The article discusses about features of the German cost accounting system and ways that company running it can exploit its capabilities. Cost accounting in Germany is different compared to that in the US, and software systems are one of the key differences The German software company, SAP, has designed a complex software system that is on its way to becoming a world standard in business software. This system is based on German cost accounting philosophy. Managerial accounting has taken a very different path in Germany than it has in the US. From the beginning, it was separated from financial accounting and organized as a stand-alone system. Although much of its data is pulled from financ ...view middle of the document...
Focusing on the practical needs of companies, Cooper and Kaplan developed the ABC method of accounting. The undiminished importances of market and customer needs are the reason for new instruments, such as customer lifetime value (CLV) or target costing. Despite all of this progress and significant changes in the competitive environment, cost accounting in Germany has not changed significantly. One empirical study found that the most important change concerning the managerial accounting system for 30 of Germany¡¦s 50 largest companies was a change in the IT platform. The cost accountants decided to broaden the spectrum of the information presented to management but not to change system philosophy or to simplify the way in which information is provided.Cost Accounting systems and the internal customer, both external and internal customers have become the focus of management attention, through such concepts as business systems reengineering and TQM. Internal customers, however, have experienced some neglect and news of this development has seemingly failed to reach the cost accountants. Most executive management has no special expertise in managerial accounting but uses financial data on a daily basis. Brooding over cost figures on a spreadsheet is not a valuable investment of executive management¡¦s time or resources. Cost accountants in organizations using SAP means that they must be aware of new priorities. They should determine how much the managers at their companies understand about the use and interpretation of cost management information. For most accountants, this is a new responsibility. An empirical study on mid-sized companies found that: (1) The more knowledgeable executives are about cost accounting, the higher they rate the quality of their cost accounting, the higher they rate the quality of their cost accounting system. The quality of the underlying data has a similarly strong posit...
