成本会计名词解释

名词解释

CH3

Breakeven point: the quantity of output sold at which total revenues equal total costs-that is, the

quantity of output sold that results in $0 of operating income.

Contribution income statement: it groups costs into variable costs and fixed costs to highlight

contribution margin.

Contribution margin: the difference between total revenues and total variable costs.

Contribution margin per unit: the difference between selling prices and variable cost per unit.

Contribution margin percentage: it equals contribution margin per unit divided by selling price.

Cost-volume-profit analysis: it examines the behavior of total revenues, total costs, and

operating income as changes occur in the units sold, the selling price, the variable cost per unit,

or the fixed costs of a producer.

Degree of operating leverage: contribution margin divided by operating income.

Gross margin percentage: it’s the gross margin divided by revenues.

Margin of safety: the amount by which budgeted revenues exceed breakeven revenues.

Net income: the operating income plus non-operating revenues minus income taxes minus

non-operating costs.

Operating leverage: it describes the effects that fixed costs have on changes in operating income

as changes occur in units sold and contribution margin.

PV graph: it shows how changes in the quantity of units sold affect operating income.

Revenue driver: a variable that causally affects revenues.

Sales mix: the quantities of various products that constitute total unit sales of a company.

Sensitivity analysis: a “what-if” technique that managers use to examine how an outcome will

change if the original predicated data are not achieved or if an underlying assumption changes.

Uncertainty: the possibility that an actual amount will deviate from an expected amount.

CH6

Activity-based budgeting: it focuses on the budgeted cost of the activities necessary to produce

and sell products and services.

Budgetary slack: it describes the practice of understanding budgeted revenues

Continuous budget: a budget that is always available for a specified future period.

Controllability: the degree of influence that a specific manager has over costs, revenues, or

related items for which he or she is responsible.

Controllable costs: any cost that is primarily subject to the influence of a given responsibility

center manager for a given period.

Cost center: the manager is accountable for costs only.

Financial budget: that part of the master budget made up of the capital expenditures budget, the

cash budget, the budgeted balance sheet, and the budgeted statement of cash flows.

Financial planning models: the mathematical representations of the relationships among

operating activities, financing activities, and other factors that affect the master budget.

Investment center: the manager is accountable for investments, revenues, and costs.

Kaizen budgeting: explicitly incorporates continuous improvement anticipated during the budget

period into the budget numbers.

Master budget: it expresses management’s operating and financial plans for a specified period,

and it includes a set of budgeted financial statements.

Operating budget: it includes the budgeted income statement and its supporting schedules.

Organization structure: an arrangement of lines of responsibility within the organization.

Profit center: the manager is accountable for revenues and costs.

Responsibility center: it’s a part, segment, or subunit of an organization whose manager is

accountable for a specified set of activities.

Responsibility accounting: a system that measures the plans, budgets, actions, and actual results

of each responsibility center.

Revenue center: the manager is accountable for revenues only.

CH7

Benchmarking: it’s the continuous process of comparing the levels of performance on producing

products and services and executing activities against the best levels of performance in

competing companies or in companies having similar processes.

Effectiveness: the degree to which a predetermined objective or target is met.

Efficiency: the relative amount of inputs used to achieve a given output level.

Efficiency variance: the difference between actual input quantity used and budgeted input

quantity allowed for actual output, multiplied by budgeted price.

Favorable variance: it has the effect, when considered in isolation, of increasing operating

income relative to the budgeted amount.

Flexible budget: it calculates budgeted revenues and budgeted costs based on the actual output

in the budget period.

Flexible-budget variance: it’s the difference between an actual result and the corresponding

flexible-budget amount.

Input-price variance: a price variance for direct manufacturing labor.

Management by exception: it’s the practice of focusing management attention on areas that are

not operating as expected and devoting less time to areas operating as expected.

Price variance: the difference between actual price and budgeted price multiplied by actual input

quantity.

Rate variance: price variance for direct manufacturing labor.

Sales-volume variance: the difference between a flexible-budget amount and corresponding

static-budget amount.

Selling-price variance: the flexible-budget variance for revenues.

Standard: it is a carefully determined price, cost, or quantity that is used as a benchmark for

judging performance.

Standard cost: it is a carefully determined cost of a unit of output.

