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Costing Methods Paper

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Costing Methods Paper
Amy Buckley
University of Phoenix
Bellevue Campus
ACC561
April 2012
Instructor: Solomon Seyoum

Costing Methods Paper Understanding and selecting the optimum method of cost accounting is vital to a company’s success and sustainability. Two types of costing methods are available: the traditional cost accounting method or the activity based cost system. Each delivers pros and cons; therefore each company may choose one or the other. The traditional method matches the indirect costs to the volume based products, the hours of direct labor, or the hours of machine production hours (Accounting Coach, 2012). Activity based accounting products eat up activities and lead to consumption of resources. Activities are cost drivers and may not lead to a large number of products being produced. Therefore; distributing costs fall under the following: taking an order, customer challenges, and implementation of new hardware. This provides the company with a clear understanding of: the arrival of a profit, the outflow of money, and the departments of cost reduction (BusinessDictionary.com, 2012). Traditional costing methods versus an activity based cost system, a choice Super Bakery Inc. would review again.
Strategies
Super Bakery Inc. launched approximately 30 years ago into the food industry. Breaking into the market was slow and challenging; therefore the company developed four strategies to rise above the competition. Super Bakery selected schools as the target market. Next, took the common donut recipe, made a few changes, and created a delicious and healthy donut. The benefits were many: earning lowered priced commodities selling to schools, the avoidance of national restrictions for selling in bakeries, and having a just-in-time inventory. The final strategy was outsourcing manufacturing, selling, and distributions. In

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