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Question 25 of 85

Q.Discuss the advantages and limitations of cost accounting.

ChseodishaCHSE Odisha Plus Two (Class 12) Commerce Board 2019Subjective· 8mImportance★★★★★est
29% · 25/85 Questions
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Cost accounting aids cost ascertainment, control, pricing and decisions (advantages), but is costly, estimate-based and not infallible (limitations).

Advantages of Cost Accounting

  1. Cost ascertainment and control — reveals the cost of each product/process and, through standards and budgets, helps control and reduce it.
  2. Reveals profitable and unprofitable activities — shows which products/jobs/departments earn or lose, guiding management action.
  3. Helps price fixation and tenders — provides reliable cost data for fixing selling prices and preparing quotations/tenders.
  4. Aids decision-making — supports make-or-buy, product-mix, accept/reject-order and similar decisions.
  5. Detects inefficiency and waste — highlights idle time, excessive scrap, idle capacity and off-standard performance.
  6. Facilitates cost comparison — period-to-period and department-to-department comparison, and inter-firm comparison.
  7. Helps management planning and inventory control — through budgeting, stock levels and EOQ.
  8. Aids preparation of financial accounts — ready cost data speeds up valuation of stock and final accounts.

Limitations of Cost Accounting

  1. Expensive and complex — installing and running a costing system needs money, trained staff and records; small firms may not afford it.
  2. Based on estimates and assumptions — apportionment of overheads, absorption rates and standards rest on judgement, so results are not absolutely accurate.
  3. Not an exact science — different methods/bases can give different costs for the same thing. …

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