Quality costing: a management review

This paper relates a review of the English language literature on quality costing and traces its historical development; it provides authoritative reading on the subject. The review also has a focus on collection and use of quality‐costing methods, quantitative cost data and the role and views of accountants in the task of quality‐cost collection and reporting. Amongst the main findings is the preoccupation with the prevention – appraisal – failure categorization of quality costs and lack of guidance on definitions. The considerable impact of the American quality profession on the development of quality costing is pointed out along with the increasingly positive stance of accountants.