Presentation on Cost - Coursework Example

Cost accounting information are mainly meant to permit the determination of unit costs and total product costs. Different organizations require different types of cost information. For instance, service organizations need cost information pertaining to the costs incurred for producing and providing services whereas manufacturing firms like Apple Inc, Coca Cola etc need information about costs incurred for manufacturing the products. Similarly, retail organizations need information about costs incurred for purchasing products for resale (Needles, Powers and Crosson, 2008, p. 808). These types of cost information are generally required by almost all the firms since they have multiple functions such as manufacturing, purchases and providing of services.

Cost information is highly important for various managerial purposes such as ascertaining the actual costs, controlling the costs, determining the selling price, ascertaining the profitability and controlling on wastage. Similarly, cost information helps management provide a base for setting business policies, facilitate efficient information system and arrange internal auditing system. Cost information support various purposes such as planning, decision making, performing, evaluating and communicating (Needles, Powers and Crosson, 2008, p. 806). Financial management in both the manufacturing and service organizations use cost information to develop budgets, estimate income, manage total workforce and plan for the future.

Cost information about product, process, function and financial transactions can help the management take managerial decision and plan for further activities and business functions. Managers in manufacturing companies use estimates of product costs in order to prepare budgets for labor, material, production and overhead costs. Another major purpose for cost information is performing by which managers find estimated cost of services with a view to mentor profitability and make decisions about various matters such as future business bidding, reducing negotiating expenses etc.

With cost information, managers are able to predict gross margin, operating income and value of goods sold etc. This information are also useful for reducing selling prices and lowering selling prices for bulk purchases (Needles, Powers and Crosson, 2008, p. 806). Cost information supports managerial decision making, planning and performance. Planning for the future is primarily based on how costs are incurred now and how they will be in future. Planning is highly important for pricing and many other managerial decision making.

Similarly, management can perform estimation, assessing, evaluation, cost control etc only if they gain sufficient information pertaining to costs of products, labor, materials, processing and so on. Cost Object A cost object is a business activity for which a separate cost measurement is desired (Drury, 2007, p. 28). More specifically, when management in an organization needs to know the costs incurred for a specific activity, this activity is referred as cost object. The management may need to know the costs details of different activities such as purchasing, operating a machine, manufacturing a product, rendering service to