New Developments in Management Accounting

If the cost system reported sales volume and/or price we would be able to conduct an activity analysis to determine an appropriate cost function to determine the best cost driver for each product.

Process order cost systems are based on multiple work in process accounts and determine total manufacturing costs at the end of a time period. Multiple outsourced

Activity-based costing is a system of accounting that puts emphases on activities performed to produce products or services (Schneider, 2012). In this costing system every activity is assigned a cost (Schneider, 2012). The goal of activity-based costing is not to allot common costs to products but to measure and then price out all the resources used for activities that sustain the production and delivery of products and services to customers (Mazumder, 2007). Activity-based costing is a cost system that is useful in business because of the fact that it does account for the cost of the products, resources used to produce the product and delivery of the product.

Thirdly, at the product activity level, the two Operations costs are likely to vary mainly with the Number of Units Produced and the three Sales costs are also likely to vary mainly with the Number of Units Produced.

Critically examine the above statements by analysing the contribution of traditional management accounting techniques in an organisation, the necessity for modern management accounting techniques and the role of accountants in the implementation of the modern management accounting techniques in an organisation.

Langfield-Smith, K., H. Thorne, and R. W. Hilton (2012). Management Accounting 6e: Information for Managing and Creating Value, 6th ed, McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd. (Hereafter referred to as LS)

Rich, J., Jones, J., Heitger, D., Mowen, M., & Hansen, H. (2012). Cornerstones of Financial & Managerial Accounting. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage

3. Under the new activity-based costing (ABC) system, compute the indirect cost allocation rates for each of the three activities:

Bhimani, A., Horngren, C., Datar, S., Rajan, M. et al. (2012) Management and Cost Accounting. 5th ed. Edinburgh: Prentice Hall, p.369 - 378.

Nowadays, we know that activity based costing system assigns overhead costs to products or services products that using a two-stage process, which focuses on activities. ABC is a relatively new and very important topic in managerial accounting. ABC allows us to find a way that we could determine the profitability of every product, profitability of every customer we serve, and the profitability of our process. Contents in brief, first that comparing potential advantages of ABC versus traditional costing methods. The

Activity-based management, activity-based costing and continuous improvement, all these help in the improvement of the efficiency in manufacturing, better control of overhead costs and the accurate costing of products. With this in mind, We disagree with the advice that Chuck Davis, the firm’s controller, gave Leonard Bryner. The traditional way of costing produce average costs that severely overstated or understated. Without the accurate costs, the firm would not be able to price properly their products and that would be damaging to the firm. With activity-based costing and management, all costs are accounted for with the help activity-drivers and overhead costs are decreased. In turn, the costs that the firm has for their products are more accurate and pricing is much easier.

For instance, the concept of cost estimation which assists in estimating future expenditure as the expenditure depends on the cost of the respective activities can be applied in the setting of a budget which is simply an estimate and schedule of all costs required to be assigned to an activity. One can make an estimation of the resources required for an activity by applying the cost estimation techniques. Since there are limiting factors to each activity such as scarcity of resources for activities, the concept of constraints can be applied together with the concept of cost volume profit analysis to ensure that maximum benefits are driven from the scarce resources and the number of activities that are available. This facilitates the allocation of resources that most equitable and profitable. The theory of constraints is also applicable in the process of setting up budgets. In setting up budget one considers the amount of resources that are available and cannot therefore set a budget plan that exceeds the amount of resources that are available. This implies that the budget is constrained by the amount of

In fact, many of these PMS tools and technological innovations were transformed based on those traditional ones to better meet the organisation needs in the contemporary era. More than 30 popular cost and management accounting techniques have been introduced since 1950 (Refer to Table1). Abdel and Luther (2006) described that the most notable innovative management accounting techniques are Activity based costing (ABC), strategic management accounting and the BSC. Among all the modern management accounting tools and techniques, this paper focuses on BSC as a performance measurement system and will be discussed in the next section.

The Burns and Scapens framework for analyzing managerial accounting change was built on the study of old institutional economics, which sees "economics as a process of social provision, subject to multiple and cumulative causation." This view culminates in a model that argues that the managerial accounting practices at institutions are subject to a process of constant change, influenced by routines and rules. The institutions contribute to these routines and rules, but so do actions on the part of managers within the institutions. By combining multiple influences over time, we arrive at modern managerial accounting practice. In other words, Burns and Scapens tells us that managerial accounting practice changes over time, influenced by a number of factors including rules, routines and actions.

During the 1980s the limitations of traditional product costing systems began to be widely publicised. These systems were designed decades ago when most companies manufactured a narrow range of products, and direct labour and materials were the dominant factory costs. Overhead costs were relatively small, and the distortions arising from inappropriate overhead allocations were not significant. Information processing costs were high, and it was therefore difficult to justify more sophisticated overhead allocation methods.