Costing in the application of the supermarket

[Abstract] activity-based costing is an important method of management accounting in the United States and Germany, have been widely used and effective insignificant, but in our country, costing only be used in the manufacturing sector, rarely seen in commercial and service industries. In my opinion, from the practical conditions and effect, activity-based costing is more suitable for commercial enterprises and services, which were discussed in this article, and choose to simulate the operation of a supermarket in China. By comparison with the traditional method in order to lead to more people learn, and improve the domestic cost management play an active role.

[Keywords:] management accounting; activity-based costing; traditional cost

First, the business enterprise cost and profitability problems in accounting

Costs and profits of commercial enterprises accounting has always been more "extensive." In 1992, China's accounting system "with international standards" before the commercial enterprises on the income statement only said the current period operating income, commodity costs and operating costs (or operating costs , that is, except all costs beyond the cost of goods.) operating costs may be the nature of breakdown by cost (wages, utilities, travel, etc.) listed, but the sales revenue and product costs are not sub-categories of goods, operating costs are not allocated to each commodity costs go up. As a result, although the current period's net profit of the whole enterprise is calculated, the column on the report, if necessary, also available from the "wholesale and retail price difference," calculated the gross margin less all kinds of goods, but do not count The net profit figure of various commodities. all kinds of commercial enterprises, whether retail or wholesale trade, and whether the business is food, fresh produce, or metal or of production, are true. This practice followed from the early days of liberation in 1993 issued The <<commodity circulation enterprise accounting system> before ", there is little change. Not only is China's commercial enterprises to do so, and foreign (U.S.) is also to do so, at least from their textbook point of view, the case.

In 2001, the Ministry of Finance to develop a unified <"Enterprise Accounting System>> the same time, without changing the uniform principles provided on the basis of different enterprises in different sectors can be determined according to the actual situation of their own approach, which gives the company a great choice room. However, most supermarkets still in use of the above approach, basically unchanged. just because the supermarket cash register when they with the "bar codes" Computerized processing, can easily calculate the classification of merchandise sales revenues and cost of goods Some supermarkets use this condition to calculate the classification of goods, "margin", than the use of "Zero spread" a rough calculation of gross profit a step forward, but still wrapped into operating costs as a "period cost", is deducted from the gross profit , which is still classified goods excluding net income figures. can be said that although the reform of accounting cost and profit commercial enterprises, technical conditions have been met, but the calculation of net profit point of view, there has been no breakthrough change.

In this regard, the United States is a breakthrough. That is to the principles of costing applied to commercial enterprises. The United States introduced this case ①, quite enlightening. I have been to Beijing a considerable size of the super- market (hereinafter referred to as "A Supermarket") cooperation, with their actual data, using the principles of ABC, gave a comprehensive simulation of a spreadsheet. pro forma results show that the operating cost method in the future of business enterprise applications very broad, it is worth further investigation.


Second, ABC (Activity-Based Cost) of the basic principles of

Costing product costs in order to solve the problem of distorted raised, the first object is to create enterprises. With the advances in manufacturing technology, manufacturing cost of doubling the proportion of indirect costs. In making operating costs before the law, although also presented in the textbooks by the motivation indirect costs allocated to the production sector approach, but in practice are often of convenience, to take with a simple rate (such as direct labor as the allocation base) to the product distribution methods. operating cost is the cost imputation rules in the "job", then press the operations cost drivers for allocation.

Enterprises of all production and business activities, can be called "operations (activity)". Enterprises in many sectors set accordingly, namely, the nature of the implementation of various activities or operations. These sectors, according to their nature, have different titles. In industrial enterprises, engaged in basic production, known as the basic production workshop; engaged in supporting the production of (for example, power, transportation, machine repair), known as the secondary plant. the basic workshop, there are the production of sub-Section and the Auxiliary Section, which engaged in supporting operations, such as equipment maintenance. enterprises also set the number of departments, respectively, the implementation of the supply, planning, design, technology, technology management, quality management, personnel, finance, sales and other functions ②. within the meaning of job costing, does not include the production of basic production workshop occurred Section consumption of materials and labor, not including direct costs of parts. costing the discussion, only the auxiliary section in the basic production plant, auxiliary plant, the consumption of functional departments, the indirect cost component. ABC is to correct the practice of convenience of the "Long shouted," the practice of indirect costs allocated to address the misallocation caused by the product cost distortions ③.


