Fear of awkward conversations costing accountants money
Accounting Today
SEPTEMBER 8, 2022
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Cost Accounting Related Topics 
Cost accounting basics
Accounting Tools
JULY 15, 2024
What are the Basics of Cost Accounting? Cost accounting is the art of translating the costs incurred by a business into actionable analyses that can improve operations and profits. Here are several basic ways in which to use cost accounting: Activity-based costing. Contract costs.
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Cost accounting definition
Accounting Tools
MARCH 27, 2023
Related Courses Cost Accounting Fundamentals Financial Analysis What is Cost Accounting? Cost accounting examines the cost structure of a business. None of these tools are used by financial accountants, who are more concerned with the production of financial statements.
Webinars
Breaking Ground on Better Payment Processes: Strategies for Construction Pros
The Growth Architect: How Financial Leaders are Unlocking Potential
Avoiding Lease Accounting Pitfalls in 2025: Lessons Learned from Spreadsheet Errors
From Start to Scale: Driving Growth Through Seamless Payments Implementation
The advantages of cost accounting
Accounting Tools
JULY 8, 2024
What is Cost Accounting? Cost accounting involves the recordation, analysis, and reporting of costs to management. The intent behind this type of accounting is to provide insights into the cost structure of a business that can be used to better manage it, thereby improving profitability.
Manufacturing cost accounting definition
Accounting Tools
OCTOBER 9, 2023
Related Courses Activity-Based Costing Constraint Management Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is Manufacturing Cost Accounting? Manufacturing cost accounting encompasses areas that impact production operations and the valuation of inventory.
Cost accounting formulas
Accounting Tools
OCTOBER 8, 2023
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Cost Accounting Fundamentals The Interpretation of Financial Statements Certain cost accounting formulas should be monitored on a regular basis in order to spot spikes or drops in the performance of an organization. The result should be close to 1.
Process costing | Process cost accounting
Accounting Tools
APRIL 17, 2023
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is Process Costing? Process costing is used when there is mass production of similar products, where the costs associated with individual units of output cannot be differentiated from each other.
The difference between cost accounting and financial accounting
Accounting Tools
OCTOBER 27, 2023
Related Courses Accountants’ Guidebook Cost Accounting Fundamentals There are a number of differences between cost accounting and financial accounting , which are noted below. Cost accounting involves the preparation of a broad range of reports that management needs to run a business.
Cost accountant job description
Accounting Tools
JANUARY 12, 2024
What is a Cost Accountant? A cost accountant is someone who analyzes the cost structure of a business and extracts actionable information that can improve the profitability of a business. Related Articles Accounting Career Advice (podcast) The Cost Accountant Position (podcast) The Different Types of Accountants
Booz Allen pays $377.5M to settle U.S. civil probe
Accounting Today
JULY 24, 2023
The federal contractor reached one of the largest procurement fraud settlements in history over a civil investigation related to its cost accounting.
Cost Accounting 
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Traceable costs definition
Accounting Tools
JULY 19, 2024
The cost cannot be traced to the cost objects within the building, such as a production line, since the line could be shuttered but the insurance expense would still be incurred as long as the building was owned by the company.
What are direct materials?
Accounting Tools
NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Cost Accounting Fundamentals How to Audit Inventory Direct material is the physical items built into a product. The direct materials concept is used in cost accounting , where this cost is separately classified in several types of financial analysis.
Hybrid costing system definition
Accounting Tools
APRIL 10, 2023
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is a Hybrid Costing System? A hybrid costing system is a cost accounting system that includes features of both a job costing and process costing system.
Costing definition
Accounting Tools
JULY 27, 2023
Related Courses Activity-Based Costing Activity-Based Management Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is Costing? Costing is any system for assigning costs to an element of a business.
Manufacturing overhead definition
Accounting Tools
APRIL 7, 2024
Related AccountingTools Courses Accounting for Inventory Activity-Based Costing Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is Not Included in Manufacturing Overhead? Thus, the costs of such items as corporate salaries, audit and legal fees, and bad debts are not included in manufacturing overhead.
