Practical, easy-to-follow ABC guidelines for small and mid-sized businesses

Incorporating activity-based costing (ABC) concepts into your business without relying on the usual complex ABC jargon can be a daunting task-even for the most experienced accountant. In Activity-Based Costing: Making It Work for Small and Mid-Sized Companies, professional accountant Douglas Hicks shows you how to sharpen your competitive edge while bringing you the "total package" of cost information-not just the computational elements. Using an approach developed while solving problems for small and mid-sized companies, Hicks has created a reader-friendly, comprehensive narrative covering every aspect of the ABC industry, including step-by-step instructions for building a cost accumulation and distribution model for any size business. With examples taken from Fortune 1000 companies, readers will find a wealth of information on ABC features, including:

* The logic behind ABC and its cost flow-down steps

* How to get the maximum benefits from ABC for your small or mid-sized business

* Case studies on emerging cost flow-down structures

* The most appropriate ways to change to multiple costing rates and bases

* Using ABC to perform "what if" analyses

* The danger of measuring costs using generally accepted accounting principles

* Applying decision costing and long-term contracts to your business

If your company is looking to dramatically improve its current cost information systems, this book is a must-read. You can have that crucial competitive edge. Activity-Based Costing: Making It Work for Small and Mid-Sized Companies will show you how.

* Shows how a cost model of an organization can be developed using basic spreadsheet software on a PC.

* A practical, cost-effective guide to ABC for small to medium companies.

* Identifies the key cost related issues in organizations and shows how to develop a cost-flow structure that reflects the organization's cost behavior.

* Feature an ongoing case study throughout the book documents the model-building process.

* Provides a spreadsheet model blueprint that details data flows.

* Shows how a cost model of an organization can be developed using basic spreadsheet software on a PC.

DOUGLAS T. HICKS, CPA, CMC, is a Senior Managing Consultant at BKD, LLP, the nation's eighth largest accounting and consulting firm, and Team Leader of their Decision Costing Services practice. Before entering consulting in 1985, he spent fifteen years in public accounting at Ernst &Young, and in industry with Hayes-Albion Corporation and Kelsey-Hayes Company. Hicks is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, the Michigan Association of CPAs, the Institute of Management Accountants, and the Institute of Management Consultants. He is also the author of Activity-Based Costing for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses: An Implementation Guide, published by Wiley.

Activity-Based Costing: The First Decade.

Strange Case of Ace Manufacturing.

What Is Activity-Based Costing.

Deadly Virus of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles: Determining True Economic Costs.

Logic of Activity-Based Costing.

Case Study: ACME Distributors.

Decision Costing: The Real Reason for Activity-Based Costs.

Activity-Based Costing Model Toolbox.

Developing Cost Flow-Down Structures: Case Studies.

Building a Cost Accumulation and Distribution Model.

Small-Time manufacturing: Developing the Conceptual Model.

Small-Time Manufacturing: Building the Cost Accumulation and Distribution Model, Part 1-Cost Accumulation.

Small- Time Manufacturing: Building the Cost Accumulation and Distribution Model, Part 2--Cost Distribution.

Small-Time Manufacturing: Product Costing.

Small-Time Manufacturing: Discrete Event Simulation or "What If?" Analysis.

Small-Time Manufacturing: Multiyear Costing and Pricing.

Impediments to Adopting Activity-Based Costing at the Small and Mid-Sized Organization.

Making Activity-Based Costing Work at the Small and Mid-Sized Business.

Index.