Cost Drivers Definition, Examples

In the past century, the root cause of indirect manufacturing costs has changed from a single cost driver to several cost drivers. Due to sophisticated manufacturing and increased demands from customers, direct labor is no longer the main cost driver of indirect manufacturing overhead. The concept is most commonly used to assign overhead costs to the number of produced units. It can also be used in activity-based costing analysis to determine the causes of overhead, which can be used to minimize overhead costs.

Are allocated on the predefined rate based on the activity performed. Ideally, a cost driver is an activity that is the root cause of why a cost occurs. Download the free Know Your Economics guide to easily manage the factors incurring costs in your company. Cost drives application requires a thorough understanding of the cost functions. Otherwise, it would either be a selection of the wrong basis of allocation, or it would be an incorrect selection of process.

Identify Cost Drivers

The precondition is the establishment of the cause and effect relationship between cost drivers and their respective activity or cost center. If a manager knows with reasonable accuracy that what is driving its costs, he may focus on reducing the quantity of that cost driver. In our previous example, the manager can work on techniques to improve labor efficiency. Fixed costs like yearly rent of a factory can’t have a cost driver. Simply because the factory rent would not increase with an increase in production, especially in the short run like a year or 2. But, if we consider a long term of 10 years, we may find some co-relation with production. In the long run, we can assume the quantity of production as a cost driver for factory rent.

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Value drivers are those additions to a product that increases the product’s value for its customers. Additions could be anything from an additional part to an additional feature or a free service. At your place of business, you sell various electronics ranging from computers to televisions to car stereos.

What Is Cost Driver?

Manufacturers that want to know the true costs of their products need to know what is driving their indirect manufacturing costs. For these companies it is not sufficient to merely spread overhead costs to products by using a single factor such as direct labor hours or production machine hours.

However, these costs may not be allocated to the products appropriately when overhead is applied using a predetermined rate based on one activity. While Solo, Band, and Orchestra might appear to be different only in quality, they are actually very different from each other when it comes to manufacturing overhead costs.

It establishes the basis on which cost is to be allocated, which will ultimately result in the total cost of a product. An example of an activity cost driver in a manufacturing plant is the number of orders that must be produced. Everyday thousands of cars are ordered into the production line by management.

Example Of Cost Driver

Each department from painting to assembly has a set amount of cars that must be completed each day. Cost accounting is a form of managerial accounting that aims to capture a company’s total cost of production by assessing its variable and fixed costs. A cost driver simplifies the allocation of manufacturing overhead. The correct allocation of manufacturing overhead is important to determine the true cost of a product. Internal management uses the cost of a product to determine the prices of the products they produce.

In some cases, the cost driver is static and does not increase as production grows. The business may not require additional personnel to ramp up production, and their cost actually drives down, as production increases.

As a result, the efforts to simplify the design would show him a reduction in labor costs. The hard number placed on each activity is always subject to change. In most cases, the cost drivers rise accordingly, as more units are produced and the business will simply factor these costs into their overhead structure. Before you can determine the cost driver, you must first locate the cost objects. These are the actual points of cost incurred and the activities that create the costs. For example, if you produce a product that requires hazardous material designations for transport, you will incur a fee to transport the materials on public roadways.

Automation is essentially taking the production activity-based costing and removing the human element. The cost of operating and maintaining the equipment falls into the same bucket as production, when automated. When determining the cost drivers in a business, set them into distinct categories based on the activity. Production is impossible without the raw materials and this is an activity that will always factor into the overhead structure. Of the product based on the activities performed to produce that product, which in total helps in finding the total cost of the product.

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According to the most simple definition, a cost driver is the unit of an activity that causes the change in activity’s cost. If cost is to be managed effectively, attention has to be paid to key cost drivers. Explain this statement in the context of the cost drivers in question. Many people confuse between the two terms that look similar – Value Driver and Cost Driver. A value driver is entirely a different concept and has no direct connection between the two.

It is hard to determine the exact basis for the cost drivers to get the actual costs, which will defeat the ultimate goal of the business to find the actual cost of the product. These are an advantage for a product as they bring out the actual cost incurred on the products based on the correct allocation of the processes or activities. Indirect CostsIndirect cost is the cost that cannot be directly attributed to the production.

