成本管理：控制和利润【外文翻译】.doc

本科毕业论文（设计）外 文 翻 译原文：Cost Management: Control and ProfitabilityAll executives and managers account for cost. In various ways, all business professionals manage cost, and most managers engage in capital investment decisions, forecasting, pricing, and product or service management. All these business activities are deeply embedded in the work of cost accounting. Cost-related tasks consume a significant amount of management time at all levels of the organization.A business professional must understand the organizations cost accounting practices to competently manage a specified area and understand how personal accountabilities are calculated and tracked. An accounting instructor with considerable experience in the field always gave her MBA students the same advice, “Learn the language of accounting. Its the language of business, and if you dont learn it, some little bean counter wearing a green eyeshade will blow your grand marketing or operations idea right out of the water!”Bellwether organizations that employ advanced management systems still run their accounting systems“keep their books”according to basic cost accounting principles. Importantly, conventional practices shape advanced techniques; therefore, more mature methods cannot be fully understood without reference to their predecessors. As a baseline, an organizations executives must establish management/cost accounting practice foundations that serve decision making and operations, first, and financial accounting, second, before moving to advanced systems. To accomplish this, executives need the ability to distinguish system alternatives. This chapter addresses these requirements.The Profit Imperative: Defining the Objectives of Cost ManagementProfitability, variously interpreted as net income, equity value, and return on investment is a results-focused indicator watched more carefully than any other performance measurement category. But if these measurements depict results, what measurements show the dimensions of performance for the processes that lead to those results? At the core, profit has only two components: revenue and cost. To understand how cost management system works, here are some key terms to be familiar with: Cost. An outflow of a resource, whether in cash, as a payable, a rendered service, or as a trade or barter, that is consciously made with expectation of benefit to the organization: goods, property, or services acquired. Cost accounting. The accounting profession is divided into two major branches: (1) financial and (2) management (or managerial) accounting. The later is synonymous with cost accounting. The term “management” refers to the comparatively internal focus of the cost accounting field as compared with the external focus of financial accounting. The word “traditional,” when used to describe cost accounting methods, refers to the standard practices that are taught in basic management accounting courses and practiced in most North American firms. The standard practices include cost systems and procedures, methods of determining costs, points of cost accountability, forecasts, cost comparisons (e.g., standard cost systems),and budgets (operational, project, and capital). The purpose of cost accounting is to assist in the wise and prudent stewardship of overall organizational resources. Cost and expense distinctions. Both costs and expenses are expenditures. For the remainder of this book, the word “expenditures” will be used to identify an organizations total outflow of assets in all forms. Chapter 2 will further clarify important distinctions between cost, expense, and expenditure. In the standard income statement of a for-profit firm, costs typically refer to the categories of material, labor, and overhead appearing above the income statements gross margin line (revenue minus cost). See Exhibit 1.1 for an example of the income statement components for a manufacturing firm. Expenditures typically called operating expenses