Cost object

The insurance provider describes an account assignment in cost accounting, not as cost centers reflects organizational structures, but also products or projects.

The cost accounting is part of cost accounting, which accounts for the accounting along with bookkeeping, accounting and controlling.

Various types of expenses ( costs) in the company are posted to the cost objects. Cost carriers can be also those provided by the operating performance, so in addition to goods and services. You have "carry" as costing objects in Cost Object Controlling the cost is too.

Example

Example, to determine whether a product is profitable as chocolate bars, it is necessary to know the costs associated with its production. This would include raw materials such as cocoa and sugar, rents for factory halls, cost of machinery and of course labor costs in this example. The cost carrier says so, what costs are incurred. Some costs can never be assigned to a particular product ( payers ), for example, most administrative costs. Such costs are referred to as overhead costs. Since you can not let them fall completely under the table - the price of the chocolate bar is supposed to cover the administrative costs - they are then distributed in the cost calculation for a specific key on the different cost drivers.

Payers era

Payers era determines the costs caused by a payers in a given period. Serve as an example a consulting company with full-time employees, whose capacities are not always busy. The payers 'advice' causes high fixed costs, namely the salaries of the employees. These costs, the monthly income from the consulting services are faced then, for example. So you always have a good idea of ​​how profitable the company is working. A cost unit accounting in this case would not make much sense, since there is no " pieces ". One could at most hours for customers who pay by the hour, as regarded pieces. However, as in the example with the software company's unit cost of the number of pieces depends here. In the consulting company that is on the congestion level of the employees.

Limits of cost accounting

The cost accounting is only suitable in many cases to make decisions about the profitability of a product. Let's take an example from the software industry. A company is developing two products, A and B. For product B parts can be reused by A. This means that B does not have to be developed from scratch. What about in this case, with the cost of B? Must be added to the recycled parts from A to B of the development costs not including those? Then they would be but twice. So they divided the common costs of in a post called C. The reduced C to A is now A '. How much one is proposing A 'and B respectively from C to? Half or one makes it proportionally to the cost of A ' and B? Both would lead to a distorted picture. A ( ie including C) could be in itself highly profitable. B without C could also be profitable. If one converts a portion of C to B added, B could be unprofitable. But that is not true because the company goes in this case always better when they developed A and B, as only A. A schematic application of cost accounting so here would lead to a wrong decision.

Sensible use of cost accounting

The example of the software industry, it is clear that costs often can not be precisely assigned to a particular product. One can then determine only the costs caused by a certain product mix, and these compare with the costs and of course revenues, which would cause a different product. This can be inconvenient here the use of the cost unit accounting and cost carrier era. Instead, the costs caused by a product during its entire lifetime, be taken as a starting point.

The cost accounting is always very helpful in getting an idea of ​​the costs caused by a product. For complex products, such as Motor vehicles, it is almost essential if you do not want to lose track. But it must be, as the examples have shown to be tailored to the specific conditions of an organization. A purely schematic use could lead to costly mistakes in planning.

Literature and sources

• Volker Schultz: Basic skills in accounting. German paperback publishing house, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-423-50815-5.
• Klaus Olfert: cost accounting. NWB Verlag, 17th Edition, Herne, 2013, ISBN: 978-3-4705-1107-8.