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Cost Management: Accounting and Control
Don R. Hansen , and Maryanne M. Mowen Manufacturer: South-Western College Pub ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
Accessories: ASIN: 0324233108 |
Book Description
COST MANAGEMENT emphasizes that changing conditions often require a change in systems. Emphasizing this point stresses the dynamic and exciting nature of the field. By taking a systems approach -- one that first covers functional-based cost and control and then activity-based cost systems -- students understand how to understand and manage any cost management system.Customer Reviews:
TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY; THAT'S A QUESTION!.......2007-03-16
Filled With Useless Information.......2006-09-01
FOR THE PRICE, THIS BOOK SHOULD BE BETTER.......2006-03-23
Want to Cheat Someone.......2005-09-30
Too much info........2005-01-04
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Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing: A Simpler and More Powerful Path to Higher Profits
Robert S. Kaplan , and Steven R. Anderson Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 1422101711 |
Book Description
In the classroom, activity-based costing (ABC) looks like a great way to manage a company's limited resources. But executives who have tried to implement ABC in their organizations on any significant scale have often abandoned the attempt in the face of rising costs and employee irritation. Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing is the solution to the problems associated with large-scale ABC implementation. In this book, Kaplan and Anderson offer a revised model where managers can estimate the resource demands imposed by each transaction, product, or customer, rather than rely on time-consuming and costly employee surveys.In their new model, Kaplan and Anderson focus on the two parameters managers need to estimate: how much it costs per time unit to supply resources to the business activities (the total overhead expenditure of a department divided by the total number of minutes of employee time available) and how much time it takes to carry out one unit of each kind of activity (as estimated or observed by the manager). Rather than endlessly updating and maintaining ABC data, this book with allow managers to spend their time addressing the deficiencies the model reveals: inefficient processes, unprofitable products and customers, and excess capacity.
Kaplan and Anderson lead the discussion of Time-Driven ABC in the first seven chapters, followed by individual cases studies of actual implementations by Acorn consultants in diverse settings.
Customer Reviews:
Great Service.......2007-05-29
Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing.......2007-05-13
TDABC - a very interesting book.......2007-05-12
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Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting
James A. Brimson , and John Antos Manufacturer: Wiley ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0471086312 |
Book Description
A practical guide to the ABCs of ABBThis unique resource takes an in-depth look at creating value through activity-based budgeting (ABB). As most organizations are dissatisfied with some aspects of their performance, ABB has become an increasingly popular process for which many companies are abandoning traditional methods that no longer meet their demands. Emphasizing the importance of budgeting by activities and features rather than by cost elements, Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting offers a complete overview of feature costing, a technique used in conjunction with ABB, as well as the underlying principles of ABB, including linking strategy to activities, forecasting revenue, capacity management, and gap analysis. With numerous examples and case studies, it shows how to use state-of-the-art tools for achieving strategic goals, such as customer survey, core competency analysis, benchmarking, house of activities, reverse engineering to cascade strategy so everyone can act to create value for the organization.
In today's highly pressurized business environment, creating value is the number one priority for organizations. The key to achieving this is having a budget and accounting system that supports long-term goals. More and more organizations are now turning to activity-based budgeting (ABB), an innovative approach that can help organizations become more competitive by linking the budgeting process to organization strategy. Explaining the importance of budgeting by activities rather than by cost elements, this groundbreaking resourceâthe first book of its kindâis a practical how-to that covers the essentials of Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting.
Beginning with an overview of the fundamentals behind driving value, James Brimson and John Antos examine what exactly value is, how it is created, and why traditional planning and budgeting often lead to the destruction of value. Following a clear outline of the problems posed by the traditional budgeting process, the authors go on to explain that many companies have contemplated abandoning it altogether. In doing so, however, they must set performance targets and identify actions to achieve the targets: "Once those actions are implemented, there is a need to monitor the execution. Therefore, to drive value creation, organizations are implementing activity-based budgeting (ABB)." This comprehensive guide offers in-depth coverage of ABB and feature costing, a technique used in conjunction with ABB. ABB creates value by translating the business strategy into the activities necessary to implement that strategy. Feature costing creates value by understanding sources of product and customer variation and relating this variation to expected workload. Along with the benefits of using ABB and feature costing, Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting addresses such essential topics as:
Filled with numerous examples and case studies, a complete glossary, and an appendix of target-setting techniques, this is must reading for everyone in your organization since all participants must continually ask themselves how they create value.
