By using relevant data such as cost accounting, this paper analyzes the changes of cost level and composition, studies various factors affecting cost fluctuation and their causes, and looks for ways to reduce costs. Cost analysis is an important part of cost management, and its function is to correctly evaluate the implementation results of enterprise cost plan, reveal the reasons of cost fluctuation, and provide an important basis for making cost plan and making business decisions.
[Edit this paragraph] Main contents of cost analysis
Including: the analysis of the completion of the cost plan, the analysis of the impact of the change of technical and economic indicators on the cost, and the analysis of the unit cost of the main products. Methods mainly include: comparative analysis, ratio analysis, trend analysis, factor analysis and so on.
[Edit this paragraph] Cost analysis method
There are many technical methods (also called quantitative analysis methods) to choose from in cost analysis. Enterprises should determine which method to use for cost analysis according to the purpose of analysis, the characteristics of the analysis object and the information they have. In practical work, there are three commonly used technical analysis methods: comparative analysis, factor analysis and correlation analysis.
1, comparative analysis method
Comparative analysis is a method to reveal the differences and analyze the reasons by comparing the actual cost indicators with the indicators in different periods. In the comparative analysis, the actual indicators can be compared with the planned indicators, the actual indicators of the current period and the previous period (or the same period last year, the best level in history), and the actual indicators of this period can be compared with the advanced indicators of the same type of enterprises at home and abroad. Through comparative analysis, we can get a general understanding of the rise and fall of enterprise cost and its development trend, find out the reasons, find out the gap and put forward further improvement measures. When using comparative analysis method, we should pay attention to the comparability of actual indicators and comparative indicators in this period, so that the results of comparison can better explain the problem and reveal the differences in line with reality. If there is no comparability, the analysis result may be inaccurate, and even the opposite conclusion completely different from the actual situation may be drawn. When using comparative analysis method, we can take various forms such as absolute number comparison, increase and decrease difference comparison or relative number comparison.
Comparative analysis method according to the comparison content (than what) is divided into:
(1) Total amount of comparative accounting elements
(2) Comparative structural percentage
(3) Comparative financial ratio
2. Factor analysis method
Factor analysis is an analytical method to decompose a comprehensive index into interrelated factors and determine the influence of these factors on the difference of comprehensive index. The application of factor analysis method in cost analysis is to decompose various factors that constitute the cost, measure the influence degree of each factor change on the completion of the cost plan, evaluate the implementation of the enterprise cost plan accordingly, and put forward further improvement measures.
The steps of factor analysis are as follows:
(1) decompose an economic indicator to be analyzed into the product of several factors. When decomposing, we should pay attention to the components in economic indicators that can reflect the internal reasons for the differences of indicators, otherwise the calculation results will be inaccurate. For example, the material cost index can be decomposed into the product of product output, unit consumption and unit price. But it can't be decomposed into the product of the number of days to produce the product, the materials consumed every day and the product output. Because this composition can not fully reflect the composition of product material cost.
(2) Calculate the actual number and base period number of economic indicators (such as planned number and previous period number, etc.). ), thus forming two index systems. The difference between these two indicators, that is, the difference between the actual indicators and the base indicators, is the object to be analyzed. The total influence of various factors on the completion of the economic indicators to be analyzed should be equal to the analysis object.
(3) Determine the substitution order of each factor. When determining the composition of economic index factors, its order is the substitution order in analysis. When determining the substitution order, we should proceed from the interdependence of various factors, so that the analysis results can help to distinguish economic responsibilities. The general replacement order is to replace the quantity index first, and then replace the quality index; Replace the physical quantity index first, then replace the monetary quantity index; Replace the main indicators first, and then replace the secondary indicators.
(4) Calculate the substitution index. Its method is based on the number of base periods and gradually replaced by various factors in the actual index system. Every time you replace a factor in the cardinal index with an actual number, you can calculate an index. Keep the actual number after each replacement, and replace several factors several times to get several indicators. Pay attention to the replacement sequence when replacing, and adopt serial mode without interruption. Otherwise, the sum of the influence degrees of calculation factors cannot be equal to the difference between the actual number of economic indicators and the number of base periods (that is, the analysis objects).
(5) Calculate the influence of various factors on economic indicators. The method is to compare the results of each substitution with the results before the substitution of this factor, and the difference is the degree of influence of the change of this factor on economic indicators.
(6) The sum of the influences of various factors on economic indicators should be equal to the difference between the actual number of the economic indicators and the number of base periods (that is, the analysis objects).
