An
accounting system measures costs which are later used for a number of purposes
such as: (i) profit determination, (ii) performance evaluation, (iii) inventory
valuation and (iv) cost control. It is, therefore, very essential to understand
what cost means and how it is calculated.
What is a cost? It
is something of value given up in exchange for something else. It is price paid
to acquire some goods or services. It includes money, materials, labor and
time. But the term “cost” conveys multiple meanings and there are different costs
for different purposes. This hub aims to provide an understanding of the cost
terms and concepts that are used in literature of managerial accounting.
Difference Costs for different Purposes
Cost can be classified in terms of the functions it performs such as
manufacturing costs, selling & administration costs and financial
costs. Some costs can be directly and
conveniently identified to a particular product such as direct material and
direct labor. Others are indirect costs
or shared costs or common costs.
Similarly, some costs increase or decreases in line with the volume of
production but some remain fixed even if the plant is closed down. Some costs result in physical goods while
others are just a service. Finally, management policy plays a great role in cost
classification. Depreciation is fixed by
default but not if based on units produced or sum-of-digit method or even
written-down-value basis. If a company enters into a long contract with an
advertising firm, the advertisement cost becomes fixed.
Classification by functions
Most common basis for
classification is functional. What is this cost for? So cost is segregated into Manufacturing Costs and
non-manufacturing costs (Selling, Administration and Financial expenses.) The
manufacturing costs are further categorized into direct material, direct labor
and overheads. This is convenient and simple way of classification.
In the annual accounts published for creditors, stockholders and others,
functional format is used to facilitate inter-company comparison. Besides, the
company ’s law also requires disclosure of cost items in a certain manner. As a result, all annual reports look alike.
Identifiability or traceability criteria
Some costs can be traced directly and
conveniently to a particular product.
Often, these are result of a formula whereby one can estimate direct
cost for a given product. All other costs
are called indirect costs or shared cost or common cost.
In a garment factory, direct raw material
and direct labor are direct costs. Some other items such as button and
stitching yarn can also be traced to a particular product but it would
be inconvenient besides being insignificant.
So button, stitching yarn, electricity, depreciation would be indirect
costs. While direct costs can be
allocated straight to a product or a batch of products, some methodology is
evolved for allocation of indirect costs such as machine hours, direct labor
hours or raw material quantity etc.
Cost Behavior Criteria
What would be our cost next year if our production is doubled? It may remain the same or be exactly double
or in between. All depends on cost behavior which refers to how a cost would
respond or react to changes in production. If cost is fixed in nature as in a
university, doubling the number of students would slightly increase the total
cost since same teachers, same rooms, same laboratories may accommodate the
additional students. But if the major
cost item is the direct materials as in edible oil, doubling production would
nearly double the cost. In other cases,
like electric power plant, operating costs would go up while fixed cost would
remain the same.
FIXED COST:
A cost which is not related to production is called fixed costs. In other
words, it is a cost that remains unchanged even with variations in output.
VARIABLE COST
Any cost which varies exactly in proportion to the change in activity ( production or sale) would be term as variable cost. This is sometime called engineering cost or a formula cost and can be calculated in advance.
MIXED COSTS or SEMI-VARIABLE COSTS
In ordinary life we observe that even if we do not use the telephone for a month, the bill would still be there representing fixed charges like line rent. The amount of telephone bill would vary according the calls made plus fixed charges. Likewise, there are step fixed and step variable costs.
Inventoriability criteria
On way
of classification is whether a particular cost would become a part of a product
which is physical in nature and can be stored if not sold. So some costs can be categorized as product
cost or manufacturing cost which includes direct material, direct labor and
factory overheads. Other costs such as selling & admn costs are not added in the cost of manufacture. Such costs are termed as period costs.
Supposing
a company manufactured 1000 chairs in one year of which only 200 were sold and
rest were lying in the store. What value
should be assigned to these remaining 800 chairs?
For this purpose, units cost of manufacture would be worked out and
stock at hand valued accordingly. If
suppose, the same company had incurred Rs.100,000 by way of advertisements, this
would not be added to finished goods stock but charged to P&L Account of the
same year.
INFLUENCE OF POLICY ON COST
A company may award a contract to an advertising company for year round advertisement of the company’s product for a fixed amount. Another company may earmark 5% of the sales as selling expenses. In first case, the advertisement cost would be considered as fixed, in second case as variable.
Other Costs
There are lot many other terms used for a certain type of cost as given below:
DISCRETIONARY COSTS
Such a cost arises because of a decision of the management to incur a certain amount for some purpose like amount to be spend on R&D or donation to charitable institutions etc.
COMMITTED COSTS
A cost which must be paid and is unavoidable like property taxes on building, depreciation and rental.
It is important to note a difference between discretionary costs and committed costs. While discretionary costs can be changed with ease, it is not that easy to change committed costs as (i) there may be limitation or restrictions under the legal agreements with some outsiders as in our-sourcing, and (ii) long term implication have to be considered by any change and its approval sought at board of directors’ level.
ENGINEERED COSTS
This is ascertained after task analysis whereby any product is dismantled and its cost worked out part by part. This shows what is the actual cost now and not what it was in the past.
SUNK COST; A cost that has incurred in the past and cannot be now changed.
OPPORTUNITY COSTS : Benefit foregone when alternative is selected over another.
DIFFERENTIAL COSTS: Cost and revenues that differ among alternatives.
MARGINAL COSTS: Cost of producing an additional unit.
RELEVANT COSTS : A cost relevant to a particular decision.
CONCLUSION
A deep understanding of cost behavior is a must for anticipating costs when the organization’s level of activity changes. This facilitates cost management, planning and decision making.
There are a variety of cost behavior pattern extending from simple variable and fixed costs to more complicated patterns like curvilinear, semi-variable, step variable and step fixed. Also for control purposes, one should have a fair idea what are avoidable costs or discretionary costs. Also what are the repercussions in changing committed costs or un-avoidable costs. For example, if a company is incurring losses and wants to close down the plant, it should know before hand what are (i) shut-down costs, (ii) what are fixed costs which would continue to be paid, (iii) what are re-start cost, and finally (iv) what would affect on employees, suppliers and clients with the shutdown decision.
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