Cost Accounting Terminologies Essay Example for Free

Cost Accounting Terminologies Essay Cost accounting, as a tool of management, provides management with detailed records of the costs relating to products, operations or functions. Cost accounting refers to the process of determining and accumulating the cost of some particular product or activity. It also covers classification, analysis and interpretation of costs. The cost so determined and accumulated may be the estimated future costs for planning purposes, or actual (historical) costs for evaluating performance. The Institute of Cost and Management Accountant (ICMA), London, defined cost accounting as â€Å"the process of accounting for cost from the point at which expenditure incurred or committed to the establishment of its ultimate relationship with cost centers and cost units. In its widest usage it embraces the preparation of statistical data, the application of cost control methods and the ascertainment of profitability of activities carried out or planned.† Costing Cost accounting and costing have distinctly different meanings. The Institute of Cost and Management Accountant (ICMA), London, defined costing as the ascertainment of costs. Costing includes the â€Å"techniques† and â€Å"processes† of ascertaining costs. The technique refers to the principles or rules which are applied for ascertaining costs of products manufactured and services rendered. There are mainly two methods of costing job costing and process costing. The process includes the day to day routine of determining costs within the methods of costing adopted by the business enterprise. Within such a process, there could be historical costing, marginal costing, absorption costing and standard costing etc. Objectives of Cost Accounting There is a direct relationship among information needs of management and cost accounting objectives and techniques and tools used for analyses in cost accounting. Cost accounting has the following three important objectives: 1. To determine the product cost.  2. To facilitate planning and control of regular business activities. 3. To supply information for short and long-run decision. Product Costing The objective of determining the cost of products is the prime importance of cost accounting. The total product costs and cost per unit of product are important in making inventory valuation, deciding price of the product and managerial decision making. Planning and Control Another important objective of cost accounting is the creation of useful cost data and information for the purposes of planning and control by management. The different alternative plans are evaluated in terms of respective costs and associated benefits. The management control over business operations aims to establish balance between actual and budgeted performance. A properly designed cost accounting system includes the following steps in the control process: 1. Comparing actual performance with budgets and standard 2. Analyzing the variances between budget and standards and actual by causes, and management responsibility so that corrective actions may take place. 3. Providing managers with data and reports about their individual performances and performances of subordinates. Information for decision Another important objective of cost accounting system is to provide data and special analyses for short and long-run decisions of a non-recurring nature. Appropriate cost information must be accumulated to make a wide variety of short and long run decision. According to Henke and Spoede, the following are the cost information developed in cost accounting: 1. As a basis for valuing manufactured inventories and cost of goods sold in externally presented financial reports. 2. In controlling operations through the evaluation of operating results and the placement of responsibilities for the uses of organizational resources on the shoulders of specifically identifiable persons within the organization. 3. In planning operations through the establishment of cost and budgetary goals. 4. In making day- to- day operating decisions. The cost information is used for two purposes in most organizations: 1) the cost accounting systems provide information to evaluate the performance of an organizational unit or his manager, and 2) also provide the means for estimating the unit cost of products or services that the organization can manufacture or provide to others. a) Performance measurement: This measurement can be done by comparing current costs with those who were expected or standard costs budgeted cost to the degree of knowing which of them have been controlled. Deviations of expected with the current variances can be identified, evaluated and discussed by managers. b) Cost of goods and services: In manufacturing companies, the costs of goods must be measured to determine the cost of items transferred from work in process inventory to finished products. To meet the demands for information, a cost system should measure all the costs of manufacturing process and allocate a portion of those costs to each unit of output. The cost to obtain, maintain and manage the manufacturing plant or building should be added to the cost of material and productive work that requires each unit. The first are called indirect costs and the two last are called direct costs. c) Profit analysis. Information in costs is essential to analyze the profits obtained from a product or product line. The information on the cost of a product enables managers to assess the contribution margin the difference between the price and variable costs and the gross margin the difference between the price and the total cost of the product. d) Product mix. For the companies that offer more than one product or service the cost information is key to handle the mix of products or services offered to customers. With information on cost-profit, a manager can lead the effort in sales and advertising for products that generate greater value. The products that do not create any profit can be removed, have a price reassignation, or tied up with products that have greater utility. e) Price assignation. Regardless of where prices are determined by the forces of market demand, product differentiation and advertising offer to many managers some sort of idea to assign prices to products or services. The costs of products and trends commonly offer signals to managers that prices should be changed. An example could be the change in the cost of a material or critical component which can give a signal to reassess the price of a product or service. f) Cost of service. Many products require the seller to provide additional services to customers. In such cases, the information about the cost of service is so important for managers as the cost of production. The same for companies that offer services only, unless the cost of service is measured, there is no way to know whether providing the service is profitable or not, or whether changes in prices or advertising are needed. Looked from another angle, the uses that the administration of a company can give to the costs can be grouped into 4 categories, specified below Method of costing As state earlier, the term costing refers to the techniques and processes of determining cost of a product manufactured or a service rendered. Different methods are applied in business enterprises to ascertain cost depending upon the nature of the product, production method and specific business conditions. For example, in a textile or steel company, raw material passes through different stages and production is done continuously. In some other industries, production is done at different customers specific orders and each job is different from the other job.

