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
The text is pretty comprehensive and covers the subject of Cost Management broadly and deeply. Since there are not too many textbooks on the topic; therefore, authors are admired for their devoted efforts they put into. The publisher should understand the matter inside the book and manage the cost of this book and make it afforable to the students.
For students, it's tough beginning before learning "Cost Management", the book incurs too much cost and puzzles students how they should manage their own budgets. Anyway, it might be the strategy of the authors or the publishing company to begin the lessons from the sale. As one scholar said, "Experience is a tough teacher, which gives exams first and teaches lessons thereafter."
As far as the contents are concerned, the book is highly recommended, but at a lower price. Thank you for your time for reading this review.
Filled With Useless Information.......2006-09-01
If you want to wade through useless babble to get to the actual cost accounting, go at it. However, you'll probably buy this book anyway if you have an unscrupulous accounting professor who received a gift basket from the publisher.
In other words, it's useless to the student. However, I'm sure its very profitable for the publisher and the authors.
FOR THE PRICE, THIS BOOK SHOULD BE BETTER.......2006-03-23
This book should have been written better when you consider its expensive price tag. However, the review excercise at the end of the chapter is extremely helpful. I would recommend the book if serious improvements are made. Overall, it is not that bad.
Want to Cheat Someone.......2005-09-30
I made a mistake and chose the book they listed in the Amazon.com. When the book arrived, I saw that what they have listed was only a Study Guide from a really old edition. I must say that they have said this on the listing. That was my mistake. But I wrote them back that I do not want this book, and want to return it. But they do not accept the return and refund of money. They do know that it is hard to find someone again doing this mistake. I looked at the book. This is $ 10 worth, not more. And impossible to sell again. I am a student. I do not have so much money to afford the required book. So I got really frustrated and faced losts of problems in the following weeks and spent a lot of time and energy to get the right book. It is a really sad story and an experience for me. I hope the seller is right know enjoying my $ 139.71.
Too much info........2005-01-04
Too bad we're stuck with whatever book the professor assigns. Often reads like the authors needed to write 1,000 pages, regardless of the complexity of the material. I caught them several times referring to the same item with different terms. In-class instruction on methods will save you a ton of time.
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
Product purchase acknowldgement was near immediate, billing timely, receipt of product within three days and the exact product ordered received. Excellent.
Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing.......2007-05-13
I finished reading this book by Bob Kaplan - TIME-DRIVEN ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING last week.
Its a great book for folks familiar with the basic concepts and applications of Activity-based Costing/ABC. In a way Kaplan makes an apology to readers of his earlier books and ardent fans of ABC, for making their lives difficult with the practical implementation approaches for ABC, and offers to make up for it by proposing a change to the new approach called Time-driven Activity-based Costing or TDABC. Personally I would have preferred the term "Capacity-driven Activity-based Costing".
Ofcourse one cannot help but be sympathetic to Bob Kaplan. Having interacted with him in the past, I had an opportunity to see at close range the genius of this man and the range of his knowledge. The book is certainly a big leap in our knowledge-base and tools for managing for managing companies better.
Kaplan aso originated another methodology "THE BALANCED SCORECARD" (BSC), several books on the subject, and co-founded another firm to offer servies around it. He is however, no longer associated with the firm in any management capacity, and the firm is financially troubled.
I recommend Kaplan's BSC books wholeheartedly, but if you are looking to implement at your organizations, I would recommend inviting select independent consultants who have more experienced at this, than the one's available at this firm.
Professionals with a serious interest in TDABC could also do well to reach out directly to Bob Kaplan and his new firm (The Acorn Group), and his former students for consulting advise.
TDABC - a very interesting book.......2007-05-12
This book has given me a great insight in an easier way to allocate resources down to costumers and products using Time-driven cost driver rates.
However, I am a bit sceptical about the Capacity Cost rate, which seems to be the key element to this models success... especially the way the authors describes the way to calculate this rate.. But with some methodical procedure behing when implementing the model, it is possible to get good results.... that's my experience
All in all, it is a great book about the fundamentals when wanting to use TDABC in your business.
Book Description
A practical guide to the ABCs of ABB
This 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:
- Translating strategy into a process and activity frameworkâperforming activities and cross-functional processes that support strategy and assessing current performance against strategic goals
- Forecasting revenue, volume, and workloadâcustomer demographics and needs, the competition exploding a bill of activities, determining workload for special projects
- Capacity managementâcapacity defined, managing capacity, capacity management methodology, handling excess capacity
- Getting startedâcreating a business process budget, budget review panels, rank and select activities, cost budgeted activities
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.
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
Seller was very professional and honest. I received the book in perfect conditions and before the estimated time.
activity base management.......2000-02-25
very good and comprehensive book with up to date informatio
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
This is a clearly written and an exceptionally well illustrated explanation of Activity-Based Costing. If you are only going to read one book on ABC, this would be a good one to have.
Very Good Source of ABC Information.......2003-01-16
Gary has given us a very well written and exceptionally well illustrated guide to Activity-Based Costing. If you only read one book on ABC, make this it.
Cost Accounting Evolves.......2002-08-12
Gary Cokins is an internationally recognized an internationally know expert on cost management and performance improvement systems.