Costs and profits of industrial enterprises with the status of accounting compared to commercial enterprises more urgent need to reform the accounting method. Industrial enterprises may not have a realistic accounting of the results, but at least the cost is accounted for by product, but also indirect costs by product allocation. Commercial enterprises but not all kinds of goods were calculated by the traditional profit. If we can according to the actual situation, to find a reasonable distribution of the operating cost method to all kinds of goods, all kinds of goods that can calculate the net profit margin, which management how the rational allocation of resources (including the shop area, human and financial resources) to seek better profits are an important reference, and because the purchase and sale of various commodities are responsible for different levels (for example, have three groups in charge of the Ministry of fresh seafood, Sales of meat and pasta), and a functional departments (such as Administration Department) and is responsible for its budget expenditure, so the accounting classification of costs and profits, sub-sector assessment expenses, to further strengthen the internal Economic responsibility (responsibility accounting.)

C, A supermarket using traditional methods and operating method of accounting costs, profit comparison

(A) A supermarket's business profile and institutional settings
A supermarket on sales of nearly 2 000 million, is a large-scale comprehensive supermarket. Its business scope includes fresh, food, department stores three categories, set three commodity sectors in charge of these three commodity procurement and sales. This 3 products 3 Department of Management and the small class of goods: fresh with seafood, meat, noodles, 3 subclasses; foods beverages, packaged food, homemade food three subclasses; department stores have clothing and headgear, home appliances, daily necessities 3 categories. the entire shop staff 500 people, including three products directly to the work of the department is 400, they take the store area of ​​5 000 square meters.

In addition to these three basic business departments, there is a "marketing", when the units responsible for holidays, collective procurement to distribution of employees of the store to be known as "buy"; there is a "snack City", located in store side. (for simplicity, Benwensuoyin A supermarket revenues, costs and expenses, not to "snack City" included.) Supporting activities include: 1. receiving department, responsible for the collection of goods, inspection, back, change, dress up according to the needs of promotion (such as buying a carton of milk to send two packets, you need to tie them together), to the three "Commodities" .2. Customer Service Department, responsible for the cash register (including the goods into plastic bags) and storage bags for customers .3. Administration Department is responsible for the maintenance and shop facilities, cleaning and all related functions of .4. Security Department, responsible for external security, internal security, fire .5. responsible for the personnel staffing Department of .6. responsible for general administrative functions of the Finance Department, Computer Department, Planning Department ④. Figure 1 is the store's organization chart.


(B) under the traditional method of accounting of costs and profits
In the traditional approach, the shop's sales revenue and total cost of goods only count as one, the nature of operating costs by cost (wages, utilities, etc.) be listed, an amount deducted from the gross margin to calculate the net profit. Table 1.

Since the cash register application "bar code", since the implementation of Computerization, the cost of sales income and commodity classification can easily be accounted for, all kinds of goods were calculated margin situation. But the shop is still operating costs are not divided into the cost of various commodities to go. Table 2 shows the classification results of calculation of gross profit.

In the traditional approach, only know that the supermarket was 8.19% of total gross margin (see Table 1). A "bar code", Computerization, can be seen from Table 2, there are different kinds of goods gross margins. Drink the highest gross margin pasta 10.59% and the lowest 3.50% a big difference. this information to appropriately adjust for the store business focus is valuable; also the sale of goods by all types of income distribution operating costs. However, this figure is very rough, of course, can not meet the management the needs.


Implementation of operating cost in the supermarket the purpose is to make the cost of the various departments, using practical methods, included nine types of goods, a more realistic figure out their net profit figures.


(C) of the operating cost method of accounting of costs and profits
Should operate in the cost of the resources are direct imputation to the cost of commodities go up 9 is impossible. Need to spend resources, first of all imputation to the sector; and imputation to the job. Some jobs can According to records directly to the costs are included in the cost of various commodities; others need to identify the cost drivers of the job to calculate the distribution of the base, according to distribution. accounting process is that the cost of the imputation and allocation process. It can be divided 5 steps to illustrate.

Links to Research Papers Download http://www.hi138.com 1. Imputation costs by sector
Cost of change by sector collection, not technically difficult. Employees payroll were originally compiled by sector, aggregated. Utilities, cleaning, repair and maintenance of all, cleaning related costs should be included in the Administration Division. Ad , communications, travel, printing, hospitality are all costs of the plant support services. (Health) of fresh consumption (wood), the Ministry of the cost of completely fresh. packaging materials, according to consumption of the sector, were included in the fresh, food, receiving, (GU) Service (Service), and group ministries. part of administrative expenses in the housing depreciation, included in the Administration Department; another part of the consumption of stationery, etc., included in the shop costs. transportation because most of transportation costs caused by procurement (three products were included in the Ministry), a small part of the expenditure is in the shop. Table 3.

