Comparison of product costing systems

A process costing system A system of assigning costs used by companies that produce similar or identical units of product in batches employing a consistent process.

Two of the most commonly used systems are traditional costing and activity-based costing. One of these is easy to use and inexpensive to implement, while the other costs more to use but gives you greater accuracy.

Traditional Costing Traditional costing adds an average overhead rate to the direct costs of manufacturing products. The overhead rate gets applied on the basis of a cost driver, such as number of labor hours required to make a product.

Accounting Information System (AIS) relied on for production of meaningful, reliable and timely data that will A comparison of traditional costing systems and activity based costing systems through an optimization problem is presented and. Jun 25,  · Costing is used in business accounting strategies as a way of determining the cost of manufacturing a product in relation to the revenue generated by that product. Costing systems determine the overhead of production and then allocate those overhead costs to a business’ products/5(29). Product Costing and Manufacturing Accounting are two of the systems that are included in the Enterprise Requirements Planning and Execution (ERPx) system. ERPx is a closed-loop manufacturing system that formalizes company and operations planning, and the implementation of those plans.

Pros and Cons of Traditional Costing Traditional costing is best used when the overhead of a company is low compared to the direct costs of production. It gives reasonably accurate cost figures when the production volume is large, and changes in overhead costs do not create a substantial difference when calculating the costs of production.

Traditional costing methods are inexpensive to implement. Companies usually use traditional costing for external reports, because it is simpler and easier for outsiders to understand. However, it does not give managers an accurate picture of product costs because the application of overhead burden rates is arbitrary and applied equally to the cost of all products.

Overhead costs are not allocated to the products that actually consume the overhead activities. The traditional costing method is best used for manufacturers that only make a few different products.

Activity-Based Costing Activity-based costing identifies all of the specific overhead operations related to the manufacture of each product.

Not all products require the support of all overhead costs, so it is not reasonable to apply the same overhead costs to all products. Accountants created the ABC method to solve the problems of inaccuracy that result from the traditional costing approach.

Managers needed more accurate costing methods to determine which profits were actually profitable and which were not.

A fundamental difference between traditional costing and ABC costing is that ABC methods expand the number of indirect cost pools that can be allocated to specific products. The traditional method takes one pool of a company's total overhead costs to allocate universally to all products.

Pros and Cons of Activity-Based Costing Activity-based costing is the most accurate, but it is also the most difficult and costly to implement.

It is more suited to businesses with high overhead costs that manufacture products, rather than companies that offer services. Companies that manufacture a large number of different products prefer an activity-based system because it gives more accurate costs of each product.

Overview to Product Costing and Manufacturing Accounting

With activity-based allocation of overhead costs, it is easier to identify areas where expenses are being wasted on unprofitable products.

Deciding between traditional or activity-based costing is not easy. Your choice should depend on the purpose of the reporting and who will see the information.

Managers need accurate product costs and prefer to use an activity-based accounting system. Even though this system is more costly, it provides better information that will enable managers to make more profitable decisions in the long-term.

Thanks for taking a look at our sample papers

For external reporting, companies still use the traditional costing system, but it is becoming obsolete as outsiders demand more accurate information about businesses.Product Costing and Manufacturing Accounting are two of the systems that are included in the Enterprise Requirements Planning and Execution (ERPx) system.

ERPx is a closed-loop manufacturing system that formalizes company and operations planning, and the implementation of those plans. Jun 29,  · Companies need accounting systems to track the costs of their operations.

Two of the most commonly used systems are traditional costing and activity-based costing. One of . Activity-Based Costing Benefits.

Activity based costing systems are more accurate than traditional costing systems. This is because they provide a more precise breakdown of indirect costs.

However, ABC systems are more complex and more costly to implement. The leap from traditional costing to activity based costing is difficult. Product costing systems in modern manufacturing organisations Product costing refers to the process of assigning shared direct and indirect costs to individual products, customers, branches or other cost items.

Difference Between ABC and Traditional Costing | Difference Between

Figure "A Comparison of Cost Flows for Job Costing and Process Costing" shows how product costs flow through accounts for job costing and process costing systems.

Table "A Comparison of Process Costing and Job Costing" outlines the similarities and differences between these two costing systems. Jun 29,  · Companies need accounting systems to track the costs of their operations.

Two of the most commonly used systems are traditional costing and activity-based costing. One of these is easy to use and.