Standard input: it is a carefully determined quantity of input required for one unit of output.

Standard price: it is a carefully determined price that a company expects to pay for a unit of

input.

Static budget: it is based on level of output planned at the start of the budget period.

Static-budget variance: the difference between the actual result and the corresponding

budgeted amount in the static budget.

Unfavorable variance: it has the effect, when viewed in isolation, of decreasing operating income

relative to the budgeted amount.

Variance: the difference between actual results and expected performance.

CH8

Denominator level: the number of cost driver is the denominator in the budgeted fixed overhead

rate computation.

Denominator-level variance: the difference between budgeted fixed overhead and fixed

overhead allocated on the basis of actual output produced.

Fixed overhead flexible-budget variance: the difference between actual fixed overhead costs and

fixed overhead costs in the flexible budget.

Fixed overhead spending variance: it’s the same amount as the fixed overhead flexible-budget

variance.

Standard costing: a costing system that (a) traces direct costs to output produced by multiplying

the standard prices or rates by the standard quantities of inputs allowed for actual outputs

produced and (b) allocates overhead costs on the basis of the standard overhead-cost rates times

the standard quantities of the allocation bases allowed for the actual outputs produced.

Total-overhead variance: it equals the total amount of under-allocated overhead costs.

Variable overhead efficiency variance: the difference between actual quantity of the

cost-allocation base used and budgeted quantity of the cost-allocation base that should have

been used to produce actual output, multiplied by budgeted variable overhead cost per unit of

the cost-allocation base.

Variable overhead flexible-budget variance: it measures the difference between actual variable

overhead costs incurred and flexible-budget variable overhead amounts.

Variable overhead spending variance: the difference between actual variable overhead cost per

unit of the cost-allocation base budgeted variable overhead cost per unit of the cost-allocation

base, multiplied by the actual quantity of variable overhead cost-allocation base used for actual

output.

CH10

Account analysis method: it estimates cost functions by classifying various cost accounts as

variable, fixed, or mixed with respect to the identified level of activity.

Conference method: it estimates cost functions on the basis of analysis and opinions about costs

and their drivers gathered from various departments of a company.

Constant or intercept: it is the component of total cost that does not vary with changes in the

level of the activity.

Cost estimation: it measures a relationship based on data from past costs and related level of an

activity.

Cost function: a mathematical description of how a cost changes with changes in the level of an

activity relating to that cost.

Cost predictions: forecasts about future costs.

Cumulative average-time learning model: cumulative average time per unit declines by a

constant percentage each time the cumulative quantity of units produced doubles.

Dependent variable: it is the cost to be predicted and managed which depends on the cost

function being estimated.

Experience curve: it’s a function that measures the decline in cost per unit in various business

functions of the value chain as the amount of these activities increases.

High-low method: it uses only the highest and lowest observed values of the cost driver within

the relevant range and their respective costs to estimate the slope coefficient and the constant of

the cost function.

Incremental unit-time learning model: incremental time needed to produce the last unit declines

by a constant percentage each time the cumulative quantity of units produced doubles.

Independent variable: it’s the level of activity or cost driver which is the factor used to predicted

the dependent variable.

Industrial engineering method: it estimates cost functions by analyzing the relationship between

inputs and outputs in physical terms.

Learning curve: it’s a function that measures how labor-hours per unit decline as units of

production increase because workers are learning and becoming better at their jobs.

Linear cost function: total cost versus the level of a single activity related to that cost is a straight

line within the relevant range.

Mixed cost: it’s a cost that has both fixed and variable elements.

Multiple regressions: the analysis estimates the relationship between the dependent variable

and two or more independent variables.

Nonlinear cost function: it’s a cost function for which the graph of total costs (based on the level

of a single activity) is not a straight line within the relevant range.

Regression analysis: it’s a statistical method that measures the average amount of change in the

dependent variable associated with a unit change in one or more independent variables.

Residual term: the vertical difference measures the distance between actual cost and estimated

cost for each observation.

Simple regression: the analysis estimates the relationship between the dependent variable and

one independent variable.

Slope coefficient: the amount by which total cost changes when a one-unit change occurs in the

level of activity.

Step cost function: it’s a cost function in which the cost remains the same over various ranges of

the level of activity, but the cost increases by discrete amounts as the level of activity increases

from one range to the next.