2. Calculated the amount of the cost of operations
When a department is only one job, the costs incurred in the sector is the amount of the cost of the operation. But when a department in a variety of jobs, and these cost drivers are not the same job, you need to put the cost of this sector segmentation. is also possible to track records to the method of segmentation, the three products is the case of the Ministry. fresh charges in the two kinds of the Ministry of operations (procurement and sales), the occurrence of four kinds of costs (wages, transportation costs, packaging materials, raw fresh supplies.) 71 000 Element wages, procurement personnel (clear division of labor) 1 000, the remaining 100 salesperson's salary according to the seafood, meat, pasta, the distribution of the three groups (50,40,10 person), assessed in three small class goods. the department of traffic costs 24 000 all belong to the procurement operations, procurement practices by the ratio of the order amount in 60%, 30%, 10% share in the three sub products. fresh supplies packaging materials 10 000 yuan and 30 000, press the record assigned to the three sub products. the cost of the three segmentation results of the Ministry of goods shown in Table 4.

The other two commodity sectors (Ministry of Food Ministry and department stores) split the costs, practices the same, but in different proportions (not individually shown), the results shown in Table 5, Table 6.

Receiving department, there are two operations: one for collection, testing, storage, hair, back, change; the second is to facilitate the marketing of goods wrapped up. For expenses incurred divided, in principle, can be credited directly credited directly s; consumption of packaging materials, entries in the "dressing" operations; can not be directly credited to the artificial consumption divided by the estimate of the charge. In this case, 10 workers in the receiving department, and they have completed both the receipt and dressing entry operations, there is no clear division of labor, so I had to estimate by the head of the Department: consumption at the time of receipt and bandaging were approximately 60% and 40%, so all of the wage expenditure 7000 Element, receiving operations should be assessed 4 000 million, shared 3000 dressing operation yuan, 000 yuan but the packaging material 24 should all go for the dressing operation. results, receiving 31 000 Element Ministry of cost, are receiving operations 4 000, are dressing operations 27 000. For the receiving department and other cost-sharing functions, need to determine the distribution of their base, see the next section.


3. To determine the allocation of operating cost base (cost driver) and overhead rates
The cost of the operation took place, need to be further allocated to each cost object, which can be known to determine the ratio between, the Ministry of fresh allocation of costs, is one example. But the usual practice is to make sure the job cost drivers and cost drivers calculated by the amount of work, and to determine the billing amount of work per unit price, according to the accepted work (services) sector, operating or cost object allocation. For example, the Ministry of cost drivers should be a cashier's cash register plots, you need to calculate the cost per sale cash register, according to the sales occurred in all types of goods to be allocated plots. Administration Department (and the Security Department) ⑥ duty is to maintain the store clean, comfortable, safe, roughly the amount of costs incurred proportional with the shop area, "area" is "administrative, security services" operating cost drivers, by all kinds of goods occupied by the sales department to allocate the cost of shop area. receiving part of the dressing into the two receiving and playing operation, the two operations of receipt of the amount in each of the number of the cost drivers and dressings; the cost to the Ministry of Personnel Ministry of the number of commodity cost drivers; manager office, Computer, finance, planning department's work , all belong to the support of the shop, the nature of the charges should be allocated to the small class in terms of sales of goods, so combined, as a job. ⑦ Table 7 shows the allocation rates for the calculation of the cost of operating the process.

4. Calculate various goods consumed amount of work
Considered after the operation overhead rates, and then need is the small class of goods consumed by the number of jobs.

Table 8 lists the types of goods consumed by the amount of work, some are determined according to records, for example, according to computer records to determine the cash register of the small class of goods (and for bagging) of the amount in ⑨; Again, you can all kinds of goods according to the actual area occupied by sales region, the total area of ​​5000 square meters allocated to commodities to 9 subclasses.

5. According to the operating cost allocation rate assigned to the small class of goods
Listed in Table 7 with the operations overhead rates, multiplied by the consumption of various commodities in Table 8 amount of work, you can get all kinds of goods should share the cost of shop operations, calculate operating profit by product category. Table 9.



Fourth, the cost of the supermarket in the use of traditional methods and comparison of activity-based costing and recommendations

(A) using activity-based costing, it is possible to calculate net income of all types of commodities, and hence help companies more rational use of store to formulate competitive strategy
A supermarket will be the cost of traditional methods and simulations under the cost method considered the costs and profitability (ie, operating profit of the total income) for comparison (see Table 1 and the specific data table 9) shows that the two methods are considered the shop is the total net profit margin of 2.91%. However, the traditional method does not store operating costs will be split into different commodities to go, but the "package" net, can not figure out all kinds of goods (SUB or categories) of net profit situation. just the introduction of the operating cost will it be possible to obtain more precise types of goods net information. can be seen from Table 9, pasta, daily necessities, a slight loss, while drinks and seafood, the highest level of profitability.

