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Clearly organized and readable, this work is a good introduction to cost accounting for someone with little prior course work or experience in the field. Most chapters include a list of suggested readings. Good index. Most appropriate for community college or public library collections.
ChoiceIn response to the expanding roles of accountants in all types of organizations, cost accounting is becoming increasingly multidimensional, relying not only on traditional accounting principles, but also on behavioral, organizational, decisional, and other foundations. These conceptual foundations and their applications to cost accounting practices form the basis of this handbook, which offers both accounting students and professionals a comprehensive review and interpretation of cost accounting techniques and theories. By treating both traditional and newer dimensions of the discipline, the book defines a new scope and boundary that presents cost accounting in a multidimensional framework.
Ahmed Belkaoui presents his material from three different perspectives. First, he shows how the fields of cost accounting, economics, behavioral science, operations research, statistics, and mathematics provide the tools as well as the concepts necessary for the classification, accumulation, and reporting of relevant data for internal decision making and for the interpretation and evaluation of resulting decisions. Second, he demonstrates how standard cost accounting techniques can be complemented by other possible approaches to problems, stressing not only the descriptive but also the normative solutions to cost accounting problems. Finally, he examines how cost accounting techniques affect the planning and control of routine and nonroutine decisions, inventory valuation and income determination. Among the major new developments addressed are variance analysis, learning phenomena in cost estimation, flexible manufacturing systems, and behavioral considerations in cost allocation. This work will be especially valuable for professional accountants and graduate students preparing for an accounting career, and an important resource for academic and public libraries.
List of contents
Preface
The Conceptual Foundations of Cost Accounting
Cost Theory, Classification, and Accounting
Cost Estimation Techniques: Fundamentals
Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
Divisionalization and Performance Measurement
Transfer Pricing
Planning Principles
Control Principles, Part 1
Control Principles, Part 2
Control Principles: Mix, Yield, and Investigation
Cost Estimation and Regression Analysis
Cost Accumulation for Product Costing: Job-Order Costing
Process Costing
Accounting for Quality Costs
Direct versus Absorption Costing: Inventory and Decision Making
Relevant Costing and Pricing Decisions
Cost Allocation, Part 1
Cost Allocation, Part 2
Index
About the author
AHMED BELKAOUI is Professor of Accounting at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is a recognized authority on accounting. He has served as a consultant to corporations, institutions, and governments throughout the world. Among his recent books are
Human Information Processing in Accounting (Quorum, 1989),
Industrial Bonds and the Rating Process,
International Accounting,
Socio-Economic Accounting,
Public Policy and the Problems and Practices of Accounting, and
The Learning Curve (all published by Quorum Books). He is the author of more than 70 articles and reviews.
