Updating Standard Cost Systems

Updating Standard Cost Systems
Author: Carole B. Cheatham
Publisher: Praeger
Total Pages: 254
Release: 1993-03-24
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780899307169

The new manufacturing environment requires new cost-accounting systems as well as new technology. While some authorities have advocated installing new and untried systems, the authors of this book recommend updating the standard cost system which 85 percent of manufacturing firms have in place. Updating the present system can achieve greater benefits in terms of providing information to managers for decision making. It also allows the organization to avoid disruption to the corporate culture and the cost associated with a new system. The authors show how standard cost systems can be redesigned to measure factors recognized to be important in today's manufacturing environment such as quality, production levels, and throughput. They demonstrate how standard cost systems can foster continuous improvement through dynamic rather than static standards. After examining characteristics of the new manufacturing environment and benefits of upgrading the cost system, ways to update the traditional standard cost system are discussed. Revisions include a unique input-output method of variance analysis, specific metrics related to manufacturing performance, ways to identify cost drivers, and use of dynamic standards. The authors demonstrate how to redesign the information-gathering and reporting system as new manufacturing procedures are put in place. They discuss ways that marketing activities are affected and how to plan plant and equipment expenditures in an automated environment. This book is directed primarily towards accountants and managers needing to improve informational content of accounting data for decision-making purposes. It should also be beneficial to any person within the business firm who either supplies data of this type or uses it, such as project analysts, controllers, managers, and even management trainees. Academicians teaching cost and managerial accounting as well as those teaching production management and financial decision-making courses should find it beneficial as a text supplement or as a primary text in courses dealing with current problems in today's changing manufacturing environment.

Cost Accounting Fundamentals

Cost Accounting Fundamentals
Author: Steven M Bragg
Publisher: Accountingtools, Incorporated
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2022-02-23
Genre:
ISBN: 9781642210842

Cost accounting is an essential management tool that can uncover profitability improvements and provide support for key business decisions. Cost Accounting Fundamentals shows how to improve a business with constraint analysis, target costing, capital budgeting, price setting, and cost of quality analysis. The book also addresses the essential tasks of inventory valuation and job costing, and shows how to create a cost collection system for these activities. In short, this book contains the essential tools needed to foster more profitable decision-making by management.

Standard Costing, Variance Analysis and Decision-Making

Standard Costing, Variance Analysis and Decision-Making
Author: Alexander Berger
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 39
Release: 2011-07-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3640956281

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Accounting and Taxes, grade: 63%, University of Sunderland, course: Management Accounting and Control, language: English, abstract: This report is divided into two parts. The first part will explain how a standard costing system works and how a variance analysis is used properly. Furthermore, the statement “Standard Costing and Variance Analysis are appropriate to any type and size of organisation” will be critically evaluated. The second part determines factors, which must be considered in the decision-making process. In addition, four scenarios of decisions will be provided and analysed. One of the main objectives of an organisation is to minimise the cost of production and to control the costs as they are limited resources within a business (Gupta, 2010). Management accounting literature provides several tools in order to achieve these objectives. In this context, the system for collecting and reporting revenue and cost information by areas of responsibility is called responsibility accounting (Siegel & Shim, 2006). It is based on the assumption that managers should be held responsible for their performance. A well-designed responsibility accounting system integrates responsibility centers within the organisation. In addition, responsibility centers are units within the organization, which have control over costs and revenues (Siegel & Shim, 2006). There are different types of responsibility centers such as profit centers, investment centers, revenue centers and cost centers. In the following report, the focus is on cost centers. Here, a variance analysis based on standard costing is a performance measure of a cost center (Siegel & Shim, 2006). In addition, a standard costing system is a useful tool facilitating decision-making.

Standard Cost Accounting A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition

Standard Cost Accounting A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition
Author: Gerardus Blokdyk
Publisher: 5starcooks
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2020-05-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781867402930

