have to adapt flexibly and innovatively to these changes in order to stay competitive and cope with the increasing pressure of competition. In particular, Asian and East-European competitors gain market share by offering products of better quality than in earlier times and for lower costs. Under these conditions, costs represent a fundamental factor for the success of western companies. Accordingly, management and employees have to fully exploit the potential that cost management and reduction measures offer. However, costs are not the only buying decision criterion. Customers expect products with high quality but for a low or moderate price. Correspondingly, companies have to adjust their new product developments and production systems to market requirements. This can be achieved by the Target Costing approach, a tool that is applied in more and more companies. Therefore, the aim of this essay is to explain the goals and method of Target Costing. It starts with giving some background information about Target Costing and its historical development. Chapter three describes the goals of Target Costing. Then, the Target Costing process is explained in detail. Finally, this essay concludes by discussing that Target Costing is an effective cost management tool for developing new products according to market requirements. ...]

An accessible, practical survey of cost management methods Essentials of Cost Management provides an unbiased survey and explanation of the cost management approaches and methods currently available for immediate application in day-to-day activities. Rather than advocate a particular method, this book assists readers in choosing the best approach or blend of cost management strategies to address specific business problems. The expert authors also discuss cutting-edge topics such as target costing, capacity management, and activity-based costing/management.

Strategic Cost Transformation offers a new framework, business domain management, which creates a comprehensive picture of your organization for improved cash based decision-making. Your product costs $2.86 to make. What does the number tell you about your operations, how effectively they were run, demand, or how much money you spent on capacity? Nothing. Shouldn’t you know? Accounting information creates a limited picture of operations and true cash performance. Strategic Cost Transformation offers a new framework, business domain management, which creates a comprehensive picture of your organization for improved cash based decision-making.

The aim of this text is to identify the concepts and principles of cost accounting in a clear way. It offers a flexible organization which discusses the cost accounting concepts concerned with cost collection factors that influence such managerial decisions as sales price determination. The last part of the book emphasizes the application of cost concepts in cost management analysis and the quantitative tools for decision making. New to this edition is coverage of the changing nature of cost accounting and the impact of customer focus, automation, JIT, quality control, and other new management techniques on the need for cost management information. Activity-based cost systems and strategic cost analysis are also discussed. There is expanded coverage of distribution and marketing costs which now demonstrate the role of activity-based cost drivers in pricing decisions and evaluating marketing performance, and real world exampled of current cost management practices are used.

Management and cost accounting has been the basic toolbox in business administration for decades. Today it is an integral part of all curricula in business education and no student can afford not to be familiar with its basic concepts and instruments. At the same time, business in general, and management accounting in particular, is becoming more and more international. English clearly has evolved as the "lingua franca" of international business. Academics, students as well as practitioners exchange their views and ideas, discuss concepts and communicate with each other in English. This is certainly also true for cost accounting and management accounting. Management Accounting is becoming increasingly international. "Management and Cost Accounting" is a new English language textbook covering concepts and instruments of cost and management accounting at an introductory level (Bachelor, but also suited for MBA courses due to strong focus on practical applications and cases). This textbook covers all topics that are relevant in management accounting in business organizations and that are typically covered in German and Central European Bachelor classes on cost accounting and management accounting. After an introduction to the topic, including major differences between the German approach and the purely Anglo-Saxon approach of management accounting, the book describes different cost terms and concepts applied in German cost accounting, The book is much more specific here compared to US-American standard textbooks. Based on different cost concepts, the topic of cost behavior is discussed, including the determination of cost functions. The heart of the book guides the reader through the general structure of a fully developed cost accounting system following the German and Central European standard: It starts with cost type accounting, moves on to cost center accounting and finally deals with cost unit accounting, assigning cost to goods and services offered in the market. The remaining parts of the book deal with decision making and how management and cost accounting data can support managers in this task. A comparison of absorption costing and variable costing introduces the reader to management decisions such as product portfolio and outsourcing decisions. Additionally, cost-volume-profit analysis (break-even-analysis) is covered. The book closes with a comprehensive treatment of cost planning and variance analysis.

Adams is a decision oriented managerial accounting text that emphasizes discovery learning instead of the more traditional memorization. Using an interactive, decision-making case approach, Adams is organized around the types of business decisions that students - future business managers and investors - are likely to face.

Hilton/Maher/Selto (HMS) addresses traditional cost concepts, but makes cost accounting functional by focusing on measuring and managing costs. HMS maintains that, Costs don't just happen, and with a pro-active approach toward costs, accountants can add value to an organization. Faculty will appreciate the new and more conventional chapter organization in the first two sections of the text. The real-world approach of this text, including the use of focus companies and the new accompanying focus sites, provides a realistic business environment, and aids in student comprehension and interest in the subject.