How resilient is the activity-based cost system? / Wee Shu Hui

The whole issue of cost allocation or absorption has always generated a lot of interest amongst accountants probably because no absoluteness of costs has emerged as yet. Would "true" costs ever surface? Historically, textbooks have emphasised methods for allocating costs to departments and...

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Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sarawak 1996
Online Access:http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/16776/
http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/16776/1/AJ_WEE%20SHU%20HUI%20JAS%2096.pdf
id uitm-16776
recordtype eprints
spelling uitm-167762017-05-08T02:30:53Z http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/16776/ How resilient is the activity-based cost system? / Wee Shu Hui The whole issue of cost allocation or absorption has always generated a lot of interest amongst accountants probably because no absoluteness of costs has emerged as yet. Would "true" costs ever surface? Historically, textbooks have emphasised methods for allocating costs to departments and products. Fixed costs have been divided by some standard measure to obtain a fixed cost unit (even though fixed costs are supposed to be "fixed"). Joint costs and other common costs have been allocated by some forms of reasonable but arbitrary measures. Miller and Vollmann (1985) have identified "overhead creep" in this present age of high technology. Previously, the ratios of overhead costs to direct labour costs were 100% to 200% or so but now the rates can well escalate to over 1000%. This arises because a small change in labour can cause a substantial change in the expected overhead. Miller and Vollmann (1985) stressed the need to understand and manage costs in the "hidden factory" rather than just knowing the mechanics of allocating overhead. The dichotomy of costs into fixed and variable provides an extremely useful and important basic concept in cost accounting. The definitions of fixed and variable costs are always made with respect to a specific time period. Ultimately, all costs become variable in the long run. Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sarawak 1996 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/16776/1/AJ_WEE%20SHU%20HUI%20JAS%2096.pdf UNSPECIFIED (1996) How resilient is the activity-based cost system? / Wee Shu Hui. Jurnal Akademik UiTM Sarawak. pp. 49-54. ISSN 0128-2635
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Teknologi MARA
building UiTM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description The whole issue of cost allocation or absorption has always generated a lot of interest amongst accountants probably because no absoluteness of costs has emerged as yet. Would "true" costs ever surface? Historically, textbooks have emphasised methods for allocating costs to departments and products. Fixed costs have been divided by some standard measure to obtain a fixed cost unit (even though fixed costs are supposed to be "fixed"). Joint costs and other common costs have been allocated by some forms of reasonable but arbitrary measures. Miller and Vollmann (1985) have identified "overhead creep" in this present age of high technology. Previously, the ratios of overhead costs to direct labour costs were 100% to 200% or so but now the rates can well escalate to over 1000%. This arises because a small change in labour can cause a substantial change in the expected overhead. Miller and Vollmann (1985) stressed the need to understand and manage costs in the "hidden factory" rather than just knowing the mechanics of allocating overhead. The dichotomy of costs into fixed and variable provides an extremely useful and important basic concept in cost accounting. The definitions of fixed and variable costs are always made with respect to a specific time period. Ultimately, all costs become variable in the long run.
format Article
title How resilient is the activity-based cost system? / Wee Shu Hui
spellingShingle How resilient is the activity-based cost system? / Wee Shu Hui
title_short How resilient is the activity-based cost system? / Wee Shu Hui
title_full How resilient is the activity-based cost system? / Wee Shu Hui
title_fullStr How resilient is the activity-based cost system? / Wee Shu Hui
title_full_unstemmed How resilient is the activity-based cost system? / Wee Shu Hui
title_sort how resilient is the activity-based cost system? / wee shu hui
publisher Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sarawak
publishDate 1996
url http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/16776/
http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/16776/1/AJ_WEE%20SHU%20HUI%20JAS%2096.pdf
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last_indexed 2023-09-18T22:56:50Z
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