Faaliyete dayalı maliyetlendirme ve bir uygulama

Abstract

Rekabetin son derece yoğun, teknolojinin baş döndürücü bir hızla yenilendiği 21. yüzyîlîn eşiğindeki günümüzde; firmaların başarısını doğrudan etkileyen faktörlerin başında maliyetler gelmektedir. "Maliyetler" 1950' lere kadar bir yüzyıldan uzun süreden beri kullanılmakta olan geleneksel maliyetlendirme sistemleri teknikleri ile belirleniyor ve amaca yeterince hizmet edebiliyordu. 1950'lerde başlayan teknolojik gelişmelerin giderek hızlanması, otomasyon ve bilgisayarların yaşama uyarlanması bir bakıma da mavi gömleklilerin giderek azalması yanında beyaz gömleklilerin çoğalmasını, dolayısıyla da doğrudan yapılan ağırlıklı işlemlerin yerine büro ve destek hizmetlerinin artması ile sonuçlanmıştır. Maliyetlerin doğru mamul, hizmet veya müşterilere yöneltilmesi işte bu noktada önemli sorunlara sebep olmuş, maliyet muhasebesi sistemine yardımcvı ve ek olabilecek "Faaliyete Dayalı Maliyetlendirme"den söz edilir olmuştur. Bunun temelinde kaynakların faliyetlere, faaliyetlerin de ürün veya çıktılara tahsis edilmesi yatmaktadır. Tabii ki burada en önemli faktörün de "Maliyet Güdüm" lerinin tanımlanmasının olduğunu vurgulamak gerekir. Üretim sistemlerinde FDM'yi uygulamak fazlaca zor olmamakla birlikte; pazarlama, lojistik, malzeme işleme sistemleri vb. firma içi faaliyetlere ayarlanması daha zor, fakat firma başarısı için hayati önem taşımaktadır. Son olarak da sanayiden bir örnek" ile konu incelenmiş ve stratejik olarak firma başarısına etkisinin ne denli önemli olduğunu gösterilmeye çalışılmıştır. Girişilecek yeni yatırımlardan, çıkarılacak yeni ürünlere ve hatta yapılacak ambalaj değişikliklerine kadar birçok kararda kullanılacak FDM yönteminin yararları yadsınamaz. FDM yönteminin, kendi başına bir "maliyet muhasebesi" sistemi olmadığını bir kez daha vurgulamakta yarar vardır.

