Proven strategy for reducing production and operating costs while increasing profits As the growth of the Internet shifts power to consumers, the pressure on companies to keep prices low will continue to mount. Increasingly corporations are relying on "margin management" and supply chain management as a means of keeping prices low while raising profits. Activity-based costing and management (ABC/M) data is key to succeeding in both these critical management strategies. This book explains how executives can effectively use the information furnished by cutting-edge ABC/M systems. The author, an acknowledged expert in the field, clearly defines the ABC/M system and explains how to use the information it provides for best results. He provides a rational framework for understanding the fifteen key defining characteristics of ABC/M and arms readers with an ABC/M Readiness Assessment test along with extremely user-friendly exhibits.

Everything you need to streamline agency costs and expenditures. You've heard about the enormous savings potential of Activity-Based Cost Management (ABC/M) -- now it's time to put this powerful system to work in your organization. This 400+ page book guides you through every phase of activity-based accounting, from setting up a basic system through its organizational implementation. In one concise resource, you now have everything you need to streamline all aspects of your organization's costs and expenditures. Written in easy-to-understand language and clearly illustrated, Gary Cokins's book provides the financial techniques to determine the true and actual costs of services and cost rates; implement process improvements departmentally and organization-wide; evaluate the pros and cons of outsourcing and privatization decisions versus internal delivery; and align financial and budgetary activities to the organization's mission and strategic plan. As part of the Editor's Choice Series, this book is offered as a professional reference for SAS users. This title addresses concepts related to using SAS, but it is not specific to SAS and does not include SAS examples. 2001.

Managerial cost accounting is the financial and managerial tool that is used to estimate the organizational cost of products and services in business and government. In recent decades, cost accounting in the United States and other advanced industrial countries has been dominated by discussions of Activity Based Costing or ABC. While ABC can be shown to produce a more accurate estimate of cost than older and more basic types of cost accounting, ABC is not used extensively in many governments. We argue that this recent focus on ABC has stifled examination and discussion of how government cost accounting is being used and how it could be used in practice. The study of cost accounting practice reveals an important and underexplored area of financial management in government. Given the scandals that cost accounting estimates can create and that different types of cost accounting can create different estimates of cost it may be reasonable to ask whether the cost accounting exercise is worth it? Cost Accounting in Government: Theory and Applications addresses these unusual and unusually important topics through a series of studies of different government cost accounting practices. The first section of the book presents two chapters on the history and basic elements of cost accounting. The second section of the book provides further discussion and case studies of actual cost accounting practices in the main areas that cost accounting has been used in government: benchmarking the performance of government services, rate setting, grant overhead cost recovery, and cost management. The last two chapters discuss cost accounting practices in Europe and the future of cost accounting. These cases span local and federal governments and provide a much needed context to the study of cost accounting in government. Aimed at academics, researchers and policy makers in the fields of Accounting, Public Administration, and Government Studies, Cost Accounting in Government: Theory and Applications seeks to address the practical and theoretical gap in government cost accounting research with case studies of different public agencies that are using cost accounting for different purposes. The case studies illustrate that different purposes for cost accounting create unique and interesting cost accounting practices. The case studies provide useful examples of actual cost accounting systems that can inform both research and instruction

Corporate Accounting The ABCs of ABM Activity-based management (ABM) has already proven extremely valuable to manufacturers in helping them cut waste, improve quality, reduce cycle times, and get their products to market faster. Now revised and expanded, this indispensable resource illustrates how ABM can be applied to all types of organizations-including service groups, government agencies, and nonprofit entities-and any department within them. Using a variety of examples, authors James A. Brimson and John Antos examine a company structure and break down its separate activities to measure each activity's cost/performance effectiveness. Introducing an innovative five-step approach to calculating activity cost, they provide tangible performance criteria linked to time, value, service, quality, flexibility, cost, and performance-to-schedule, and demonstrate how to use activity analysis to ensure that price structure is reflective of total costs. A vital tool for modern times, this is essential reading for CEOs, operations executives, controllers, managers, and others who are seeking a comprehensive, up-to-date guide on activity-based management and its proper implementation.

Provides step-by-step guidance on implementing and using a value-based management system within the government Countless books on proposed management practices have been written and published over the past century. Some of these have focused on specific management practices for government. In more recent decades, the topics of strategic planning, performance management, cost management and risk management have been extensively covered. However, little has been offered as an approach to integrate these and numerous other management methods and practices in a manner that maximizes the delivery of value to the organization’s key stakeholders. A general management framework is presented in this book in a manner particularly applicable to government organizations. Value-Based Management in Government introduces a new, integrating framework for management practices that optimizes the balancing of results sought; resources supplied and allocated; and risks accepted. These considerations are all balanced for the purpose of delivering maximum stakeholder value. The book offers guidance on how strategic planning, performance management, cost/resource management, and risk management must all be integrated as part of a portfolio management framework across the organization. The book also discusses the role of information technology (IT) in providing data for insights and decision-making, and the importance of organizational change management to implement the needed organizational and behavioral changes. Beginning by explaining the concept of Value-Based Management for the public sector and government, the text goes on to explore topics such as the evolutionary stages of maturity of management accounting, the benefit of attributes (e.g., value-add versus nonvalue-add) in cost data, predictive planning with expense projections, risk management, and various performance measurements (e.g., key performance indicators [KPIs] ). This authoritative book: Discusses a framework for balancing and integrating cost, performance, and risk Explains IT systems integration issues related to activity-based cost management (ABC/M) Addresses why some ABC/M implementation projects fail to meet expectations Describes how quality management efforts can be measured in financial terms Explores the wider uses of predictive accounting (e.g., driver-based budgeting, what-if scenario analysis) Provides organizational change management insights and recommendations needed to achieve the required changes in management decision-making. Value-Based Management in Government is an important source of information for leaders, executives, managers, and employee teams working within or with government organizations.

Government organizations spend enormous amounts of money. They employ a large percentage of the work force. They have an undeniably huge impact on the national economy and wealth. Yet they are, for the most part, unmanaged. What passes for management is a combination of oversight and audit. Oversight is primarily reactive: offering negative feedback for failures and demanding additional rules and regulations to prevent reoccurrences. Audits look for "bright line" discrepancies and clear violations to those rules and regulations. Government operations are often criticized for "waste and mismanagement."Yet the current situation, unfortunately, can best be described as one of "un-management" rather than "mis-management." Government can run better. The purpose of this book is to look at how government can move from "rule driven" to "leadership driven" management. Specifically, it will document and discuss specific examples of successful cost informed decision making and cost management and control in government. It will also delineate the requirements of such success and explore the special needs of transforming the management culture of government from its well embedded past practices to a new paradigm of leadership driven management.