Dian Fossey Essay -- essays research papers

Dian Fossey Dian Fossey to me was a very mysterious, somewhat helpful and kind of troublemaking person. She seemed very adventurous and fun but she was also very serious. When it came to her job she was always serious. Dian Fossey studied gorillas. To me it is amazing how seriously she took that job. She did everything she could to protect those gorillas. I think the gorillas brought her happiness but also sadness, and other emotional problems. Dian Fossey lived up on a mountain by her self for a number of years. That begins to have an effect on you as well. It was very lonely up there on the mountain. She got a nickname rom her lifestyle, she was called "Nyirmachabelli", which means the woman who lives alone on the mountain. Poor Dian Fossey became an alcoholic up on that mountain. She also smoked three packs of cigarettes a day! I think those may have been the reasons of her constant mood swings and her unrational thinking. The unrational thinking also could be linked to her murder. You will hear some examples later on in this paper. Dian did not start out working with gorillas in the mountains of Rwanda. She first had an office job at the Kosair Crippled Childrens Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. I'm not really quite sure how Dian Fossey became interested in gorillas, but she did and thats all that really matters. The first time Dian ever saw a real mountain gorilla, was in a place called Kabara Meadow, with Joan and Alan Root. After that one special day, they were her friends from then on. Those two people i feel were important in her start with gorillas. Another person involved in her start with gorillas was a man by the name of Louis Leaky, the most eminent prehistorian of his genration. He was the man that gave Dian her start in Africa, after she convinced him of her determination. Louis Leakey believed that women were best suited emotionally and constitutionally for studying the great apes. It seems Dian was fit for the job, but not for some aspects of it. I think Dian became a little too attached to her g orillas. They became her family. The only ones she loved and cared for. She cared more about gorillas then she did Dian Fossey. Dian Fossey first arrived in Africa filled with drive and energy. She was completly unprepared for the demands of the job, but she did not give up, she kept on going strong. She first started studyin... ...fact he was grown up and now has to take his role in the family. He had to watch and protect his family from danger. One day, it happened. Digit was found dead with his body severly mangled. Dian was very angered and saddened by this and she felt she had to do more. She sent letters out to other places letting them know what was going on and when the funding stopped, she turned to her fame with gorillas to recieve money. And when she did, she started the Digit fund. A lot of money was put towards protecting the gorillas.This made the Rwandan government look bad by not contributing to the safety of their tourist attractions. After she found the poacher that killed Digit, thats when Rwanda definately wanted her out. She threatened to hang him and put his head in a noose, but she didn't. Then she brought it to the goverments attention that she wanted a death penalty for poaching. They now just saw her as crazy and wanted her to leave because they felt she is doing more damage than g ood. But on December 27, 1981, Dian Fossey was found murdered in her shack. No one knew why or who. But on her gravestone is engraved, "Nyirmachabelli", the women who lives alone on the mountain.

