Activity-based Systems: Measuring the Costs of Resource Usage

This paper describes the conceptual basis for the design and use of newly emerging activity-based cost (ABC) systems. TVaditional cost systems use volume-driven allocation bases, such as direct labor dollars, machine hours, and sales dollars, to assign organizational expenses to individual products and customers. But many ofthe resource demands by individual products and customers are not proportional to the volume of units produced or sold. Thus, conventional systems do not measure accurately the costs of resources used to design and produce products and to sell and deliver them to customers. Companies, including those with excellent traditional cost systems,^ have developed activity-based cost systems so that they can directly link the costs of performing organizational activities to the products and customers for which these activities are performed.