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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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Cost accounting aids cost ascertainment, control, pricing and decisions (advantages), but is costly, estimate-based and not infallible (limitations).
Advantages of Cost Accounting
- Cost ascertainment and control — reveals the cost of each product/process and, through standards and budgets, helps control and reduce it.
- Reveals profitable and unprofitable activities — shows which products/jobs/departments earn or lose, guiding management action.
- Helps price fixation and tenders — provides reliable cost data for fixing selling prices and preparing quotations/tenders.
- Aids decision-making — supports make-or-buy, product-mix, accept/reject-order and similar decisions.
- Detects inefficiency and waste — highlights idle time, excessive scrap, idle capacity and off-standard performance.
- Facilitates cost comparison — period-to-period and department-to-department comparison, and inter-firm comparison.
- Helps management planning and inventory control — through budgeting, stock levels and EOQ.
- Aids preparation of financial accounts — ready cost data speeds up valuation of stock and final accounts.
Limitations of Cost Accounting
- Expensive and complex — installing and running a costing system needs money, trained staff and records; small firms may not afford it.
- Based on estimates and assumptions — apportionment of overheads, absorption rates and standards rest on judgement, so results are not absolutely accurate.
- Not an exact science — different methods/bases can give different costs for the same thing. …
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