Cost of goods manufactured schedule
Accounting Tools
SEPTEMBER 7, 2023
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Cost Accounting Fundamentals How to Audit Inventory What is a Cost of Goods Manufactured Schedule? The cost of goods manufactured schedule is used to calculate the cost of all items produced during a reporting period.
Total cost definition
Accounting Tools
FEBRUARY 15, 2024
Total cost is less applicable to short-term decision making, where it is more likely that only variable costs will be considered. The alternative definitions for total cost are noted below. In general, it is the most comprehensive view of invested funds.
The formula for calculating efficiency
Accounting Tools
JUNE 12, 2023
Related Courses Cost Accounting Fundamentals Financial Analysis Operations Management How to Calculate Efficiency The efficiency equation is a comparison of the work output from an operation to the work input to that same operation. The concept has been most thoroughly formalized in cost accounting , as noted below.
Downward demand spiral definition
Accounting Tools
APRIL 25, 2024
Related AccountingTools Courses Activity-Based Costing Cost Accounting Fundamentals Example of a Downward Demand Spiral Tsunami Products manufactures several types of shower heads. After a detailed analysis of margins, the company’s cost accountant recommends to management that the dual shower head model be cancelled.
Cost concepts in decision making
Accounting Tools
JULY 7, 2024
If so, it does not really have any cost, since its cost would have been incurred anyways as a result of the production of the main product. All of the cost concepts noted here are critical elements of many types of management decisions. Thus, selling a by-product at any price is profitable; no price is too low.
Product cost definition
Accounting Tools
JUNE 20, 2024
Managers may also prefer to focus on the impact of a product on a bottleneck operation, which means that their main focus is on the direct materials cost of a product and the time it spends in the bottleneck operation. It is charged to the cost of goods sold as soon as the product is sold, and appears as an expense on the income statement.
Conversion costs definition
Accounting Tools
JUNE 21, 2023
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Cost Accounting Fundamentals What are Conversion Costs? Conversion costs are those production costs required to convert raw materials into completed products.
Factory cost definition
Accounting Tools
NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is Factory Cost? Factory cost refers to the total cost required to manufacture goods. This concept is the basis for several cost accounting analyses.
The difference between job costing and process costing
Accounting Tools
JUNE 8, 2023
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Activity-Based Costing Cost Accounting Fundamentals Job costing involves the detailed accumulation of production costs attributable to specific units or groups of units.
How to calculate the cost of goods sold
Accounting Tools
JUNE 22, 2024
This list usually includes the following accounts: Direct materials Merchandise Direct labor Factory overhead Freight in and freight out Related AccountingTools Courses Accounting for Inventory Cost Accounting Fundamentals The list may also include commission expense, since this cost usually varies with sales.
Full cost definition
Accounting Tools
APRIL 20, 2023
Related Courses Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is Full Cost? Full cost is the aggregation of all costs associated with a product or other cost object. These costs include both the direct costs and indirect costs of production, but do not include selling, general and administrative expenses.
Accounting for manufacturing businesses
Accounting Tools
JULY 8, 2024
Overhead Cost Assignment Factory overhead costs must be aggregated into cost pools and then allocated to the number of units produced during a reporting period , which increases the recorded cost of inventory. The number of cost pools should be minimized to reduce the amount of allocation work by the accountant.
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Cost of sales definition
Accounting Tools
JUNE 11, 2023
Related Courses Accountants' Guidebook Bookkeeping Guidebook Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is the Cost of Sales? The cost of sales is the accumulated total of all costs used to create a product or service, which has been sold.
Relative sales value method definition
Accounting Tools
OCTOBER 23, 2023
Related Courses Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is the Relative Sales Value Method? The relative sales value method is a technique used to allocate joint costs based on the prices at which products will be sold.
Process costing system definition
Accounting Tools
AUGUST 11, 2024
The classic example of a process costing environment is a petroleum refinery, where it is impossible to track the cost of a specific unit of oil as it moves through the refinery. This can represent a substantial cost reduction over the data collection required for a job costing system.
