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Cost Accounting Terminologies, Purpose of Cost Information, Types of Cost Accounting Report Etc

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Part 1- Conceptual Framework
Cost Accounting
Cost accounting, as a tool of management, provides management with detailed records of the costs relating to products, operations or functions. Cost accounting refers to the process of determining and accumulating the cost of some particular product or activity. It also covers classification, analysis and interpretation of costs. The cost so determined and accumulated may be the estimated future costs for planning purposes, or actual (historical) costs for evaluating performance. The Institute of Cost and Management Accountant (ICMA), London, defined cost accounting as “the process of accounting for cost from the point at which expenditure incurred or committed to the establishment of its …show more content…

a) Performance measurement: This measurement can be done by comparing current costs with those who were expected - or standard costs budgeted cost - to the degree of knowing which of them have been controlled. Deviations of expected with the current - variances - can be identified, evaluated and discussed by managers.
b) Cost of goods and services: In manufacturing companies, the costs of goods must be measured to determine the cost of items transferred from work in process inventory to finished products. To meet the demands for information, a cost system should measure all the costs of manufacturing process and allocate a portion of those costs to each unit of output. The cost to obtain, maintain and manage the manufacturing plant or building should be added to the cost of material and productive work that requires each unit. The first are called indirect costs and the two last are called direct costs.
c) Profit analysis. Information in costs is essential to analyze the profits obtained from a product or product line. The information on the cost of a product enables managers to assess the contribution margin - the difference between

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