Читать книгу Cost Accounting For Dummies - Kenneth W. Boyd - Страница 100

If you manufacture lawn mowers or provide landscaping services, job costing is pretty straightforward. With the help of this book (a shameless plug), you’ll understand the types of costs incurred, and be able to assign costs as either fixed or variable.

Cost accounting gets more complicated when you work in a consulting role — someone who gets paid for what they know. Doctors, attorneys, and architects are good examples. Sure, you can measure the hours worked by the consultant, but what about other costs? The costing process may get confusing, and you may not determine the total costs accurately. You know what that means: Without the correct total cost, you can’t price your product to reach a specific profit level.

As technology advances continue, business owners need more IT consulting help. In fact, you may be writing checks for IT services right now (and maybe I should have picked IT as a career). Since everyone needs IT help eventually, let’s use IT to understand how consultants use job costing to manage their businesses.

In this example, assume that Everest Investment Management is a money manager, and the owners need a better system to provide their clients with monthly investment statements. Customers benefit from statements that are clearly labeled, use colors, and present financial data using charts and graphs. Investors need to know where they stand financially, and a well-designed statement is a huge added value for customers, particularly for clients who are not financially savvy. I hope you’re buying what I’m selling here.