Overview of cost control The so-called cost control refers to a series of preventive and adjustment measures taken by the cost control subject to various factors and conditions affecting the cost according to the pre-established cost management objectives in a certain period before the production consumption occurs and during the cost control process to ensure the realization of the cost management objectives.
The process of cost control is the process of calculating, adjusting and supervising all kinds of expenses in the production and operation of enterprises by using the principle of system engineering, and it is also the process of finding weak links, tapping internal potential and finding all possible ways to reduce costs. Scientifically organizing and implementing cost control can promote enterprises to improve their management, change their operating mechanism, improve quality of enterprise in an all-round way, and enable enterprises to survive, develop and grow in a highly competitive market environment.
Cost control refers to a series of management activities and processes that take cost as the control means, and achieve the purpose of effectively controlling economic activities by formulating the index value of the total cost level, the cost reduction rate of comparable products and the responsibility of the cost center to control costs.
Cost control refers to reducing the absolute amount of cost expenditure, so it is also called absolute cost control; Reducing costs also includes coordinating the relationship between cost, quantity and income, so that the growth of income exceeds the growth of cost and the relative cost savings are realized, so it is also called relative cost control.
As a part of cost management, cost control is committed to meeting cost requirements (CCA2101:Article 2.5. 10 in 2005). Meeting cost requirements mainly refers to meeting the cost requirements of customers, top managers, interested parties and laws and regulations. The object of cost control is the process of cost occurrence, including design process, procurement process, production and service provision process, sales process, logistics process, after-sales service process, management process and logistics support process. The result of cost control should make the controlled cost meet the specified requirements. In order to make the cost control meet the specified and expected cost requirements, appropriate and effective measures must be taken, including the techniques and methods of operation, cost engineering and cost management. Such as VE value engineering, IE industrial engineering, ABC activity-based costing, ABM activity-based costing management, SC standard costing, target costing, CD reduction costing, CVP cost-volume-profit analysis, SCM strategic cost management, quality cost management, environmental cost management, inventory management, cost early warning, momentum engineering, cost control scheme, etc.
The purpose of carrying out cost control activities is to prevent waste of resources, reduce costs to the lowest possible level, and maintain the reduced cost level.
Cost control opposes the practice of "settling accounts after autumn" and "checking afterwards", and advocates pre-control and process control. Therefore, cost control must follow the pre-control principle and process method, and consider and study why this kind of cost occurs before or during the cost occurrence. Should it happen? How much should happen? Who should happen? Where should it happen? Is it necessary? After decision-making, process activities should be monitored, measured, analyzed and improved.
Cost control should be the concept of overall control, including full participation and whole process control.
Some activities of cost control and cost assurance are interrelated.
[Edit this paragraph] Basic work of cost control
The starting point or platform of cost control process is the basic work of cost control. Cost control does not start from the basic work, and the effect and success possibility of cost control will be greatly affected.
1, quota formulation. Quota refers to the quantitative limit reached by the consumption of various resources such as manpower, material resources and financial resources under certain production technology level and organizational conditions, mainly including material quota and working hours quota. Cost control is mainly to formulate consumption quota, and only by formulating consumption quota can cost control be achieved. The formulation of working hours quota is mainly based on the income level of each region, enterprise wage strategy, human resources situation and other factors. In modern enterprise management, labor costs are increasing, and working hours quota is particularly important. In practice, according to the production and operation characteristics of enterprises and the needs of cost control, there will be power quota and cost quota. Quota management is the core of basic work of cost control. The establishment of quota acquisition system, the control of material cost, fuel power cost, the establishment of labor contract system, the control of man-hour cost and manufacturing cost all depend on quota system. Without a good quota, the production cost cannot be controlled. At the same time, the quota is also the main basis for cost prediction, decision-making, accounting, analysis and distribution, and it is the top priority of cost control.
2. Standardization work. Standardization is the basic requirement of modern enterprise management and the basic guarantee for the normal operation of enterprises, which promotes the rationalization, standardization and high efficiency of enterprise production and operation activities and various management work, and is the basic premise for the success of cost control. In the process of cost control, the following three standardization tasks are extremely important.
First, measurement standardization. Measurement refers to the measurement of quantitative and qualitative values in production and operation activities by scientific methods and means, so as to provide accurate data for production and operation, especially cost control. If there is no unified measurement standard and the basic data is inaccurate, it is impossible to obtain accurate cost information, let alone control it.
