Description
New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers Advanced Cost And Management Accounting by Prof. M.E. Thukaram Rao
In the modern world the business organisations have to serve the needs of variety of parties who are interested in the functioning of the business. These parties constitute the owners, creditors, employees, government agencies, tax authorities and last but not the least the management of the business. In order to satisfy the needs of all these group of people a sound organisation of accounting system is very essential. The financial statements i.e., profit & loss account and balance sheet serves the needs of all those who may not directly be associated with management of business. But management of every business organisation is interested to know much more than the usual information which is derived from cost and management accounting. No organisation can stand in the competitive market unless the cost effectiveness is shown.
This book has been divided into two parts where part I deals with cost accounting and part II with management accounting. Part I has six sections containing twenty nine chapters and part II has eight chapters. Section I forms the structure of cost accounting and cost analysis. Elements of cost can be derived from ten chapters in section II. Different heads of cost i.e., material, labour, direct expenses, factory overheads, and office administration, selling and distribution overheads have been discussed at length in separate chapters, Section III of the book is about different methods of costing. Under what circumstances unit costing or job costing or batch costing or contract costing or process costing is required can be better understood in going through the chapters. Due to the increasing services in the country like transport, power, hospitals, banking, cinema etc. service costing has gained a lot of popularity which is discussed in the book in its eighteenth chapter.
In most of the books available, the subject does not incorporate systems of maintaining cost accounts. Ledger accounting system, reconciliation of cost and financial account, and integral accounting are the topics included by the author in section IV of the book. Cost control techniques like marginal costing, CVP analysis, differential costing, budgetary control and standard costing are discussed from chapters twenty two to twenty six. The utility of these techniques is relevant given that organization have to make profit in competitive market through reduced cost while maintaining standards and increased market reach. Big names in the market earn through cost effectiveness plus goodwill (brand name) so generated. Standards must be setup carefully since a low standard does not bring the best performance and high standard is treated with indifference. How to fix standard involves various functional departments and the success lies in performing better than them. Part VI focuses on costing, cost reduction and activity based costing.
The book is primarily aimed at undergraduate programs like B.Com., BBM, BBA and M.Com. The book will be of immense use to the practicing managers in the private and public industries who would like an introduction to the topic.