Finance and Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Finance and Management - Essay Example Product cost involves the determination of the cost incurred in the manufacturing of goods or provision of services. Manufacturing organizations, just as Worplestrop Partnership has to determine their products costs for two reasons. First is for decision-making and for the reason of external reporting. In manufacturing their products, Worplestrop Partnership would incur material costs, labor costs and other overhead costs that are associated with the manufacturing of the products (Hansen, Mowen & Guan, 2009). In determining the product cots for decision purposes, an organization will only use relevant costs to arrive at the cost of a product. This form of costing method is referred to as direct costing method. In this case, only the variable costs will be included since they are the ones that can influence the management decisions. Management has control on the costs and can formulate and implement decisions that can reduce the cost elements and increase the returns of the company (B aginski & Hassell, 2003). On the other hand, Worplestrop Partnership has to determine the product costs for the purposes of external reporting. Here product costs are determined to help arrive at the best price to charge for the manufactured products. All the costs that are incurred by the company including the overhead costs and other fixed costs are apportioned in order to charge them on the consumers’ of the manufacturing company’s products. This form of costing is referred to as absorption costing or total costing in which all costs direct and indirect, sunk, and future costs are used in settling at the selling price of the products. Absorption costing has the advantage of considering all the costs incurred by the business since even the fixed costs are incurred for the purposes of manufacturing (2002). Worplestrop Partnership should therefore calculate the product costs using the two approaches for the realization of the two different objectives i.e. management us e and external decisions. for the purpose of setting the product prices, Worplestrop should use absorption costing because it incorporates all the costs incurred by the business hence elaborate. Apart from the two costing methods, Worplestrop partnership could also use the activity based costing method or throughput method. In activity-based method, the organization will charge the overhead costs to the departments depending on the level of activity and the cost drivers. Here, Worplestrop would determine all the activity that increase the costs and determine the factors that increases the costs of the activities. From there, the management will allocate the overhead costs to the centers. This method will make managers control the costs and eliminate the unnecessary activities that do not add value to the business hence increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the business (Hansen, Mowen & Guan, 2009). The method has widely been used by many organizations despite the fact that it is complex. The last accounting method is the throughput method in which the product price is determined by adding only the material costs used in the manufacturing of the products. All the other costs are expensed and are not included in the calculation of the final price. This method is easy to simple to use. However, the method is not recommended by the generally accepted accounting principles and should therefore not be employed. This

Write a thesis driven analysis paper of the book The Lathe of Heaven Essay

Write a thesis driven analysis paper of the book The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin - Essay Example to achieve access to the flowing power available through the fourth concept of cosmic energy while the fifth founding element refers to the flowing waters and winds of change and motion. These concepts are called Wu Wei (actionless action), Te (flowing power through living simply), Ch’I (cosmic energy) and Feng-Shui (winds and waters of change) (Hundoble, 1999). LeGuin weaves all five of these concepts into the storyline of the novel as it traces the progression of George Orr and his psychiatrist Dr. William Haber as they examine the limits of George’s abilities to change reality. The concept of Yin and Yang are contained within the character of George himself. Physically, he is not tall or short, blond or brunette. When he meets new people, Heather Lelache for instance, he strikes them as almost repulsively weak but also as amazingly strong. â€Å"The man struck her as not exactly feeble-minded, but revoltingly simple† (41) are Heather’s thoughts early in their first meeting, quickly revised to â€Å"now she thought that he certainly wouldn’t squash if she stepped on him, nor crunch, nor even crack. He was peculiarly solid† (45). When he discusses things that have been happening in his life, he does so with a great deal of equanimity, not seeming to pass judgment upon others, but not granting approval for their actions either. This idea of George representing the perfect balance of Yin and Yang is finally confirmed by Dr. Haber himself when he tells George the results of the tests that were run on him: â€Å"Where there’s an opposed pair, a polarity, you’re in the middle; where there’s a scale, you’re at the balance point. †¦ you’re the man in the middle of the graph† (137). The concept of actionless action is brought out in the discussions George tries to hold with Dr. Haber regarding the changes that are being made through his dreams. This is particularly well-illustrated in the discussion he has with the doctor regarding the