第一章成本概念和成本分类研究.ppt

* Right. The cost of ice cream and the cost of napkins for customers would be variable costs. As Baskins and Robbins sells more ice cream cones, we would expect the total cost of ice cream and napkins to increase. * A cost object is anything for which cost data are desired including products, customers, jobs, organizational subunits, etc. For purposes of assigning costs to cost objects costs are classified two ways: Direct costs are costs that can be easily and conveniently traced to a unit of product or other cost object. Examples of direct costs are direct material and direct labor. Indirect costs are costs that cannot be easily and conveniently traced to a unit of product or other cost object. An example of an indirect cost is manufacturing overhead. Common costs are indirect costs incurred to support a number of cost objects. These costs cannot be traced to any individual cost object. * It is important to realize that every decision involves a choice between at least two alternatives. The goal of making decisions is to identify those costs that are either relevant or irrelevant to the decision. Costs and benefits that differ between alternatives are relevant in a decision. All other costs and benefits are irrelevant and can and should be ignored. * Differential costs (or incremental costs) is a difference in cost between any two alternatives. A difference in revenue between two alternatives is called differential revenue. Differential costs can be either fixed or variable. For example, assume you have a job paying one thousand five hundred dollars per month in your hometown. You have a job offer in a neighboring city that pays two thousand dollars per month. The commuting cost to the city is three hundred dollars per month. In this example, the differential revenue is five hundred dollars and the differential cost is three hundred dollars. * Opportunity cost is the potential benefit that is given up when one alternative is selected over anothe