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How to Become a CPA in Florida
Intuit
SEPTEMBER 18, 2024
Overall, you need at least 120 semester hours or 180 quarter hours of education that includes the following: At least 24 semester hours or 36 quarter hours of upper-division accounting, including: At least 3 semester or 4 quarter hours of financial accounting, based on U.S.
CPA 130
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Plantwide overhead rate definition
Accounting Tools
JULY 28, 2023
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Activity-Based Costing Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is a Plantwide Overhead Rate? The plantwide overhead rate is a single overhead rate that a company uses to allocate all of its manufacturing overhead costs to products or cost objects.
The difference between direct and indirect labor
Accounting Tools
APRIL 17, 2024
Related AccountingTools Course Cost Accounting Fundamentals Comparing Direct and Indirect Labor The difference between direct labor and indirect labor is that only labor involved in the hands-on production of goods and services is considered to be direct labor.
The difference between marginal costing and absorption costing
Accounting Tools
AUGUST 5, 2023
Related Courses Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is Marginal Costing? Marginal cost is the cost of one additional unit of output. The concept is used to determine the optimum production quantity for a company, where it costs the least amount to produce additional units.
Variable cost definition
Accounting Tools
OCTOBER 22, 2023
Related Courses Cost Accounting Fundamentals What is Variable Cost? A variable cost is a cost that varies in relation to either production volume or the amount of services provided. If no production or services are provided, then there should be no variable costs.
Controllable cost definition
Accounting Tools
MAY 12, 2024
Related AccountingTools Courses Cost Accounting Fundamentals Financial Analysis Related Articles Allowable Costs Committed Cost Direct Cost Incremental Cost Unavoidable Cost Training can usually be curtailed for extended periods of time, though doing so can reduce the level of employee expertise.
Cost of labor definition
Accounting Tools
JULY 12, 2024
Thus, the typical cost of labor includes a premium of usually 20% to 35% for additional tax and benefit payments, of which medical insurance is usually the largest component.
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75 Semi-fixed cost definition
Accounting Tools
APRIL 24, 2024
The same approach works in reverse, where the variable component of the cost will be eliminated when the activity level declines below a certain amount.
The difference between product costs and period costs
Accounting Tools
APRIL 20, 2023
Related Courses Cost Accounting Fundamentals What are Product Costs? Product costs are any costs incurred in the manufacture of a product. These costs include direct materials , direct labor , and factory overhead. What are Period Costs?
The functions of managerial accounting
Accounting Tools
APRIL 4, 2023
Related Courses Cost Accounting Fundamentals Managerial accounting involves collecting, analyzing, and reporting information about the operations and finances of a business. The functions of managerial accounting include the following: Margin analysis.
Accounting 75
75 How to calculate cost per unit
Accounting Tools
APRIL 29, 2023
Related Courses Cost Accounting Fundamentals Cost per unit information is needed in order to set prices high enough to generate a profit. The cost per unit is derived from the variable costs and fixed costs incurred by a production process, divided by the number of units produced.
Direct materials definition
Accounting Tools
JULY 11, 2024
Related AccountingTools Courses Accounting for Inventory Cost Accounting Fundamentals How to Audit Inventory Direct Materials Use in Throughput Analysis Direct materials is an important concept in throughput analysis , where throughput is the revenue generated by a product sale, less all totally variable costs.
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Normal costing definition
Accounting Tools
FEBRUARY 11, 2024
To calculate the total normal costs of these units, Everly’s accountant combines all overhead, materials, and labor costs, which are as follows: ($100,000 overhead + $250,000 materials + $50,000 labor) = $400,000 low-clung bidet cost ($30,000 overhead + $120,000 materials + $24,000 labor) = $174,000 high bidet cost Related AccountingTools Courses Accounting (..)
Variable overhead definition
Accounting Tools
OCTOBER 19, 2024
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Activity-Based Costing Cost Accounting Fundamentals Variable Overhead Spending Variance The variable overhead spending variance is the difference between the actual spending and the budgeted rate of spending on variable overhead.
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