Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis

Key differences between 15th and 14th editions

• Time lapse between current and previous publications: 3 years (2014 vs 2011).
• Cost Accounting textbook was first published in 1962.
• New Concepts in Action boxes:
• Trader Joe's Recipe for Cost Leadership
• Cost Structure at Nordstrom Spurs Growth Measuring Costs Requires Judgment
• Cost--Volume--Profit Analysis Makes Megabus a Mega-Success
• Home Depot Undergoes an Inventory Management "Fix-It" Actual Costing
• Hospitals Use Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing to Reduce Costs and Improve Care
• Flexible Budgets at Corning Standard Costs for Variance Analysis
• Absorption Costing and the Bankruptcy of U.S. Automakers
• What Does It Cost AT&T Wireless to Send a Text Message?
• The LEGO Group
• Operating Income Analysis Reveals Strategic Challenges at Best Buy
• How Pandora Radio Made Its Unprofitable Customers Profitable
• Are Charitable Organizations Allocating Joint Costs in a Misleading Way?
• American Apparel Turns Scrap into a Product for Sale
• Avoiding Performance-Measurement Silos at Staples
• Chapter 2:
• New opening vignette "High Fixed Costs Bankrupt Twinkie Maker Costs and Cost Terminology" describes how Hostess Brands, the maker of Twinkies, was driven into liquidation by the relatively high proportion of fixed costs in its operations.
• Chapter 3:
• New discussion on Determining Target Prices.
• Chapter 4:
• New opening vignette "Job Costing and "Green" Home Construction" illustrates the importance of job costing for "green" home-builders such as KB Home.
• New discussion on Nonmanufacturing Costs and Job Costing.
• Chapter 7:
• New opening vignette "Going for the Green: Reducing Standard Costs Static Budgets and Variances"
• Chapter 8:
• New opening vignette "Planning Fixed and Variable Overhead Costs at Tesla Motors" explores Tesla Motors’ understanding of fixed and variable overhead costs for planning and control purposes.
• Chapter 12:
• New opening vignette "The Balanced Scorecard at Volkswagen do Brazil" demonstrates how Volkswagen's Brazilian subsidiary used the balanced scorecard to guide its journey out of the global financial crisis.
• New section "Environmental and Social Performance and the Balanced Scorecard" discusses the benefits from measuring social and environmental performance and how such measures can be incorporated in a balanced scorecard.
• Chapter 14:
• New opening vignette "Starwood Hotels: Not All Guests Are the Same"
• New discussion on Market-Share and Market-Size Variances
• Chapter 15:
• New discussions on fixed-cost allocation based on budgeted rates and budgeted usage and based on budgeted rates and actual usage
• New discussion Allocating Budgeted Fixed Costs Based on Actual Usage
• Chapter 19:
• New discussion Using Nonfinancial Measures to Evaluate and Improve Quality
• Chapter 21:
• New opening vignette " Capital Budgeting Powers Decisions at the TVA"
• New running example that looks at capital budgeting in the context of a transportation company.
• Chapter 23:
• New opening vignette
• Section "Distinguishing the Performance of Managers From the Performance of Their Subunits" provides several examples of companies that mandate disclosures and evaluate managers on environmental and social metrics.
• For more details on content changes in the Fifteenth edition vs Fourteenth edition see table of contents comparison.