Definition Of Cost Driver

Therefore, every machine hour results in a 50 cent (500 / 1,000) maintenance cost allocated to the product being manufactured based on the cost driver of machine-hours. Whether the products produced require significantly different overhead resources or not, the company benefits from understanding what its cost drivers are. The more efficiently each product’s activities are tracked, the more actual cost drivers are discovered, and the more accurately overhead can be assigned to each product. Increased levels of production would require more paint, more parts, and more workforce labor time to assemble. Thus, number of units required to produce is one cost driver in the vehicle production process. Cost drivers are the elements of a business that cause an overhead cost against the goods manufactured or services provided. Some cost drivers are necessary and unchangeable while others place a high than needed overhead cost against production.

• Management selects cost drivers as the basis for manufacturing overhead allocation.
• Indirect CostsIndirect cost is the cost that cannot be directly attributed to the production.
• Once you determine the appropriate hierarchical level, choose a cost driver activity at that level in order to allocate the indirect or variable cost.
• Of the product based on the activities performed to produce that product, which in total helps in finding the total cost of the product.
• Ideally, a cost driver is an activity that is the root cause of why a cost occurs.
• The more efficiently each product’s activities are tracked, the more actual cost drivers are discovered, and the more accurately overhead can be assigned to each product.

Cost driver analysis is the key to utilizing the concept of ABC Costing to its full potential. Correct activity cost driver determination is vital for effective product costing. There are a lot of management decisions that rely on product costing. A cost driver rate is the amount of indirect or variable cost assigned to each unit of cost driver activity.

What If Marginal Cost Is Lower Than Price?

These are the necessary expenditures and can be fixed or variable in nature like the office expenses, administration, sales promotion expense, etc. To carry out ABC, it is necessary that cost drivers are established for different cost pools. The rising cost is relative and will not increase the price of each unit, as it functions in a relative manner.

In activity-based costing , an activity cost driver influences the costs of labor, maintenance, or other variable costs. Cost drivers are essential in ABC, a branch of managerial accounting that allocates the indirect costs, or overheads, of an activity.

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When deciding which driver to use in terms of allocating indirect cost, consider the cause-and-effect relation between the cost and the driver. In addition, consider whether or not the cost driver activity is easily measurable. It is also necessary to consider the cost behavior of the relevant cost. The relevant cost refers to the cost’s response to the activity of the driver. In addition, approximate the relationship between costs and cost drivers using regression analysis. When a factory machine requires periodic maintenance, the cost of the maintenance is allocated to the products produced by the machine. After every 1,000 machine-hours, there is a maintenance expense of $500.

For example, an indirect or variable cost may be relevant at the unit level, the batch level, the product level, the customer level, or the facility level. Once you determine the appropriate hierarchical level, choose a cost driver activity at that level in order to allocate the indirect or variable cost.

Fixed costs remain fixed until a range of activity, and then they shoot up to a different level. For example, this business may increase the area of the factory to 1.5 times, and rent increases from $100,000 to $150,000. There is a possibility that for some time, a part of the factory remains unutilized. A cost driver is that factor or variable which has a cause and effect relationship with the total cost. The cost driver is the ’cause’, and the ‘total cost incurred’ is the effect of it. If we take an example of fuel cost of running a car, the cost driver would be ‘No. Since “production” is a very large cost pool, it would most likely be split into smaller cost pools in a real system.

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• The actual production and final product inspection are also common activity drivers that effect costs.
• Please complete this reCAPTCHA to demonstrate that it’s you making the requests and not a robot.
• In the past century, the root cause of indirect manufacturing costs has changed from a single cost driver to several cost drivers.
• Before you can determine the cost driver, you must first locate the cost objects.
• An overhead rate is a cost allocated to the production of a product or service.

Activity-based costing is an accounting method that allocates both direct and indirect costs to business activities. An activity cost driver, also known as a causal factor, causes the cost of an activity to increase or decrease.

What Is A Cost Driver?

In business, it is vital to find the cost of the product, to identify whether the business can make the required profits from the production of those products. Now in defining the product cost, these cost drivers play an essential role.

Sales and all related variable expenses are often the driver for commissions, bad debt, insurance expense, and so on. Harold Averkamp has worked as a university accounting instructor, accountant, and consultant for more than 25 years. He is the sole author of all the materials on AccountingCoach.com. Peggy James is a CPA with over 9 years of experience in accounting and finance, including corporate, nonprofit, and personal finance environments. She most recently worked at Duke University and is the owner of Peggy James, CPA, PLLC, serving small businesses, nonprofits, solopreneurs, freelancers, and individuals.