How does Activity Based Costing differ from traditional cost accounting systems?
Most traditional costing systems utilize a single basis, (e.g. direct labor) to distribute the indirect costs to all products and services. This method of allocating indirect costs commonly results in erroneous cost data. Often products which have high volume (and high labor cost) are over costed. Likewise, the cost of lower volume products are often understated, and many of the indirect costs of these products are overlooked. Rather than relying on a single basis to distribute costs, ABC assigns costs to activities and products based on how the costs (resources) are actually consumed by the process or product. By moving away from traditional cost allocation methods and using improved ABC methods of tracing and assignment, ABC provides managers with a clearer picture of cost of processes and the profitability of customers and products. How are activities analyzed? The three most common techniques for defining and analyzing activities are as follows: Interviewing Interview techniques re
