外文翻譯---成本核算現(xiàn)狀與經(jīng)濟(jì)計(jì)量動(dòng)態(tài)

1、外文資料翻譯—英文原文1CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN ACCOUNTINGAND THE DYNAMICS OF ECONOMICCALCULATION—THOMASC. TAYLORBACKGROUNDThe role of accounting as articulated in Austrian economic theory is securely fastened to the task of economi

2、c calculation. Ludwig vonMises distinguishes between prospective or anticipative calculation involving the “precalculation of expected costs and expected proceeds“ relating to a planned course of action and retrospective

3、 calculation that establishes the results of past action, the “accounting of profit or loss“ . And his devastating argument that the inability of the socialist planners to calculate the costs of alternative courses of ac

4、tion renders socialism impossible and establishes the critical role of cost accounting in business decisions under capitalism.One of the long-standing difficulties in cost accounting has been the allocation of “indirect

5、costs“ to various objects such as products, departments, divisions, etc. For example, traditional cost accounting has long depended on predetermined overhead rates in order to apply the indirect cost of manufacuring to d

6、ifferent products by means of some base such as direct labor cost or direct labor hours. Mises was well aware of the problem of assigning indirect costs for purposes of departmental profitability analysis.The elaborate m

7、ethods of modern bookkeeping, accountancy, and business statistics provide the enterpriser with a faithful image of all his operations. He is in a position to learn how successful or unsuccessful every one of his transac

8、tions was. With the aid of these statements he can check the activities of all departments of his concern no matter how large it may be. There is, to be sure, some amount of discretion in determining the distribution of

9、 overhead costs. But apart from this, the figures provide a faithful reflection of all that is going on in every branch or department.The remainder of this article will discuss more fully the problem of traditional cost

10、allocation as widely practiced today, and explain how some leading companies are implementing fundamentally new approaches to cost assignment and how these approaches create more effective tools for entrepreneurial decis

11、ions.THE PROBLEM OF TRADITIONAL COST ALLOCATIONThe assignment of indirect costs to products, departments, and other cost objects has been a long-standing problem in cost accounting. Indirect costs are distinguished 外文資料翻

12、譯—英文原文3activities that consume the resources. By determining the costs of different activities as a first stage in the costing process, objects can ultimately be assigned costs according to their demands for activities.

13、Separate predetermined activity rates are thus used rather than the amorphous overhead rates of traditional cost allocation.ABC is fundamentally different from traditional costing because it insists upon explicit cause-a

14、nd-effect connections between the various activities and costs (or consumption of resources) as a first stage; assigning costs to objects follows in a second stage involving the linkage of objects to activities through t

15、he use of activity cost drivers. An activity cost driver is “a quantitative measure of the output of an activity“ (Kaplan and Cooper 1998, p. 95). To illustrate, consider the activity of setting up a machine to process d

16、ifferent batches of materials. The activity cost driver would be setups or setup hours. Assume that total setup cost is $44,800 for a specific period of production. If the projected total number of setups is 70, then an

17、activity rate of $640 per setup would be used to cost different products depending on the number of setups required.Obviously, products manufactured in small lot sizes will be assigned disproportionately more of the setu

18、p cost than those produced in large runs. To illustrate further, assume that 1,000 units of Product A are produced each period requiring 30 setups to accommodate the small individual orders of customers. Also, Product B

19、is a large volume item involving the production and sale of 20,000 units and only 40 setups each period. Applying the setup rate of $640 per setup, Product A would be assigned $19,200 and Product B $25,600 for a total se

20、tup cost assigned of $44,800.ABC nonetheless has to deal with the fact that most costs of business operations today are fixed. In manufacturing, often the only purely variable costs relate to direct materials and to util

21、ities such as electricity. The issue is not unique to ABC, for even traditional overhead allocation cannot avoid the necessity of applying fixed overhead costs to products. The solution revolves around the determination

22、of the amount of capacity ascribed to the resources assigned to each activity. To illustrate, assume engineering resources cost $280,000 each period and have the capacity to produce 4,000 engineering change orders (the a

23、ctivity driver) each period. The activity rate of $70 per change order would be used to charge different products lines for using this engineering service. If during the period only 3,800 change orders were generated, a