Activity-Based Costing

Overhead costs are not in proportion to the production output because of the method they are using. This leads to inaccurate pricing and costing decisions. An Activity Based Costing System would help find the real relationship between the products produced and overhead.

Activity-based costing can be defined as the managers allocate costs depending on the quantity of resources a product or service consumed in the manufacture of goods and services. The activity based

Activity-based costing is a system of accounting that puts emphases on activities performed to produce products or services (Schneider, 2012). In this costing system every activity is assigned a cost (Schneider, 2012). The goal of activity-based costing is not to allot common costs to products but to measure and then price out all the resources used for activities that sustain the production and delivery of products and services to customers (Mazumder, 2007). Activity-based costing is a cost system that is useful in business because of the fact that it does account for the cost of the products, resources used to produce the product and delivery of the product.

330-10-30330-10-30-1 The primary basis of accounting for inventories is cost, which has been defined generally as the price paid or consideration given to acquire an asset. As applied to inventories, cost means in principle the sum of the applicable expenditures and charges directly or indirectly incurred in bringing an article to its existing condition and location. It is understood to mean acquisition and production cost, and its determination involves many considerations. 330-10-30330-10-30-2 Although principles for the determination of inventory costs may be easily stated, their application, particularly to such inventory items as work in process and finished goods, is difficult because of the variety of considerations in the allocation of costs and charges.

Glaser Health Products manufactures medical items for the health care industry. Production involves machining, assembly and painting. Finished units are then packed and shipped. The financial controller is interested to introduce an activity-based costing (ABC) system to allocate (or distribute) indirect costs to products. Indirect costs, as distinct from direct costs, cannot be unambiguously linked to specific products. The controller would like to calculate product costs based on ABC for planning and control, not inventory valuation.

This paper provides a brief presentation of Activity-Based Costing methodology, how is used as well as its short comings.

Freight cost was also a problem when the shipping distance expended. Both stoves and ovens were bulky and weighed well over 300 pounds each. Thus,they were very expensive to ship.Bridgewater owned a fleet of trucks which had been expanded from 5 to 10 since the addition of wood ovens to the business. Even though the fleet represented about a $2 million investment. Shipping full – load orders in compnay owned trucks was not uneconomic. But more than hald of all shipments went out in partial loads using common carriers and contract haulers. Considering traffic management.dispathing fleet costs. freignt bills. packing cost and rental charges for public warehouse space. Total shipping costs were running about 17 % of sales in 1985.

Packaging and labeling of products are other key essential parts of the Cooper Company logistics to provide satisfaction to their customers. Accurate packaging and labeling can have a direct impact on the Cooper Company logistical productivity and efficiency (Bowersox, D. J., Closs, D. J., Cooper, M. B., & Bowersox, J. C. p.251. 2013). The company’s packaging accounts differs for each channel this entail the retail accounts 80 percent of the packaging cost and Foodservice of 20 percent (Bowersox, D. J., Closs, D. J., Cooper, M. B., & Bowersox, J. C. p.465. 2013). “The retail channel requires “labeling” to accrue the company a 2,000,000 expense includes materials, labor, and depreciation of the machine.

One of the basic parts of cost accounting is to gauge the cost of tangible or intangible product or service. All costing models are attempting to discover the "correct" cost 1.e actual cost without any cost variances for all cost objects, for example, product, profit, segment, and division. costing methodologies all over the world apportion overhead by utilizing volume- driven measure, for example, unit transformed to first gauge a foreordained overhead rate then assign overhead by applying this normal overhead rate to the cost object. Requisition of such models is authentic for offices generating goods with less differing qualities. In any case, as manufactured goods differ, the wide averaging methodology prompts severe cost variations

This paper will discuss and analyze the concepts of Activity- Based Costing (ABC) in the manufacturing industry. Specifically, the document will focus on General Motors (GM), and the innovation of one of their manufacturing facilities who used ABC to predict energy usage in the manufacturing of automobiles. The study yielded a successful ABC predictive energy model which provided a structure for competitive advantage for the corporation.

Nowadays, we know that activity based costing system assigns overhead costs to products or services products that using a two-stage process, which focuses on activities. ABC is a relatively new and very important topic in managerial accounting. ABC allows us to find a way that we could determine the profitability of every product, profitability of every customer we serve, and the profitability of our process. Contents in brief, first that comparing potential advantages of ABC versus traditional costing methods. The

At present PC4U apportions its production overheads based on direct labour hours. With a range of products available and opportunity for customising these products individually to meet the retailer’s needs, this report aims to assess the effectiveness of this traditional method of allocating production overheads. It will discuss the drawbacks of the current approach used by PC4U, as well as an alternative approach in the Activity-Based Costing system, which “is intended to overcome the weakness of the traditional method by having various pools of costs and then allocating each pool’s costs on the basis of its root cause.”(Averkamp 2007) As well as comparing the benefits and drawbacks of these costing systems to determine what recommendations should be given regarding the approach PC4U should adopt, the report shall also discuss the impact an activity based management system may have on the company.

All of us have used cost allocation, the process of assigning common costs to ending inventory and cost of goods sold (COGS), as part of our Financial Services offerings since it is required by GAAP. Our goal has been to either reduce taxes or increase reported earnings, depending on our client's needs and circumstances.

Both traditional costing and activity based costing methods estimate overhead costs connected to production and allocate these costs to products based on a cost driver rate. The differences are in the precision and density of the two methods. Traditional costing is more basic and less accurate than ABC, and typically gives overhead costs to products based on a subjective average rate. ABC is more complicated and more accurate than traditional costing. This technique gives indirect costs to activities and then gives the costs to products based on the products’ practice of the activities. It is widely known that the traditional costing system uses a single, volume based cost driver. This is why the traditional product costing system alters the cost of products. In most cases this type of costing system gives the overhead costs to products on

This paper will discuss and analyze the concepts of Activity- Based Costing (ABC) in the manufacturing industry. Specifically, the document will focus on General Motors (GM), and the innovation of one of their manufacturing facilities who used ABC to predict energy usage in the manufacturing of automobiles. The study yielded a successful ABC predictive energy model which provided a structure for competitive advantage for the corporation.