Supermarket operators can use the costing information provided under the guidance of pricing, promotion, procurement, discount arrangements, and other related decisions. For example, an increase of this new shop in the supermarket area, in the allocation of new areas, it is desirable to consider expanding the area of ​​beverage and seafood groups. However, the isolation rate according to the profitability of all types of goods to the development of commodity policy, but not necessarily in order. For example, reduce the current loss of life products, the surface will be increased profitability, but the actual , when the customer came to the supermarket, they found themselves unable to buy needed household items, it will produce a feeling of incomplete goods, the supermarket, so he wanted to buy something next to other supermarket full of goods. to reduce an product may affect sales of other commodities, which is the supermarket knowing that some goods are not profitable, but the reasons are still selling. complexity of business decisions, the current cost and profit is certainly an important aspect to consider, but not the only considerations .

However, through all kinds of goods costing net profit calculated, can really help companies in the development of strategy, vision more open. For example, a competitor announced price cuts of 5% of the beverage, A supermarket is now known through the drinks costing a net profit rate can reach 6.3%, would not be provoked on the price behavior of competitors fight back hesitated.

(B) the operating cost method to obtain various types of merchandise revenues, costs, and a variety of operating cost data, contribute to the operation of all kinds of goods for further analysis
Can be seen from Table 9, the main operating costs are two: selling expenses and administrative costs of security. The former depends on the team (small class of goods) The number of business, the latter decided to sell the small class of goods in stores occupied by area. Table 10 shows the life of meat products group and the group obtained the sales revenue, gross profit, net profit, sales charges, administrative costs of the shop, the security of total revenue, gross profit, net profit and the ratio of the two charges.


From Table 10 can be easily got the impression: relative to sales revenue and gross profit, the daily necessities group area occupied by shops and hiring a salesperson, are far more than the meat group. If you take a look to the A supermarket, two tight group of wide-area occupied, busy salespersons, is obvious. but the specific data, not through the implementation of activity-based costing is not even pull out.

(C) help implement the "responsibility accounting" principle, strengthen the internal management
In the traditional cost approach, the operating costs are at the cost of the "nature" recorded under the item related. In other words, is the whole enterprise as "objects" to be accounted for. In the operating cost method, First of all operating costs must be credited to track the various departments; and then work to split (or summarized). each department were calculated amount of its actual costs were incurred, you can and plan (budget) figures were compared, under control. This is the actual is implemented on the sub-sector Cost Accounting and assessment, or so-called "responsibility accounting", the departments have become "cost centers" or "(people) profit center."
Above aspects are less than traditional methods. Indeed, in many varieties enterprise, some products of the fact that the actual costs are higher, the cost of traditional methods by incorrect information provided by the cover. Textbooks in the United States For the actual use of ABC, did not say very clearly and easily understood as long-term decisions for pricing information and do a "one-time" estimates. the author of A supermarket for the simulation of a spreadsheet is to explore not possible to integrate the principles of costing formal costing system. To do this, need to change the division of the cost of the project and establish the corresponding original record system. I believe that China's commercial and service sectors in the promotion of activity-based costing is trend, but still need further exploration

[References]
[1] Mr. Yang Jiliang In "" Accounting Research >>,<< accounting communication>> and other articles published in the journal.

[2] Zhuhai Fang. Management Accounting [M]. China Financial and Economic Publishing House, 2000.10.

[3] Tang. R. Hanson, Marianne. M. Mo, the. Wang Guangyuan, such as translation. Management Accounting (Fourth Edition) [M]. Beijing University Press, 2002.1.

[4] Edward J. Bu Luoqie, Kang H. Chen, Thomas W. Lin, the. Li Ping Li, Liu Quanfu, translated. Cost management - management control and management control [M]. Beijing: Huaxia Publishing House, 2002.1 .


Note:
① Horgren: Cost Accounting: Management Emphasis 10th ed.

② U.S. companies on these bodies, collectively, the "department (department)", as we have clarity.

③ there is also the cost of the product whether it should include period costs. This article does not discuss this issue.

④ We understand that domestic institutional settings supermarkets, are similar.

⑤ already before the sale of fresh produce caused by the consumption of deterioration.

⑥ in the administration, they are two departments, the nature of work is not the same, just because "Chengbendongyin" the same, all shop area, for simplicity, we merge them into a homework. Of course, as the two jobs can still to deal with.

⑦ Administration / Security services shop area, including direct sales and indirect business area, the Ministry of Personnel for the entire store (including non-direct business sector) service, the shop of support operations course for non-direct sales departments. In order to avoid the "interactive distribution" These services allocated to direct operating cost of only the object, or 9 small class goods.

⑧ income earned from the buy and commodity costs, have been credited to the respective revenue and cost of such goods. This is just marketing costs incurred.

⑨ sales amount in the small class of goods into plastic bags and the amount in the customer, not the same thing. The amount in the latter sub-category of goods is difficult to obtain, it merged into the same "cost drivers."

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