American Core Cultural Values

I grew up in a very liberated yet bonded family. Mom and Dad are working, my siblings have their own worlds, and I am busy with school. However, we still find time to sit and relax and chat every night, and know the latest in each and everyone of us. I am also raised in a wonderful community which I call my second home. I met a bunch of people, of different tongue and color, whom I consider friends; and neighbors, who burst out of their houses ready to greet you with a warm smile.For me, everyday is a new day – learning new things, getting excited with minute things, seeing beauty in the world. Since then and now, America has changed a lot – it has dramatically transformed from something so simple, into a great nation of complexity. This often make me stand, gaze in oblivion and ponder – of the diverse American values, a hundred or so cultural diffusion if not acculturation, countless experiences, rich and unique history, are there any left native to us?Are there values that we can proudly call â€Å"heraldic† and â€Å"ours† since time immemorial? I discover many, but for the purpose of this paper, I will focus on four American core values I found significant and got to live with since I was born – Individualism, Time Management, Equal Opportunity and the so-gone issue on Racism. At a very young age, I was trained by my workaholic parents to stand on my own feet which simply began with learning to dress myself alone, to tie my shoe lace, to prepare my school bag and cook my own breakfast.I was trained to be responsible with my actions, words and decisions that if failures arose, I have no one to blame but myself. I grew up having sense of being an individual – independent, resourceful, hardworking. I tend to be self-reliant, not giving myself much attachment to other people except for social purposes. I had envision myself to be this or that person, or to have this or that belongings and I strive (and is still s triving) to reach the goal that I have designed and formulated.Like most of my co-citizen, I want to be known not as the son of Paul Miller or a brother of Louise Brown – I want to be known as a separate, unattached entity named Robert Walden. Like the Africans, the Americans live with the value of Individualism – a concept which stresses human independence and the importance of individual liberty in terms of morality, politics, economics and society. It opposes the general concepts of communism, holism, socialism and the likes which view communal relationship as more important than individuality. Being self-reliant, Americans believe in the ability of the â€Å"self.† One is responsible for himself, and most likely, you won't find a person who will generally lend a hand to you, because as an individual, with determination and own way of thinking, you are expected to seek solution or find someone else who can aid you. Americans also have a very strict work ethic . As most of us notice, American businesses are most likely to stick to deadlines and seldom would it be extended for an individual's sake. Often, when an employee arrived late, the employer wouldn't scrutinize the former since he has nothing to do with it and the employee is responsible for his tardiness.Also, businessmen strongly value the concept of â€Å"healthy† competition. Americans believe that competition brings out the best in an individual, and in this case, in a business. Having a â€Å"free market† economic system, companies are strongly encouraged to compete resulting to the lowering of product prices while increasing its quality, thus, the concept of â€Å"free enterprise. † Not only in the workplace is competition highly visible – it is as well a common value at school. Students also do compete – they study well, participate in class activities, etc.Seeing other students doing the same way make them strive even harder so they would end up being the best among the rest. If schools award and honor students who have worked harder than the others, companies also reward those who showed industry and dedication, especially those employees who achieved the greatest goals. The state promotes liberty and equality, not just of the individual but of all aspects of life – from the family to the society, from local government to the entire city, from a single entity to a nation.Liberty is defined as the condition that provides an individual to act according to his own will, giving him the freedom from external compulsion. This again falls to the initial value of individualism – one being solely responsible for himself. The combination of these two ideals refines an American to act and work efficiently and in the most practical way. From liberty resurface the concept of equality. Americans regard â€Å"equality† as significant, if not, vital for the nation's survival, and the citizens' harmonious relati onship. To quote paragraph 2 of the US Declaration of Independence:We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed (US Congress, 1776). But the pursuit of equality in the United States took many years of efforts and struggles from different social groups – innumerable bullets soared in the air, blood flooded the countryside, protests and social movements impaired the hearing of those who wouldn't listen.Racism has, ever since the coming of the â€Å"colored† people, been the most debatable and undying issue in American history. The entry of the Blacks during the â€Å"Slave Trade† commenced the years of discrimination since they came primarily to work in the plantation, construc tion sites and other brawn activities that require strength and endurance. As workers, they were viewed lowly by the society – as inferior to their professional office activities. But as the society slowly becoming liberated in ideas and open to changes and transformation, so are the people's behavior and attitude towards their so called â€Å"other people. †This understanding resulted to the dawn of the concept â€Å"equal opportunity,† another significant American value that has been continuously advocated by the U. S. Government. Equal opportunity is said to be synonymous with racial harmony – the elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination between different races, thus, giving everybody equal access to politics, economy, spirituality, and other common necessities and needs. One way to promote such ideal is by creating and passing laws that prohibits, for instance, job discrimination and elevates the international understanding of human rig hts and human rights violations.Some laws and provisions against job discrimination are discussed and incorporated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967; the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and Civil Rights Act of 1991. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (or EEOC) enforces these and other laws related to the protection of people from job alienation, particularly those of non-American race. Before, I found it really difficult to befriend other nationalities, as personally, I have no idea on how to approach them in utmost respect.However, feeling at ease in a diverse and complex environment that I grew up with gave me the courage (and in some way, disciplined me) to act normally with and treat other races in a manner that I would want them to treat me. And as such, it is now a taboo to see a White man cursing and pouncing on a Black man simply because of the latter's color. Last ly, what I regard as among the most important values of the Americans is their reverence with time. Cliche as it may seem, but the quotation, â€Å"Time is Gold† is an understatement.For Americans, time is more than precious – it is almost â€Å"invaluable† in the sense that you can't add-on value to time. They have this attitude of maximizing the day so as to make themselves a productive person in as many hours as possible. In that case, it is normal to see most Americans, even students my age, working in a cafeteria, gasoline stations, and the like so that, while learning, they are as well earning. Being time-oriented, wasting time is a â€Å"no no! † In a signboard hanging along a commercial avenue I passed through reads, â€Å"Being early means being on-time.Being on-time means coming late. And coming late means being dead! † As we value time for being productive, so as to relax and pamper ourselves. Most Americans, especially those with better jobs, spend their year working as hard as they can so that by the time of vacation, they have more money to spend and a lot more time to reward themselves with a luxurious and satisfying vacation. We don’t just work to earn, we work to have fun. An Asian friend once told me that it’s really difficult to understand an American – or to grasp the core of a true-to-the-blood American.I ask him why and told me that the country is too diverse and totally mixed-up. American culture is too complex that it seems like its entire culture is a result of the mixing of this and that foreign culture, he added. Again, it made me wonder – are we really that hard to understand, or don’t we really have a â€Å"trademark† that would particularly identify us? This paper prove them wrong. And I've proven them wrong. Americans have their own identity, and treasure a set of values they call their own. What I've discussed in this paper are but some of our core valu es, which in my opinion, are the most vital of all.I may have not fully exercised some of these values now but I intend to when the right time and avenue comes. Entertainment media has successfully portrait the life of a true American through the many local and international films. However, what foreign viewers grasp is our more obvious character, that is, being liberated in words, actions and decisions. We practice and enjoy liberty that it almost overflow or over portrayed in movies. Liberated is equated to Americans. But we are more than just being liberated.We are more than a bunch of people who have our own free-will. We are not simply those Whitemen who exhibited liberty for the sole reason of being free. We are more than what they thought of us. In one word, we are â€Å"deeper. † Still in doubt? Just read this paper again and you'll surely understand what I mean. Works Cited Smedley, Brian D. and Alan Jenkins. All Things Being Equal: Instigating Opportunity in an Ineq uitable Time. New York: The New Press, 2007. US Congress. The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America. Retrieved on 15 April 2008 at

