作业成本法弥补传统成本会计的缺陷外文文献翻译译文 (2).doc

外文文献翻译译文 原文 Activity-Based Costing and Management Solutions to Traditional Shortcomings of Cost Accounting ABSTRACT: Traditional cost accounting has been one main, widely-used approach to costing both internally and externally. This general ledger system acts as the company’s thermometer measuring the health and wealth of the overall business.The conventional methodology though can only summarize the business expenses per the chart of accounts i.e., labor, material and other.As a result, the company lacks the ability to evaluate the internal efficiency, quality and profitability per product or service line.As a result, the company lacks the ability to evaluate the internal efficiency, quality and profitability per product or service line.The ABC/M approach records, summarizes and reports the spending into costs of activities or processes and eventually associated to each product, service and customers.“Unlike traditional accounting reports that make managers react to by being happy or sad, ABC/M data makes them smarter”[3]. KEY WORDS: Accounting, budgeting, cost, estimating, forecasting, life-cycle, and planning Traditionally quality cost accounting has been based on allocating a subjective or calculated range of indirect expenses to direct costs.Because of the increase of indirect and overhead expenses in recent decades, the conventional costing method has become ineffective for quality practitioners and managers. To illustrate, one product or service line may require more resources or time than another.But because the cost of indirect costs are based on a fixed percentage of direct costs i.e., labor and materials, the overhead expenses are misrepresented or recognized correctly to the final products or services. With the conventional means to cost accounting and cost of quality, it is very difficult to identify if such product or servicen is profitable and produced via quality processes or with less wastes [14]. The concept of activity-based cost