Marginal Costing as a Tool for Decision Making
MARGINAL COSTING AS A COSTING SYSTEM
Marginal Costing is a type of flexible standard costing that separates fixed costs from proportional costs in relation to the output quantity of the objects. In particular, Marginal Costing is a comprehensive and sophisticated method of planning and monitoring costs based on resource drivers. Selecting the resource drivers and separating the costs into fixed and proportional components ensures that cost fluctuations caused by changes in operating levels, as defined by marginal analysis, are accurately predicted as changes in authorized costs and incorporated into variance analysis.
This form of internal management accounting has become widely accepted in business practice over the last 50 years. During this time, however, the demands placed on costing systems by cost management requirements have changed radically.
MARGINAL COST
In economics and finance, marginal cost is the change in total cost that arises when the quantity produced changes by one unit. It is the cost of producing one more unit of a good.
Mathematically, the marginal cost (MC) function is expressed as the first derivative of the total cost (TC) function with respect to quantity (Q). Note that the marginal cost may change with volume, and so at each level of production, the marginal cost is the cost of the next unit produced.
A typical Marginal Cost Curve
In general terms, marginal cost at each level of production includes any additional costs required to produce the next unit. If producing additional vehicles requires, for example, building a new factory, the marginal cost of those extra vehicles includes the cost of the new factory.
In practice, the analysis is segregated into short and long run cases, and over the longest run, all costs are marginal. At each level of production and time period being considered, marginal costs include all costs which vary with the level of production, and other costs are considered fixed costs.
A number of other factors can
Marginal Costing is a type of flexible standard costing that separates fixed costs from proportional costs in relation to the output quantity of the objects. In particular, Marginal Costing is a comprehensive and sophisticated method of planning and monitoring costs based on resource drivers. Selecting the resource drivers and separating the costs into fixed and proportional components ensures that cost fluctuations caused by changes in operating levels, as defined by marginal analysis, are accurately predicted as changes in authorized costs and incorporated into variance analysis.
This form of internal management accounting has become widely accepted in business practice over the last 50 years. During this time, however, the demands placed on costing systems by cost management requirements have changed radically.
MARGINAL COST
In economics and finance, marginal cost is the change in total cost that arises when the quantity produced changes by one unit. It is the cost of producing one more unit of a good.
Mathematically, the marginal cost (MC) function is expressed as the first derivative of the total cost (TC) function with respect to quantity (Q). Note that the marginal cost may change with volume, and so at each level of production, the marginal cost is the cost of the next unit produced.
A typical Marginal Cost Curve
In general terms, marginal cost at each level of production includes any additional costs required to produce the next unit. If producing additional vehicles requires, for example, building a new factory, the marginal cost of those extra vehicles includes the cost of the new factory.
In practice, the analysis is segregated into short and long run cases, and over the longest run, all costs are marginal. At each level of production and time period being considered, marginal costs include all costs which vary with the level of production, and other costs are considered fixed costs.
A number of other factors can