are displayed below the gross margin line. On the income statement, the material, labor, and overhead items are called cost of goods sold (COGS). Operating expenses consist of monetary or asset outlays for general, administrative, selling, marketing, and other functions deemed to be indirectly related to production. Operating expenses are commonly abbreviated as SG&A for sales, general and administrative. Cost management. The use of cost accounting systems and methods to guide current and future operations toward specified objectives; the analysis and interpretation of cost data is critical to the decision-making process. Cost management system (CMS). An expenditure information architecture that tracks, monitors, reports, and provides decision-quality information and insights. A CMS is less constrained by exacting professional standards and reporting formats than financial accounting; therefore, a CMS can and should be customized to match an organizations internal environment and specific cost structures.A CMS sets direction for resource consumption priorities and makes course corrections by emphasizing operations first and accounting practices second. A CMS specifically answers the demands of the profit imperative when it aligns employee spending behaviors with the organizational strategy. The purpose of the CMS is to understand the nature and behavior of cost, and thereby manage valuable assets wisely through optimizing limited resources.The chief CMS responsibility is to promote improvement in cost structure. The CMS should:Support understanding of the nature and behavior of cost (and the humans doing the spending).Promote, track, and give feedback on value creation and continuous improvement.Assist management in wise use of resources.Cost types. Management accountants created cost types in an attempt to understand the nature and behavior of different resources. Cost types are designations given to categories of resource expenditures. They are based on assumptions about the ways that resources are consumed in relation to the activities to which they are applied. They are also based on the purposes for which the resources are used. Some traditional cost types include:Fixed. Costs assumed not to vary with production/service unit volumeVariable. Costs assumed to vary with production/service unit volumeSemi-fixed/variable, also called step-fixed/variable. Costs that vary at incremental volume levelsDirect. Costs that can be clearly linked, and therefore assigned to, specific product/service unitsIndirect. Costs that cannot easily be linked to specific product/service units, and therefore, must be allocated to production/services based on a selected cost driverFinancial AccountingFinancial accounting is the branch of the accounting field concerned with formal, aggregate reporting of transactions related to the income statement (revenue minus expense equals profit/loss), the balance sheet (assets, liabilities, and owners equity) and other related statements (e.g., working capital, cash flow). Standard report forms used across companies and an external, shareholder focus, characterize financial accounting. The primary statement in financial accounting is the balance sheet. See Exhibit 1.2 for an example of the balance sheet components for a manufacturing firm. This exhibit is best read as a companion to Exhibit 1.1to compares the fundamental similarities and differences in these two essential reporting systems.ValueWhen accountants talk about value they refer to “any preferred object or interest therein”; and accounting valuation is “a judgment expressing or implying preference, or relative approval or disapproval.” Organizations exist to become the provider of preference by conveying value to customers, clients, and constituents. This is as true of a spiritual organization with a humanitarian mission as it is of a large corporation focused chiefly on shareholder wealth. The path to value is different for each organization, and