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
Excellent book! Being a software engineer for a company which develops both hardware and software tools for tracking and managing labor resources, I am always looking for new ways to associate the true cost of labor to development and production activities. I have been interested in ABC/ABM for several years now, but Gary's book really brought it home for me.
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
ABC is typically associated with manufacturing. My review is from the perspective of an IT consultant who employs ABC both as an internal tool for planning and managing consulting projects, and as a technique that I propose to clients.
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.
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.
In the last ten years doubt has been cast on the suitability of conventional costing systems as applied to contemporary industrial and commercial environments. In particular, product or service line costs may be distorted and cost management impeded by the difficulties of identifying cost driver relationships.
Activity based costing has been proposed as a solution to these problems.
This research report details instances of activity based costing in practice and includes the first three published British case studies in the areas of electronics, engineering and retailing. The problems of implementing an ABC system, and its limitations are also discussed.
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
This is one of the best finance/accounting books I have read. For practicing generalists, this book is right on target -- not too detailed, but detailed enough. What's more, it's excellently written! My only criticism is that the title is somewhat misleading -- alot of topics other than "cost management" are covered by the author. Highly recommended!
Easy to read with great examples.......2001-08-09
I really enjoyed reading this book. By far, it is one of the best I've read in the field of cost accounting. Lianabel does a great job explaining the concepts and bringing them to life with examples. By the way, if you're interested in ABC/ABM, Tom Pryor's book called "Using ABM for Continuous Improvement" is also a great book with lots of examples.
A great holiday gift for everyone at work! READ THIS BOOK!.......2000-11-21
Lianabel Oliver's book is an excellent simple book for managers and yes the general public! This book has helped understand the budgets the Administrator prepares in our office very year in terms of the importance of allocating effort and money to the continuously changing needs and demands of our work. It has also helped in formulating the right questions when I read the audit reports, budget projections, and income balance statements as a member of several board of directors.
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
"The Cost Management Toolbox" is an excellent reference book, being a very useful and practical tool for accounting and non-accounting professionals. I use it very often for day to day managerial accounting situations in which the concepts presented by an experienced professional as Lianabel Oliver are very helpful. It is very easy to understand, and its examples are clear and concise.
A very good reference book for non-accounting person.......2000-05-06
I find this book terrific, as my current work involve costing and I don't have any accounting background. It tells me the very logical way to know the how the cost really count-on. I do recommend it to any person who want to know costing more deeply.
Book Description
"Last year minus a few percent!"
"Do more with less!"
"Take it out of hide!"
"It's your problem to find the resources to do all I need!"
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.
Book Description
* A practical, cost-effective guide to ABC for small to medium companies.
* Identifies the key cost related issues in organizations and shows how to develop a cost-flow structure that reflects the organization's cost behavior.
* Feature an ongoing case study throughout the book documents the model-building process.
* Provides a spreadsheet model blueprint that details data flows.
* Shows how a cost model of an organization can be developed using basic spreadsheet software on a PC.
Customer Reviews:
Very detailed.......2002-10-25
Hicks has a lot to offer in this book on activity-based costing, however it is not an easy to read. It very quickly dives into the weeds of detail. I think this is a very good second book to read on Activity Based Costing, because it goes into the details of how to actually implement a system. I would recommend that you first read Kaplan's "Cost and Effect," to get a good grounding in the fundamentals before reading this book.
Must Buy for ABC.......2001-11-14
This is a fantastic book on the subject of ABC. The costing model constructed in the book goes into just enough detail to give you a practical foundation for actual implementation, without getting lost in minutiae. At just the right times, the author also reminds you about the big picture and doesn't let you go away thinking correct decisions can all be boiled down to exercises in number-crunching. This is a must-buy, if you're serious about implementing ABC in your organization.
It really makes it work.......2000-04-20
Activity-Based Costing: Making it Work for Small and Mid-Sized Companies, is a very well written and usefull handbook to design and implementation of Activity-Based Costing. It provides: a general description of key concepts of ABC, a practical guide to design of ABC system in the company, as well as description of any potential problems concerning implementation of ABC. I am working as a financial consultant (in Warsaw), and this book has helped me to help many companies that were loosing their cost-effectiveness. I think, that the author should have added some 100 pages to the book, and defined - described some aspects of Activity-Based Management - although that could have been too technical for most of the readers. Overall, I think that the book contains most of the knowledge needed for successful design & implementation of ABC. It really worked for me...
Doug Hicks - ABC Guru.......2000-03-05
This is a model of clear and effective writing and teaching. Certainly one of the best accounting books I've ever read, it gives you the tools to start ABC analysis at once and never strays into jargon. The many examples of different company types and the simple to use and understand spreadsheet analysis keeps you focused on the theory of ABC rather than minute details of allocations. A book to keep on your desk.
Literally breaks ground!.......2000-02-26
I can not quite imagine a single decision made in any company that does not concern cost. And, when it is about accurate costing, I can not imagine another book on business that can better assist than this one.
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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General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Study Guide for Hansen/Mowen's Cost Management: Accounting and Control, 5th
Intermediate Accounting
Intermediate Accounting
Intermediate Accounting 10th Edition(with Business and Company Resource Center)
Accounting Information Systems
