Cost Accounting
-
1
What is cost accounting and what does it do?
Between an accounting that tells the outside world "how much did we earn" and one that tells management "what should we do", cost accounting stands in the middle and answers: exactly what did this thing cost us?
8 min read -
2
Classifying costs
A single cost may be classified in several ways at once. What matters is knowing which classification serves the question in front of you right now.
10 min read -
3
Calculating the cost of a product
The question that looks simple and is not: what did a single unit cost us? The answer depends on how you allocated the costs that belong to no product in particular.
11 min read -
4
Costing systems: job and process
How costs are accumulated follows the nature of production: distinct products, each one different from the next, or a continuous uniform flow in which no unit is distinguishable from another.
10 min read -
5
Standard costs and variance analysis
A standard is "what the cost ought to be". A variance is the difference between it and reality — a question looking for a cause, not a verdict looking for a culprit.
11 min read