Cost accounting concepts and techniques-planning and control

I will discuss planning and control in a harmonious way whole by first presenting the cost data accumulation methods. The study of a job order or a process cost system might be considered a technical exercise by some accounting instructors; yet in any cost system they deserve primary attention if routine employee performance and computerized accounting are to furnish reliable data for management's tasks and decisions. The need for improving cost accounting instruction is recognized; but an orderly growth is still necessary, and the value of established practices as well as the lessons of the past should not be discarded.

Next Part deals essentially with responsibility accounting and reporting of factory overhead. The text discussion shows that these steps outlined for a manufacturing concern are equally important and adaptable to nonmanufacturing businesses and nonprofit organizations. Next considers the other two cost elements, materials and labor, each from both the planning and cost control phases. Next is the heart of the planning function — budgeting. Long- and short-range budgets as well as the flexible budget are discussed. Next treats not only standard costs basic to the control of costs and profits but also gross profit analysis and direct costing with its contribution margin. The final section, Next , covers the entire spectrum of cost and profit analysis, culminating in a chapter on linear programming for planning and decision making.

The concepts and techniques presented in this site are mainly in the context of manufacturing business organizations. However, it is important to note their wide, virtually universal applicability to many dimensions of organizations including: (1) small business organizations of all types; (2) non-manufacturing businesses such as wholesale and retail stores and such service organizations as banks, insurance companies, hotels, and motels; and (3) non-profit institutions such as churches, fraternal and charitable organizations, hospitals, libraries, public school systems, colleges and universities, and last, but not least, local, county, state, and federal governmental units and agencies. Indeed, any organization charged with the responsibility of efficient use of resources could and should utilize cost accounting concepts and techniques.