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Activity-Based Management: A Comprehensive Implementation Guide
Edward Forrest Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 007021588X |
Book Description
Easy Activity-Based Management Implementation. Everyone's touting activity-based management (ABM) as the best costing method for reengineering and TQM inititatives. But where do you begin? Edward Forrest's groundbreaking Activity-Based Management: A Comprehensive Implementation Guide. This exhaustive guide takes you step-by-step through each stage of planning, organizing, implementing, and managing your own ABM program to support continuous improvement, boost profits, and eliminate non-value added activities. You get expert guidance on everything from streamlining data collection and analysis to using the results to boost ROI. You even get all the ready-to-use forms, reports, and procedures you need to facilitate and measure your program's progress.Customer Reviews:
Excellent!.......2005-03-12
activity base management.......2000-02-25
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Activity-Based Cost Management Making It Work: A Manager's Guide to Implementing and Sustaining an Effective ABC System
Gary Cokins Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0786307404 |
Book Description
ABC: Your Blueprint for Success. ``Cokins' ability illustrate the effectiveness of ABC to those unfamiliar with financial applications and terminology is a major strength of his book. It should be required reading for companies that need to strengthen their commitment to ABC/ABM.''--Dan E. Cowan, Manager, Finance Training and Education, Chrysler Corporation. Activity-based costing is today's superior method for both identifying improvement opportunities and measuring benefits of performance initiatives. Read Gary Cokins' book Activity-Based Cost Management: Making It Work for every answer you need on executing and sustaining an effective ABC management system, explanations on why you should use ABC and explicit, clear-cut descriptions of steps you must take to implement ABC into your company.Customer Reviews:
Excellent Coverage of ABC.......2003-01-17
Very Good Source of ABC Information.......2003-01-16
Cost Accounting Evolves.......2002-08-12
He wrote this book in 1996 to help managers see the interconnections between time, quality, capacity, flexibility and cost in an effort to achieve superior payback performance using product and service costing techniques that were more realistic and accurate than that day's cost accounting systems.
Written in clear language with pertinent examples, the book provides managers with a framework for managers to map cost flows, increase profits, improve decision-making and implement activity-based cost management. Although the system is complex, Cokin remains down-to-earth and pointed in his analysis.
Gives you a great understanding of ABC Concepts ý Read It!.......2001-08-12
This book is easy to read and understand. It flows well and has some great graphics and flow charts that help paint a very vivid picture of ABC processes.
It is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the concepts and challenges of designing and implementing an ABC System. I would highly recommend it.
Great job Gary!
Complete, industry neutral and unbiased - Recommended!.......2001-02-25
This book is, in my opinion, one of the best I have read on the subject. It is not biased to any specific industry, and is not a gushing testimonial to ABC. In fact, the book starts with some pitfalls of ABC and how to avoid them, then goes into a frank discussion of why such systems fail. The book also contains a chapter on common misconceptions of ABC and succinctly dispells them. I appreciate not only the author's balanced approach, but the great advice he gives to make an ABC implementation successful.
If you are new to ABC the framework that is provided for mapping cost flows is going to be invaluable and key to understanding activity-based cost management. I especially liked the chapter on the unification of time, cost and quality - these are the real reasons for implementing ABC and the author does a great job of explaining the interrelationships.
The best part of this book is the chapters that address implementation. The approach taken by the author is straightforward, but admittedly not simple. The roadmap the author provides is an excellent starting point for an implementation plan, as is the advice on ongoing operations in an ABC management environment.
In my industry, IT consulting, this book provides an excellent approach to determining total cots of ownership (TCO) for systems and applications. This is not well understood by my colleagues or clients, and is further clouded by conflicting material from some industry analysts that will go unnamed. I believe that ABC is the only viable approach to getting this aspect of information technology under control. ABC is also an excellent tool for planning outsourcing engagements because you can see where the cost drivers are and systematically eliminate them. If you are doing this from the client side you will greatly reduce cost risk; if from the outsourcing provider side you will improve profitability. ABC is also useful to IT consultants and consulting companies to design services or to eliminate service offerings that are not profitable. Using techniques to examine contribution margin is the norm - using ABC is far more powerful.
Bottom line: this book clearly explains activity-based cost management, provides an unbiased discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of its use, and shows how to effectively implement it in an organization. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is exploring ABC or is involved in an ABC implementation.