Is The Flag Of The United States Of America Considered...

Could disrespecting the flag of the United States of America considered patriotic? It all depends on the scenario. In the article â€Å"Patriotism† by Igor Primoratz, he mentions the philosophical study conducted by Stephen Nathanson, who states patriotism is defined as â€Å"Special affection for one’s country†, â€Å"Special concern for the well-being of the country†, and â€Å"Willingness to sacrifice to promote the country’s good.† These properties can be seen through a number of different scenarios–including protests. Recently the San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided to protest recent police brutality towards African-Americans and minorities. During the first 49ers preseason games at first sitting in during the National Anthem, later†¦show more content†¦While discussing the success of the demonstrations in the Speak for Yourself radio show, Fox Sports sports commentator, Colin Cowherd explained  "I believe this entire thing, has been successful. He protests, there is pushback. He is booed, he is cheered. Some players followed, lost their endorsements†¦ people are discussing it. This embodies what we are about.† In the United States we are entitled to our own beliefs and our ability to have a voice. Through the actions of the players voicing their beliefs, the entire scenario has gained national attention. Colin Kaepernick’s among other athletes concern over this situation demonstrates their affection for this country in the hopes for improvement of this country. Through his protests the entire country has engaged in debate his actions and the topic he stands for. A â€Å"special concern for the well-being of the country† is an indication that one is patriotic. As the protests expand across the National Football League and even into other sports, the attention that this topic is getting increases exponentially. The Seattle Seahawks also raised attention to the topic, but through a different form of protest. On the fifteenth anniversary of September 11, the team as a whole locked arms during the playing of the National Anthem as a demonstration of racial unity. Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin stated â€Å"I am looking forward to the many changes and differences, the changes we can make in this country to makeShow MoreRelated The American Flag Essay863 Words   |  4 Pagesour american flag and how it came about. In the British colonies of North America before the Revolution, each of the 13 colonies had its flag. On Jan. 2, 1776, the first flag of the United States was raised at Cambridge, Mass., by George Washington. Known as the Grand Union flag, it consisted of 13 stripes, alternate red and white, with a blue canton bearing the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew. 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