1 A Revision Of F2 Topics Flashcards
What is standard costing?
A standard cost for a product or service is a predetermined unit cost set under specified working conditions
What is the main purposes of standard costs? (5)
Control, planning, performance measurement, inventory calculation and accounting simplification
In terms of standard costs, what is the purpose of control?
The standard cost can be compared to the actual costs and any differences investigated
In terms of standard costs, what is the purpose of planning?
Standard costing can help with budgeting
In terms of standard costs, what is the purpose of performance measurement?
Any differences between the standard and the actual cost can be used as a basis for assessing the performance of cost centre managers.
In terms of standard costs, what is the purpose of inventory valulation?
An alternative to methods such as LIFO and FIFO
In terms of standard costs, what is the purpose of accounting simplification?
There is only one cost, the standard.
What organisation is standard costing most suited to?
Mass production of homogenous (similar products) products and repetitive assembly work
What organisations is standard costing not suited to?
That produce products that are not homogeneous or where the level of human intervention is high
What are the four different types of standard?
Attainable standards
Basic standards
Current standards
Ideal standards
What are attainable standards?
They are based upon efficient (but not perfect) operating conditions
What will attainable standards include allowances for?
Normal material losses, realistic allowances for fatigue, machine breakdowns ect
What is the most frequently encountered type of standard?
Attainable standards
What do attainable standards do?
Motivate employees to work harder since they provide a realistic but challenging target
What are basic standards?
Long term standards which remain unchanged over a period of years
What is the sole use of basic standards?
Their sole use is to show trends over time for such items such as material prices, labour rates and efficiency and the effect of changing methods
What can’t basic standards be used for?
To highlight current efficiency
What can basic standards do to employees?
Demotivate employees, if over time, they become too easy to achieve and, as a result, employees may feel bored and unchallenged
What is current working standards?
These are standards based on current working conditions
What are current standards useful for?
When current conditions are abnormal and any other standard would provide meaningless information