Direct cost is a cost that is involved specifically and directly in the production of a good or service (No author, 2013). For example, in the production of a hamburger direct costs would be the ingredients. If the person cooking the burger only cooks burgers, and does one burger per hour (just an example), then the direct labor cost of that burger would be one hour's worth of wages. Sometimes, however, it can be more difficult to determine the direct cost of producing a good or service, and that is where the risk of errors comes into play. For example all costs can be taken as direct costs. This is a common error. There is a logical slippery slope involved in attributing costs. So for example, our burger flipper might flip an average of 40 burgers in an hour. The company might be tempted to average that wage over the number of burgers, coming to a conclusion that the direct labor cost of a burger is 20 cents. There are two pitfalls in this example. The first is taking the average -- in another hour there might only be 30 burgers flipped, so the average...
It can be difficult to determine an accurate figure for direct labor costs under these circumstances. For some tasks it is much easier to determine the direct labor cost. When you pay a plumber to fix your sink and he charges you $100 an hour for labor, that is a direct labor cost that is easy to measure. Many companies do like the burger joint and attempt to average out costs to determine a direct cost, but their figures are subject to fluctuations in production.Direct costs are those that can be "attributed to the production of specific goods or services" (Investopedia, 2013). They can be labor, materials or other expenses. In contrast, indirect costs are those that cannot be directly attributed -- at least not easily -- to a specific product or service. For the most part, identifying direct costs is a straightforward, but occasionally there are pitfalls that can emerge. One pitfall when analyzing
Business 315 and Analyzing Direct Costs Analyzing Costs It is crucial for an organization to properly calculate semi-variable costs in order to allocate indirect and direct costs. These costs govern over direct materials, which are "materials that physically become part of a product or service and therefore are clearly indentified with specific outputs or service" (Thompson 2011). Semi-variable costs change often, depending on the volume of the output. These mixed costs are
The raw materials needed as ingredients for detergents require extraction from natural resources, and extraction costs increase as the amounts needed rise. This means that it costs more to use more materials and thus produce more detergent, making materials a variable cost. The factory where the ingredients are mixed into detergent, however, would cost roughly the same to build whether the plan was to produce 100 or 10,000 units
Managerial Accounting for Sleepease Ltd. "Identify, discuss and critically evaluate the advantages and problems of using the following costing methods for internal reporting purposes": absorption costing; marginal costing. "Refer to the Sleepease case as and when necessary" absorption costing The absorption costing is the type of managerial costing where both the variable and fixed costs are charged to process or product. Thus, "absorption costing is a method for appraising or valuing a firm's total inventory
Costing Financial Accounting-Variable Costing How is managerial accounting different from financial accounting? Managerial Accounting refers to the processes in application by the company or business organization to identify, measure, analyze, interpret, and communicate vital information in relation to pursuing the mission, objectives, goals, and vision of the entity. Managerial Accounting is also the cost accounting. Financial Accounting is the act of providing relevant information on the financial position and performance of the
Even the lowest-level managers and employees are empowered to make decisions and have that valued democratic voice. ADVANTAGES: An advantage of this form of measurement is that it tends to be more encompassing, since it accounts for all uses of capital. It is susceptible to manipulation by managers with a short-term focus, or by manipulating the hurdle rate used to evaluate divisions. The frequently occurring problem, in concern to a lack
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