Activity based costing (ABC) has focused on the process of calculating more accurate product costs. In this study, it is shown that ABC recognizes the importance of improved product costs. The activity accounting approach to cost management breaks down a firm into activities. An activity describes what an enterprise does, how the time is spent, and the outputs of the process. A business is a series of interrelated processes and these processes are consisted of activities that convert inputs to outputs. ABC believes that cost is caused and that the causes of cost can be managed. I searched to show how to determine the costs of the activities using the activity-based process costing and how to use the results of the activity-based costing to; - calculate improved costs for products, - urge cost reduction efforts, - encourage process development efforts, The steps of a simple and effective activity accounting systems are; 1. determining of activities, 2. determining of activity cost and performance, 3. determining output of the activity, 4. tracing activity costs to products, customers or other cost objectives, 5. determining critical success factors, 6. evaluating activity effectiveness and efficiency. IX Activity and traditional cost accounting systems are contrasted. Activity accounting stops the misuse of resources that usually is associated with cross- subsidized allocation. Why implement ABC? Activity accounting has been implemented by various companies in many ways to solve different problems, such as, to calculate a product cost in make/buy decisions, to control labor by activity or material stock flows, to develop a better understanding of factors that cause overhead, and to stop rising office support costs. The companies are implementing the activity accounting due to four common reasons: - Product cost, - Managing cash and liquidity, - Cost control, and - Decision support. In ABC, activities are usually defined as processes or procedures that cause work. A cost objective is an end item for which the accumulation of costs is defined. A cost driver is a factor used to measure how a cost is incurred and/ or how best to change the cost to activities or product [ 8 ], [ 9 ]. ABC uses two major steps. First, it determines the costs of significant activities, then assigns the costs of the activities to products or to other "objects" of interest such as customers or services. The first phase is the "activity based process costing" and the second phase is activity-based product costing. ABC is applicable to service organizations as it is to manufacturers. Also, it is as applicable in determining the cost of services, customers or lines of business as it is in determining the costs of produced products. What we should not do with ABC? Specifically we don't want to undermine or lose ground in our company's efforts to improve quality or reduce cycle time by action that we take in response to the ABC numbers. Often, ABC projects reveal that the costs of batch-related activities are surprisingly higher. x Key components of an activity accounting system are the following Step 1 Activity Analysis Step 2 Lifecyle Natural Expense Step 3a Resource tracing Intercompany Step 3b Activities Step 3c Activity measure Calculation of Cost per activity Step 4 Performance measurement Step 5 Business process Step 6 Material Order Organization Customer Technology Administration Function Step 7 Products [1] ABC systems as resource usage systems: ABC systems XI estimate the cost of resource used in organizational processes to produce outputs. The measurement of unused capacity provides the critical link between the costs of resources used, as measured by an ABC model, and the costs of resources supplied or available, as reported by the periodic financial reports. The short formula is the following: Activity Availability = Activity Usage + Unused Capacity Some companies use ABC information to price their products and also to decide on product mix. Activity accounting is a powerful tool for managing big companies through a detail assessment of their activities. ABC and performance data provide managers with information needed to determine accurate product cost, improve business processes, eliminate non value added products or activities, identify cost drivers, plan operations, and develop of company strategies. In a service organization, a change in cost driver techniques will provide better cost information in comparision to manufacturing firms. Cost allocations are arbitrary and cannot be proven correct (or in correct) because they depend on subjective judgement and not on a verifiable cause/effect relationship. The cost drivers are the most appropriate method of assigning costs to a product or service. ABC directly relates activities to the products that consume them. An activity based product cost is derived by tracing the usage of all activities necessary to build a product. ABC is not enough for the totality of an accounting, system, it is only a support part to understand the costs, and their flows, and to keep under the management control, otherwise Xll we never see actual costs and their causes and we can not take the necessary strategic actions for the future. ABC not for everyone! The implementation of an ABC system can be extremely time consuming and expensive. Intensive interviews must be held, when the required information is not available or ready. Once the system is established a company culture change must occur to view costs from a cost driver stand point rather than a labor point of view. An important feature of business processes is that they transcend organizational boundaries. For example the introduction of a new product will be related to var ions cost subject, such as marketing, manufacturing, design and development. ^ _. Product costing is enhanced by more specific tracing of support costs that have tradionally been lumped in overhead and allocated to all products. Activity product cost is derived by identifying the materials and activities necessary to build a product and determining the quantity of activity for each product. Product cost is determined by summing the costs of all traceable activities. ABC costing requires firms to focus on and under stand the relationships between costs and activity. Cost driver methodology allows firms to satisfy the reasons for performing cost allocations, including performance evaluation and pricing by wing cause/effect relationships. As an alternative to traditional product costing techniques, ABC attempts to identify the reason for the existence of an overhead item. These reasons, or cost drivers, are set up as the activity bases for allocating the cost. An ABC system analyzes overhead to determine activities and drivers. Once the cost drives are established, the overhead is allocated to the cost objective based on the volume of its driver. The obvious benefit of ABC, in general, is a more equitable distribution of bonuses. Under the old system, waste was rewarded while efficiency was punished. ABC provides better information for pricing, resource allocation, marketing, and other strategic management decisions. Xlll Like many business ideas and vogue, JIT, MRP, etc., activity base costing is no magic formula to success. It is all part of tue step by step process of improvement. Some possible shortcomings of ABC are; - It deals only a proportion of overhead costs. - Costs such as directors' salaries and Board Costs can not be allocated to products in a better way the conventional Costing Method. - The implementation of ABC can cause significant personnel problems. _ It becomes, because difficult to exercise and will fail to motivate, especially when significant benefits can not be initially identified.