competing cost accounting approaches and explores best practices implemented in different countries. The essay examines traditional cost accounting (CA), activity-based costing (ABC), Grenzplankostenrechnung (GPK), throughput accounting (TA) and resource consumption accounting (RCA).

Tradeoffs Between Cost Accounting Systems

Comparing traditional costs systems and ABC shows that there are tradeoffs between cost and usability. The traditional cost system is typically both easy and inexpensive to implement; however, the information obtained from the system may be too raw to be analytically useful. ABC provides useful information, but by comparison is expensive and time-consuming to implement (Abdallah & Li, 2008).

The use of a given accounting system involves tradeoffs which may make it better suited for some companies than others. Companies using a Six Sigma/theory of constraints (TOC) may benefit more from the throughput accounting (TA) approach. TA emphasizes variable costs, with the objective of increasing throughput while simultaneously decreasing inventories and operating expenses....
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