describe how assigning overhead costs differ under a simple activity based product costing system from a conventional volume-based costing system?
In case of volume based costing, costs are allocated on bases of single cost driver which could be number of labour hours and all the overhead costs are allocated based on the labour hours utilized. Traditional volume based costing is preferred when the overheads of the company are relatively low as compared to direct costs.
While in case of Activity Based Costing (ABC), overheads are allocated based on different set of cost drivers such as ordering cost is allocated based on number of purchase orders, maintenance of machinery is allocated based on machine hours, setting up cost is allocated based on number of production runs etc.,. ABC costing is preferred when the overheads are relatively more when compared to direct costs.
The decision to choose between which method of costing to use depends on the management. One can get more accurate Cost data by using ABC method.
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