"Cost and activity accounting" is a managerial accounting tool used to capture, analyze, and control the costs and performance of a company.
Typical functions of software in the "cost and activity accounting" domain include:
Cost Type Accounting: Capturing and analyzing various cost types such as material costs, labor costs, operating expenses, etc.
Cost Center Accounting: Allocating the incurred costs to different cost centers or departments within the company to increase cost accountability.
Cost Object Accounting: Assigning costs to individual products, services, or projects to determine the profitability of each product or service.
Overhead Cost Allocation: Distributing overhead costs to cost objects using allocation methods to allocate overhead costs to individual products or services.
Standard Costing: Planning and controlling costs using standard cost comparisons and variance analysis to monitor cost trends in the company.
Contribution Margin Analysis: Calculating the contribution margins of products or services to determine their contribution to covering fixed costs and achieving company profits.
Reporting and Analysis: Generating reports and analyses on cost structures, cost drivers, and profitability to enable informed decision-making at the management level.