Cost Finding
The importance of cost finding Problems of cost finding Identification of costs Issuing and evaluating material Evaluation of labor costs Expense or burden Depreciation Distribution of factory expense Production centers and the supplementary rate Effect of volume of work on expense distribution Other features of expense distribution Distribution of administrative expense—résumé Assembling and recording costs Analysis and reduction of costs Predetermination of costs—materials and labor Predetermination of costs—expense Application of cost finding methods
Of late years, and as a direct result of growing competition in all branches of industrial enterprise, the subject of cost is receiving increased attention.
Every year sees hundreds of progressive concerns adopting methods designed to ascertain the real cost of producing and selling goods and of managing a business enterprise.
Manufacturers are no longer satisfied with merely making a profit. They want to know what lines are paying and what lines are not—not in a general way, but specifically in actual figures. They want to know which departments are producing economically and which are not.
In this part of the Course, the various methods of keeping track of costs are described and illustrated. Particular attention is given to the mixed question of allotting general factory expense or burden.
The possibilities of predicting costs are fully discussed and the significance of this development of cost finding methods is fully impressed upon the reader.
The problem of costs is one of the widest application in business management and its significance in different lines of business is pointed out.