value has many definitions beyond those of the accountant. In the last half of the twentieth century, the focus on value became rooted in the idea of creating shareholder value. What do customers, shareholders and employees value? What do they really want? How can we differentiate ourselves from the competitor in terms of value? Should we be as concerned about internal constituents (i.e., employees) as we are about customers and shareholders? How do all the converging interests of those with a stake in the organizations success or failure work together to create a mutually satisfying sense of value?None of these questions has an easy answer, but one fact is certain: The first and most common cause of enterprise failure is, simply, over-spendinga basic failure to manage expenditures flowing out and revenues are flowing in. The solution to overspending behaviors involves little more than the skill set required to balance a checkbook. Creating value for the complex organization requires clear cost management objectives embedded in a cost management system.Cost Management ObjectivesNearly all business professionals know the major components of a general ledger (G/L) system, or at least two of the important reports generated by it: the income statement and the balance sheet. Far fewer managers can describe a cost management systemand with good reason. An effective CMS is customized to match an organizations internal environment and specific cost structures. While an experienced financial professional, and many managers, can move from company to company and quickly understand the financial statements of each, even practiced accountants need considerably more time to understand the intricacies of different cost management systems from company to company. A CMS is less constrained by exacting professional standards and reporting formats than are financial systems, with a few exceptions like the regulated cost guidelines of government contractors.Importantly, the CMS sets direction for resource consumption priorities and makes course corrections by emphasizing operations first and accounting practices second. A CMS specifically answers the demands of the profit imperative by aligning employee spending behaviors with the organizational strategy.Four-Stage ModelA good context for understanding the CMS is to ask not what it is, but rather how it functions. This book acknowledges and borrows from the approach used by Robert S. Kaplan and Robin Cooper in their 1998 book, Cost & Effect. Their “four-stage model of cost system evolution” describes how a CMS typically evolves over the life cycle of a maturing organization. This book will use their four-stage model, adapted in Exhibit 1.3, to contrast conventional and advanced cost management systems and techniques so that readers have a practical context for using the ideas presented in this text as they apply to current practices in the readers workplace. If a Stage I system is not adequate for routine reporting, it cannot hope to deliver information on product, customer, and operations costing. Such systems offer little in support of strategic control. Stage II systems are driven by financial reporting requirements, and they meet financial accounting standards. However, they remain severely limited in decision-quality data. They often distort both costs and profits, and they are not timely in delivering feedback. Stage III systems are specialized, in that the cost and financial accounting systems use the same databases; however, the two systems remain isolated and specialized in application. In this stage, activity-based costing (ABC) and performance measurement systems often emerge. Stage IV systems are integrated, and present a unified reporting format supportive of operational strategy. Financial and operations data, as well as budget and actual information, are all linked. Organizations today remain spread across the Four-Stage spectrum. A healthy number of companies have moved to Stage III; but, it remains rare to find a true Stage IV company, although many claim to be. