Control Reports in Cost Accounting Management Research (Essay Sample)

Control Reports in Cost Accounting
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Control Reports in Cost Accounting
Control reports are extremely useful components of cost accounting systems. Amongst many functions, these reports provide significant economic, management, informational, and performance snapshots that help hold individuals, organizations, and groups accountable. There are several types of control reports often used for this purpose. This paper, however, focuses on performance control reports specifically. Below is a brief description of the same, and how it can be used to hold an individual, organization, or group accountable.
Description
Managerial performance control reports often involve a comparative account of actual performance and standard such as the budget. The actual performance level is compared to stipulated performance standards to determine the degrees of deviation or consistency. In this sense, more focus is given to how sound a manager, organization, or group performed in a given period (Anthony, Hawkins, & Merchant, 2011). Consistency, positive deviation, and negative deviation from expectations can be used as pointers of performance measurements and grades. One of the unique characteristics of managerial performance control reports is that they only take into account the controllable items (Anthony, Hawkins, & Merchant, 2011). Non-controllable aspects of performance are omitted from measurements.
Using Managerial Performance Control Reports for Accountability Reasons
As stated earlier, control reports can be used to hold an individual, organization, or group accountable for their actions or misactions. Since managerial performance control reports are often based on comparative outlay between actual performance and performance standards (Anthony, Hawkins, & Merchant, 2011), it is easy to hold the manager in charge, organization, and responsible group accountable for deviations in performance. Nevertheless, for one to achieve this, there are specific steps to follow. For instance, a...