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Activity-Based Costing: A Review with Case Studies (CIMA Research S.)
John Innes , and Falconer Mitchell Manufacturer: CIMA Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0948036729 |
Book Description
Few management accounting developments have aroused such interest among academics and users as activity based costing (ABC). This book adds to the growing body of knowledge on activity based costing and contributes to the important debate on its potential as a profitability enhancer within industry.
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The Cost Management Toolbox: A Manager's Guide to Controlling Costs and Boosting Profits
Lianabel Oliver Manufacturer: American Management Association ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 081447053X |
Book Description
How to use financial information to strategically manage costs. Managers rarely get financial information the way they really need it. How can a nonfinancial manager minimize costs with the financial information he or she does get? By reading and absorbing this clear, concise new book.THE COST MANAGEMENT TOOLBOX lucidly explains how financial information--especially information relating to costs--is generated and reported in today's service and manufacturing organizations. Avoiding hard-to-grasp technicalities, it shows business professionals how to: * Accurately determine how well their business is performing * Quickly diagnose financial and operational problems * Effectively evaluate new business propositions * Confidently forecast future trends and project future costs * Strategically plan and prepare a departmental budget * Strictly analyze costs, including the rarely-discussed area of service costing.
Customer Reviews:
One of the Best!.......2004-03-13
Easy to read with great examples.......2001-08-09
A great holiday gift for everyone at work! READ THIS BOOK!.......2000-11-21
Practical questions are introduced in each chapter and the analyses tools to deal with them are provided in both a simple and a more complex manner. The complex concepts are extremely well explained. Someone like myself, with no formal financial background could understand the concepts and reason through the chapters. One of the most amazing aspects of the book is that it draws on the very vast experience of the author with concrete examples that illustrate the points she is making and shows the various paths that one might take --the good and the bad. Showing the bad choices one can make and how to solve the problems this creates is seldom found in professional literature.
This book should be required reading for business people in general but most importantly for those businesses that deal directly with costumers. For example, chapter 8 will show both how to effectively measure the financial performance of these people-related businesses and how to improve the quality of service (cost management).
An Excellent Toolbox for Managerial Accounting.......2000-09-27
A very good reference book for non-accounting person.......2000-05-06
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Implementing Activity-Based Cost Management: Moving from Analysis to Action : Implementation Experiences at Eight Companies (Bold Step Research)
Robin Cooper , and Robert S. Kaplan Manufacturer: Inst of Management Accountants ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0866412069 |
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An Introduction to Activity-based Budgeting: Key Concepts of ABC, ABB, and Cost-Based Rate Setting for Chargebacks
N. Dean Meyer Manufacturer: NDMA Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1892606135 |
Book Description
"Last year minus a few percent!"These are symptoms.
The root cause: Traditional budgeting methods don't support rational financial decision making, and they set departments up for failure.
A traditional budget estimates the costs of compensation, travel, training, licenses, etc. Based on those numbers how can executives make fiscally sound decisions about allocating the corporations resources? How can anybody know what your budget does and does not pay for?
A budget should estimate the cost of investment opportunities, as a basis for judging returns on investments. It should clearly define what's funded, to match expectations to resources. In other words, the solution is an "activity-based budget" -- a budget for products and services, not cost factors. ABB incorporates the principles of activity-based costing, zero-based budgeting, and investment portfolio management. It also produces consistent, cost-based rates (prices for chargebacks).
This executive overview describes the concept, the benefits, the process, and practical implementation issues.
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Activity-Based Costing: Making it Work for Small and Mid-Sized Companies
Douglas T. Hicks Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0471249599 |
Book Description
* A practical, cost-effective guide to ABC for small to medium companies.Customer Reviews:
Very detailed.......2002-10-25
Must Buy for ABC.......2001-11-14
It really makes it work.......2000-04-20
Doug Hicks - ABC Guru.......2000-03-05
Literally breaks ground!.......2000-02-26
First, the author defines the concept, states the reasons why Activity Based Costing should be implemented in every company, and then thoroughly shows you how to do it. Since the main step-by-step example in the book concentrates on a small manufacturing organization, those who are applying the concept to service organizations may have a harder time making the translation to their specific situations. Still, I don't think that will be much of an issue. The book is very well-written and must be digested by every professional with a passion for improving their company and seize a competitive advantage.
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