Cost Management: Strategies for Business Decisions

Hilton/Maher/Selto (HMS) addresses traditional cost concepts, but makes cost accounting functional by focusing on measuring and managing costs. HMS maintains that, ?Costs don?t just happen,? and with a pro-active approach toward costs, accountants can add value to an organization. Faculty will appreciate the new and more conventional chapter organization in the first two sections of the text. The real-world approach of this text, including the use of focus companies and the new accompanying focus sites, provides a realistic business environment, and aids in student comprehension and interest in the subject.


Key features


New Technology: Six of the focus companies come with accompanying online focus sites. These interactive websites, tied directly to the in-chapter ?You?re the Decision-Maker? exercises, simulate an intranet environment making students privileged insiders into the real business world. Written by co-author Frank Selto, these eye-catching decision modules contain spreadsheet data, strategic company information, and value chain analysis. These make for excellent activities, group projects, and add to applying the chapter discussion. These unique, exciting, and student-focused sites are only available with HMS.
New Organization: The Second Edition has been re-written and reorganized towards providing more traditional coverage in the early chapters - including an earlier introduction of cost accumulation systems and activity-based costing/management. This change allows students to get up to speed gradually without losing the pro-active HMS perspective.
End of Chapter Material- The exercise and problems and cases have been simplified and class-tested by the authors who tweaked them based on feedback from their students. In response to reviewer feedback, more mid-level problems have been added.
Simplified Examples- In each chapter, the examples have been greatly simplified, especially in the early chapters of the text, to help students more easily grasp core concepts.
New Chapter- Chapter 6, Managing Customer Profitability, is a new chapter for the second edition, which reflects the growing importance of managing customer profitability and relations. The chapter leads students step-by-step through an entire customer-profitability analysis and uses the information to find opportunities for improvement.
New Focus Companies- New focus companies include more non-profit, retail and service examples to provide a more balanced approach.
Each chapter is written around a focus company that is incorporated throughout. The authors use realistic companies as suppliers, customers, competitors, etc. to give students a sense of a true business environment. At the beginning of each chapter, a company memo, press release, e-mail message, or other company document introduces students to the issues the focus company will face in the chapter. This important feature is unique to the market and demonstrates relevance to students. Focus companies amplify student comprehension because one continuing example is easier to follow and much more interesting than a string of examples from unrelated companies. Examples of these life-like and detailed focus companies include a sports drink company, City of Rock Creek (municipal government), a collegiate apparel manufacturer, a book and music retailer, and a non-profit company that employs workers with disabilities.
?You?re the Decision-Maker? feature asks students to solve realistic, challenging problems. The questions place a strong emphasis on interpretation and analysis of data, and how real world factors affect it. These examples are the springboards for the new Focus sites (web exercises).
Authorship- Well-known and well-respected author team. Both Ron Hilton and Michael Maher are authors of several successful texts and Frank Selto is a well-known scholar and proponent of cost management.
Information Technology/Communication is woven into the story of each chapter. This unique feature identifies the importance of information technology in cost accounting and cost management for business planning. Managerial accountants are presented as the link between the IT personnel and management and/or decision makers.
Cross Cultural and International integration is demonstrated through the use of company examples that illustrate foreign investment, domestic companies opening plants in other countries, and exposing the varying interpretations of financial data that results from cultural differences.
Balance of Manufacturing, Service, and Nonprofit Companies. The majority of focus companies are in service organizations. Although many cost management techniques originated in mature manufacturing companies, service, government and start-up organizations alike have found the techniques to be immensely valuable. Since many developed countries are becoming service economies, extensive coverage of cost management in service organizations will be beneficial to students who will find rewarding careers managing or consulting to service companies.
Short Cases are included at the end of each chapter. These cases allow students to apply what they?ve learned in a real-world situation. These cases may be used as individual, team, in-class or out of class assignments.
Online Learning Center (OLC) is a website that follows the text chapter-by-chapter. OLC content is ancillary and supplementary germane to the textbook, as students read the book, they can go online to take self-grading quizzes, review material, or work through interactive exercises. OLCs can be delivered multiple ways ? professors and students can access them directly through the textbook website, through PageOut, or within a course management system (i.e. WebCT, Blackboard, TopClass, or eCollege.) www.mhhe.com/hms2e
McGraw-Hill's Knowledge Gateway - The Complete Resource for Teaching Online Courses. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, in partnership with Eduprise, is proud to bring this unique service to instructors. This comprehensive Website contains a wealth of information for any professor interested in teaching online. Level one is available to any instructor browsing our Website. Level two is reserved for McGraw-Hill customers and contains access to free technical and instructional design assistance. For more details, visit http://mhhe.eduprise.com/home.nsf
PageOut is McGraw-Hill's unique point-and click course Website tool, enabling you to create a full-featured, professional quality course Website without knowing HTML coding. With PageOut you can post your syllabus online, assign McGraw-Hill Online Learning Center or eBook content, add links to important off-site resources, and maintain student results in the online grade book. You can send class announcements, copy your course site to share with colleagues, and upload original files. PageOut is free for every McGraw-Hill/Irwin user and, if your short on time, we even have a team ready to help you create your site!
You can customize this text. McGraw-Hill/Primis Onlines digital database offers you the flexibility to customize your course including material from the largest online collection of textbooks, readings, and cases. Primis leads the way in customized eBooks with hundreds of titles available at prices that save your students over 20% off bookstore prices. Additional information is available at 800-228-0634.
PowerWeb. Harness the assets of the Web to keep your course current with PowerWeb! This online resource provides high quality, peer-reviewed content including up-to-date articles from leading periodicals and journals, current news, weekly updates with assessment, interactive exercises, Web research guide, study tips, and much more! http://www.dushkin.com/powerweb.


Table of contents


Part I Setting the Stage: The Importance of Analyzing and Managing Costs
1.Cost Management and Management of the Value Chain
2.Product Costing Systems: Concepts and Design Issues
3.Cost Accumulation for Job-Shop and Batch Production Operations
Part II Activity-Based Management
4.Activity-Based Costing Systems
5.Activity-Based Management
6.Managing Customer Profitability
7.Managing Quality and Time to Create Value
Part III Process Costing and Cost Allocation
8.Process-Costing Systems
9.Joint-Process Costing
10. Managing and Allocating Support-Service Costs
Part IV Planning and Decision Making
11. Cost Estimation
12. Financial and Cost-Volume-Profit Models
13. Cost Management and Decision Making
14. Making Long-Term Capital Investment Decisions
15. Budgeting and Financial Planning
Part V Evaluating and Managing Performance: Creating and Managing Value-Added Effort
16. Standard Costing, Variance Analysis, and Kaizen Costing
17. Flexible Budgets, Overhead Cost Management, and Activity-Based Budgeting
18. Organizational Design, Responsibility Accounting, and Evaluation of Divisional Performance
19. Transfer Pricing
20. Using Lead and Lag Measures to Communicate, Motivate, and Evaluate
21. Incentive Systems and Performance Evaluation