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ACCA PM考点：Relevant costs

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发布时间：2021-08-18 16:31

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‘Relevant costs’can be defined as any cost relevant to a decision.A matter is relevant if there is a change in cash flow that is caused by the decision.

The change in cash flow can be:

additional amounts that must be paid

a decrease in amounts that must be paid

additional revenue that will be earned

a decrease in revenue that will be earned.

A change in the cash flow can be identified by asking if the amounts that would appear on the company’s bank statement are affected by the decision,whether increased or decreased.Banks record cash so this test is reliable.

1.Sunk costs(past costs)or committed costs are not relevant

Sunk,or past,costs are monies already spent or money that is already contracted to be spent.A decision on whether or not a new endeavour is started will have no effect on this cash flow,so sunk costs cannot be relevant.

For example,money that has been spent on market research for a new product or planning a new factory is already spent and isn’t coming back to the company,irrespective of whether the product is approved for manufacture or the factory is built.

Committed costs are costs that would be incurred in the future but they cannot be avoided because the company has already committed to them through another decision which has been made.

For example,if a company has two year lease for piece of machinery,that cost will not be relevant to a decision on whether to use that machinery on a new project which will last for the next month.

2.Re-apportionment of existing fixed costs are not relevant

Irrespective of what treatment is used in the company’s management accounts to split up costs,if the total costs remain the same,there is no cash flow effect caused by the decision.

Note that additional fixed costs caused by a decision are relevant.So,if you were evaluating the viability of a new production facility,then the rent of a building specially leased for the new facility is relevant.

3.Depreciation and book values(notional costs)are not relevant

Depreciation is not a cash flow and is dependent on past purchases and somewhat arbitrary depreciation rates.By the same argument,book values are not relevant as these are simply the result of historical costs(or historical revaluation)and depreciation.

4.Increases or decreases in cash flows caused by a project are relevant

So,if an old product is discontinued three years early to make room for a new product,the revenue and cost decreases relating to the old product are relevant,as are the revenue and cost increases on the new.The cost effects relate to both changes in variable costs and changes in total fixed costs.

5.Revenues forgone(given up)because of a decision are relevant

If a company decides to keep an asset for use in the manufacture of a new product rather than selling it,then its cash flow is affected by the decision to keep the asset,as it will now not benefit from the sale of the asset.This effect is known as an opportunity cost,which is the value of a benefit foregone when one course of action is chosen in preference to another.In this case,the company has given up its opportunity to have a cash inflow from the asset sale.

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We will now look at some typical examples where you have to decide which costs are relevant to decision-making.We suggest that you try each example yourself before you look at each solution.In all examples we ignore the time value of money.

翻译参考

“相关成本”可以定义为与决策相关的任何成本。如果决策导致现金流量发生变化，则该事项具有相关性。

现金流量的变化可以是：

必须支付的额外金额

必须支付的金额减少

将获得的额外收入

将获得的收入减少。

现金流量的变化可以通过询问公司银行对账单上出现的金额是否受到该决定的影响来确定，无论是增加还是减少。银行记录现金，所以这个测试是可靠的。

1.沉没成本（过去成本）或承诺成本不相关

沉没成本或过去成本是已经花费的金钱或已经约定花费的金钱。是否开始新的努力的决定不会影响这个现金流，因此沉没成本不相关。

例如，用于新产品的市场研究或规划新工厂的资金已经用完，不会再回到公司，无论产品是否已获准生产或工厂是否已建成。

承诺成本是指将来会发生但无法避免的成本，因为公司已经通过另一项已做出的决定向这些成本做出承诺。