Second, price standardization. In the process of cost control, two standard prices should be set. One is the internal price, that is, the internal settlement price, which is the value measure of "commodity" simulated market exchange between accounting units and between accounting units and enterprises; The second is the external price, that is, the settlement price of supply and marketing with external enterprises in the purchase and sale activities of enterprises. Standard price is the basic guarantee of cost control operation.
Third, quality standardization. Quality is the soul of products. Without quality, even the lowest cost is futile. Cost control is cost control under quality control. Without quality standards, cost control will lose its direction, not to mention cost control.
Fourth, data standardization. Formulate the collection process of cost data, clarify the responsibilities of the submitter and bookkeeper of cost data, and ensure that cost data is submitted on time and recorded in time to facilitate data transmission and information sharing. Standardize the cost accounting method and clarify the cost calculation method; The written documents of cost should be in the form of national official documents, with a unified header and a unified cost calculation chart format, so as to ensure the accuracy of cost accounting results.
3. System construction. In the market economy, the basic guarantee of enterprise operation is system and culture. System construction is fundamental, and cultural construction is a supplement. Without system construction, it is impossible to solidify the operation of cost control and ensure the quality of cost control. The most important systems in cost control are quota management system, budget management system and expense audit system. In practice, there are two problems in system construction. First, the system is not perfect. In terms of system content, system construction is more from the perspective of norms, which looks like an order. The correct approach should be to start from the operation of the system construction, so that the person in charge can find the correct positioning and facilitate the operation. Second, the implementation of the system is weak, always emphasizing the objective reasons such as poor management foundation and personnel restrictions. The content of interest adjustment shrinks as soon as it appears, which leads to the system being ineffective.
[Edit this paragraph] Cost management control objectives
In the enterprise development strategy, cost control is in an extremely important position. If the performance and quality of similar products are similar, then the main factor that determines the competition of products in the market is price, and the main factor that determines the price of products is cost, because only by reducing costs can the price of products be reduced. The goal of cost management control must first be the whole process control, not just the production cost of the product, but the whole content of the product life cycle cost. Practice has proved that only when the product life cycle cost is effectively controlled, the cost will be significantly reduced. From the perspective of the whole society, only in this way can we truly achieve the purpose of saving social resources. In addition, enterprises must take into account the continuous innovation of products while controlling costs, especially to ensure and improve the quality of products. We must not unilaterally ignore the variety and quality of products in order to reduce costs, and we must not unilaterally pursue immediate interests and adopt crooked ways such as cutting corners and counterfeiting to reduce costs. Otherwise, the result will not only harm consumers, but also make enterprises lose credibility and even go bankrupt.
(a) Cost drivers are not limited to product quantity.
To control costs, we must first understand why costs occur, what factors are related to them, and what is the relationship. For direct costs (direct materials and direct labor), the cost driver is the output of the product, and there is no doubt that this part is distributed according to the output. How to effectively control the cost and maximize the efficiency of enterprise's resource utilization should start with management, try to increase effective management, improve the efficiency of effective management, and at the same time try to reduce or even eliminate ineffective management. This is the basic idea of modern cost control method, and other concepts are all around it, so it is also the foothold of this paper.
(b) The meaning of cost has become broader.
Traditional product costs generally only refer to the manufacturing costs of products, including direct material costs, direct labor costs and manufacturing costs that should be apportioned, while other costs are put into management costs and sales costs, all of which are regarded as period costs and are completely unrelated to product production. Therefore, the broad concept of cost includes not only the manufacturing cost of products (midstream), but also the development and design cost of products (upstream), and the consumption of all enterprise resources related to products, including use cost, maintenance cost and abandonment cost (downstream). Accordingly, for cost control, it is necessary to control all the costs that occur in these three links.
(C) cost savings to cost avoidance
The traditional cost reduction is basically achieved by saving costs, that is, trying not to waste resources at the job site and improving working methods to save costs. The main methods are saving energy consumption, preventing accidents and purchasing raw materials or equipment through bidding, which is a tactical improvement of enterprises and a main form of reducing costs. Advanced cost reduction requires enterprises to control costs by reorganizing production processes in the product development and design stage, which is an advanced strategic change.
(d) Time is an important competitive factor.
Time is a very important factor in all stages of the value chain. The development and change of various technologies in many industries have accelerated, and the life cycle of products has become very short. It is the first step for enterprises to deliver products to customers in time, and it is more important to take measures in time to maximize customer value. In this way, we can not only acquire the market, but also keep abreast of the market dynamics.