Do you monitor the effectiveness of your Standard cost accounting activities? What are your operating costs? Who defines the rules in relation to any given issue? Why will customers want to buy your organizations products/services? How will you measure success? Defining, designing, creating, and implementing a process to solve a challenge or meet an objective is the most valuable role... In EVERY group, company, organization and department. Unless you are talking a one-time, single-use project, there should be a process. Whether that process is managed and implemented by humans, AI, or a combination of the two, it needs to be designed by someone with a complex enough perspective to ask the right questions. Someone capable of asking the right questions and step back and say, 'What are we really trying to accomplish here? And is there a different way to look at it?' This Self-Assessment empowers people to do just that - whether their title is entrepreneur, manager, consultant, (Vice-)President, CxO etc... - they are the people who rule the future. They are the person who asks the right questions to make Standard Cost Accounting investments work better. This Standard Cost Accounting All-Inclusive Self-Assessment enables You to be that person. All the tools you need to an in-depth Standard Cost Accounting Self-Assessment. Featuring 947 new and updated case-based questions, organized into seven core areas of process design, this Self-Assessment will help you identify areas in which Standard Cost Accounting improvements can be made. In using the questions you will be better able to: - diagnose Standard Cost Accounting projects, initiatives, organizations, businesses and processes using accepted diagnostic standards and practices - implement evidence-based best practice strategies aligned with overall goals - integrate recent advances in Standard Cost Accounting and process design strategies into practice according to best practice guidelines Using a Self-Assessment tool known as the Standard Cost Accounting Scorecard, you will develop a clear picture of which Standard Cost Accounting areas need attention. Your purchase includes access details to the Standard Cost Accounting self-assessment dashboard download which gives you your dynamically prioritized projects-ready tool and shows your organization exactly what to do next. You will receive the following contents with New and Updated specific criteria: - The latest quick edition of the book in PDF - The latest complete edition of the book in PDF, which criteria correspond to the criteria in... - The Self-Assessment Excel Dashboard - Example pre-filled Self-Assessment Excel Dashboard to get familiar with results generation - In-depth and specific Standard Cost Accounting Checklists - Project management checklists and templates to assist with implementation INCLUDES LIFETIME SELF ASSESSMENT UPDATES Every self assessment comes with Lifetime Updates and Lifetime Free Updated Books. Lifetime Updates is an industry-first feature which allows you to receive verified self assessment updates, ensuring you always have the most accurate information at your fingertips.

CIMA P1

CIMA P1
Author: BPP Learning Media
Publisher: BPP Learning Media
Total Pages: 673
Release: 2012-08-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1445392658

CIMA offers a business qualification with a finance focus, aiming to produce members with accounting prowess who are skilled in strategic decision-making. 98% of its members work in business, the highest proportion of any worldwide accountancy body. Paper P1 looks at how information is obtained, evaluated and used to control and predict business performance.The syllabus is split into the following five areas: * Cost accounting systems * Forecasting and budgeting techniques * Project appraisal * Dealing with uncertainty in analysis * Managing short-term financeP1 requires a good understanding of the underlying concepts and techniques in all five areas.P1 also needs you to be able to apply these concepts to practical situations, evaluate them critically and interpret the results. The P1 Study Text contains all you need to know for P1, featuring step-by-step guides to techniques such as investment decision making and budget preparation. There are also reminder sections of knowledge brought forward from earlier studies such as costing terminology. Key terms are identified throughout the Text to help you to get to grips with the new material.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Cost Accounting

Lies, Damned Lies, and Cost Accounting
Author: Reginald Tomas Lee
Publisher: Business Expert Press
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2016-02-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1631570668

This book introduces capacity management, describes cash flow dynamics, and offers ideas about how to manage both Business leaders rely on accounting data such as profit and calculated costs as a guide to whether they are making money. Should they? Accounting was designed to report financial performance not model cash flow. Accruals can disconnect cash flow from the timing and extent to which it occurs. Statements of cash flow do not provide insight into what was bought and how efficiently it was used. Costs and profits are not absolute, they change based on the model you use to calculate them. To manage cash, you must manage what you buy and how effectively you use it. The largest expenditure for most companies is capacity; space, labor, materials, equipment, and technology. Unless you model and manage capacity effectively, you will not achieve the cash flow results you seek. This book introduces capacity management, describes cash flow dynamics, and offers ideas about how to manage both. After reading it, you be able to see, understand, and manage cash flow as never before.

The Cost Management Toolbox

The Cost Management Toolbox
Author: Lianabel Oliver
Publisher: Amacom Books
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780814470534

This text provides a presentation of how to use financial information to manage costs. It explains how the financial processes of an organization are interrelated, and interprets these processes in the context of the firm's strategic objectives and long-term goals.

Decisions and Reports

Decisions and Reports
Author: United States. Securities and Exchange Commission
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1144
Release: 2007
Genre: Securities
ISBN:

Standard Costing

Standard Costing
Author: Colin Drury
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9781861524331

Standard costing is the foundation upon which much management accounting and budgetary practice rests, yet it is often misunderstood. In this book Colin Drury sets out the nature and scope of standard costing whilst clearly identifying its limitations. The calculation and interpretation of the full range of cost accounting variances is covered, together with the formal analysis of the decision to investigate variances. The way in which standard costing information is recorded in the accounts is also dealt with in depth, as this step is essential to a full appreciation of the role of standard costing. Finally, the usefulness of traditional standard costing techniques in a modern production environment is assessed.