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation does not guarantee a Stage IV environment. Every executive and manager first needs to determine which stage current accounting systems are in, and then progressively move through each stage to the integrated level, whether by using the Kaplan/Cooper model or some other proven, logical method. Kaplan and Cooper caution against the high failure rate of organizations that try to jump stages.Operations Focus Is PrimaryThe primary focuses of an effective CMS are operations and the support of management decision making. In addition to routine book-keeping (see Chapter 2), the CMS objectives include, but are not limited, to ten characteristics.Control and Performance Management SystemsAt this point, it is worth making a final connection point. Since cost is such an integral element of the “profit imperative” and profit performance is a universal organizational requirement, it is natural and inevitable that cost and performance systems become intimately associated. Organizations with CMS designs in Stages I and II use financial-only accounting systems. If it exists at all, nonfinancial performance measurement is typically fragmented and isolated within the functional domains of an organization. Everyone wants to “keep score,” and without a formal measurement system, good managers will create their own scoreboard. For example, a competent production manager always has a control system in place based on the principles of quality, theory of constraints, or some homegrown paradigm.Source: Antoq, 2009. “Cost Management: Control and Profitability”. Business & Economics. July.P1-8.译文：成本管理：控制和利润所有的高层和管理者们都要对成本负责。所有专业人士和很多的管理者以不同的方式进行成本控制和资本投资决策，预测、定价以及提供产品或服务管理。所有这些经营活动的工作都深刻地体现在成本核算工作之中。在组织的各个阶段相关成本的任务消耗了大量管理人员的时间。作为一个专业的商业人士必须了解组织的成本核算实践从而才能够胜任管理规定的区域并且理解如何认识和追踪个人职位描述。作为一个在这方面相当有经验的会计指导者总是给她的MBA学生同样的建议：“要学习会计语言。这同样是商业的语言，如果你不学习它，一些带着有色眼镜善于计算的人就会立刻像水倾倒一般地向你吹嘘他所谓的极其重要的行销手段和运营理念！”雇佣先进的管理系统的前导性组织仍然运行它们的会计系统“保持他们的原则”根据基本成本核算原则。传统实践模型先进技术是非常重要的；因此如果没有前人的关系很多成熟的研究方法就不能被充分地理解。作为基线，一个组织的管理人员必须建立管理/成本会计实践基础,即服务决策和行动,第一,财务会计,第二,移动到先进的系统之前。为了实现这一目标,管理人员需要有判断系统可供选择的能力。本章谈到这些要求。利润目标：定义成本管理的宗旨盈利能力，被多方面地理解为净收益、权益价值。投资报酬率是一个结果聚焦指标，它比其他任何绩效评估范畴都要仔细。但是如果说这些测量值是描述结果的,那么怎样的测量值在过程中显示绩效规模的大小会导致这些结果呢？在这个核心中利润只有两个组成部分：收入和成本。想了解成本管理系统的工作情况,这里有几个关键词组来熟悉: 成本。资源的流出，不论是现金或是其他，作为一个应付，已渲染的服务，或者作为商业或是易货贸易，都有着期望对组织有力的自觉：商品、所有权或是服务性获取。 成本会计。会计专业分为两大主要分支：（1）财务；（2）管理会计或管理。后者象征着成本核算工作。术语“管理人员”是指在成本会计领域相对比较内部的焦点而言，其负责外部焦点财务会计。“传统”这个词,当用来描述成本核算方法时,涉及在基础管理会计课程中所教的实践标准，并在绝大多数北美国公司进行实践。标准的实践制度和程序,包括成本体系,决定成本的方法,成本责任的目的，预测、成本比较(例如,标准成本系统),和预算(操作、设计和资金)。成本核算的目的是协助管理者在整体上对组织资源进行聪明谨慎的管理。 成本和费用的差异。成本和费用两者都是开支。在这本书的剩余部分，“开支”这个词将被用来识别一个组织的所有形式的资产总流出。第二章将进一步阐明成本，费用和开支的重要区别。在一家营利性公司的标准损益表里，成本典型地指出现在损益表的毛利线（收入减去成本）的材料，劳动力和日常开支的分类。见1.1，其中有一个例子是关于一家制造公司的损益表的基本组成。开支象征性地被称作营业费用显示在毛利线的下方。在利润表中，材料，劳动力以及日常开支项目被称为销售商品的成本（销售成本）。营业费用由货币或资产支出到综合化、行政、销售、营销等功能被视为间接相关生产。营业费用通常被简称为销售管理、综合管理和行政管理。 成本管理。为了达到规定的目标使用成本会计系统和方法来指导当前的和未来的运作；对成本进行分析和解释的数据对决策程序起决定性的作用。 成本管理系统（CMS）。一个建筑学的支出信息包括轨道，监视器，报告并提供决定质量的信息和洞察力。成本管理系统比财务会计更少受到来自严格专业水平以及报表格式的约束；因此，成本管理系统可以甚至应该被制定从而来与组织的内部环境和特殊的成本结构相匹配。成本管理系统强调运营第一会计实务第二以资源消耗的优先次序和进行路径更正为方向。它明确地回答了当它与员工在组织策略中所花费行为相匹配时利润被需要的要求。其目的在于理解成本的性质和行为从而明智地通过优化有限资源来管理有价值的资产。成本管理系统主要的责任是促进成本结构的改进。它应该：支持对这些特性的了解和成本的行为（以及人类消费）。在价值创造和持续改进中进行促进，追踪并进行反馈。协助管理层对资源进行明智地利用。成本类型。管理会计创造成本类型试图理解不同性质资源的特性和行为。成本类型表示了资源开支的分类。他们是基于涉及他们应用活动的资源被消耗的假设。同时他们也基于资源被使用的目的。一些传统的成本类型包括：固定成本。假设成本不随每单位产品/服务的改变而改变可变成本。假设成本随着每单位产品/服务的改变而改变部分固定成本/可变成本，也叫做后来的固定成本/可变成本。成本随着增加的销售水平的变化而变化。直接成本。成本可以清楚地联系在一起,因此其被分配给具体的单位产品/服务。间接成本。成本很难与具体的单位产品/服务联系在一起，因此，必须基于挑选出来的成本动因来分配产品/服务。财务会计财务会计是会计领域的分支涉及正式的、合计的处理报告，并与损益表（收入减去费用等于利润/损失），资产负债表(资产,负债和所有者权益)及其他有关报表(例如,流动资金、现金流量)有关。标准的报表是用于整个公司以及一个外部的，以股东中心的有特色的财务会计。在财务会计中最基础的报表是资产负债表。以1.2为例，它是关于一家制造公司的资产负债表的基本组成。这个例子与例1.1可以作为“姐妹篇”来读，从而在这两个基本报告系统中比较其基本的异同。价值当会计人员们谈论关于价值的时候他们指的是“任何首选的目标或是在那里感兴趣的”；会计评价是“一种判断表达或是意味某种偏好或作出相关的许可或不许可”。组织的存在是通过向顾客，客户端和成分传输价值成