Studying Cost Accounting is one of the best business investments a student can make. Why? Because success in any organization—from the smallest corner store to the largest multinational corporation—requires the use of cost accounting concepts and practices. Cost accounting provides key data to managers for planning and controlling, as well as costing products, services, even customers. This book focuses on how cost accounting helps managers make better decisions, as cost accountants are increasingly becoming integral members of their company’s decision-making teams. In order to emphasize this prominence in decision making, we use the “different costs for different purposes” theme throughout this book.

学习成本会计是学生能做的最好的商业投资之一。为什么？因为从最小的角落商店到最大的跨国公司，任何组织的成功都需要成本会计概念和实践的运用。成本会计为管理者提供计划和控制的关键数据，也为产品、服务甚至客户的成本核算提供数据。这本书的重点是成本会计如何帮助管理者作出更好的决策，因为成本会计越来越成为他们公司的决策团队的组成部分。为了强调这一突出的决策，我们使用“不同的成本为不同的目的”的主题贯穿这本书。