Direct Costing and the Uses of Cost Data.

Abstract The article focuses on direct costing and the uses of cost data. Cost accounting is utilitarian. Stated another way, cost accounting is not an end in itself, but a means to an end, which is why the uses to be made of cost data are so important. Just how good the cost accounting is, is determined, not by reference to a stated body of principles or to established concepts, but in terms of how well the accounting does in fact meet the needs which it is intended to serve. Cost data are used for a variety of purposes. No one method will supply data which will serve all purposes equally well. This means that the cost accountant has the alternative either of selecting the method best suited to the use which is considered primary and using the costs developed by this method for all other purposes, or of developing costs specifically for each intended use. More and more companies are adopting the second alternative and instructing cost departments not to honor requests for cost data until the use to be made of the data is stated and the costs developed with the stated use in mind.