英语词汇“activity cost pool”的翻译、意思、用法、释义-英汉经管词典

activity cost pool(cost pool) In activity-based costing, a collection of indirect costs grouped according to the activity involved. To identify the costs of each activity, cost pool managers will have to ask questions such as:

• What staff are involved with the activity?

• What machinery, equipment, vehicles, and computers are used by staff?

• What materials are used for the activity?

Each activity cost pool has one or more relevant activity measures (or cost drivers) that are used in allocating costs: for some common examples, see the table.

activity cost pool	activity measure
Order processing	Number of orders
Product design	Number of product designs
Deliveries	Number of deliveries
Other costs not included	Not applicable

Activity cost pool. Some common cost pools with relevant activity measures.

The size of a particular cost pool will vary widely from one organization to another. For example, a cost pool for order processing may include hundreds of staff in a large organization, whereas a smaller organization may not have a separate cost pool for this activity as it involves only one or two staff. Note that some costs may not be included in any activity cost pool, usually because they are too minor or too difficult to allocate in this way.

activity measure In activity-based costing systems, a measure of the volume or rate of activity in an activity cost pool used as a basis for allocating costs. Ideally, the activity measure chosen will be such that any rise or fall in the measure correlates closely with a rise or fall in the total cost of the activity. The terms activity measure and cost driver are therefore often used synonymously (see alsoallocation base). Examples of activity measures include direct labour hours, machine hours, number of deliveries, units of output, and number of production run set-ups. In a large international organization there may be thousands of activity measures, whereas a smaller organization may identify only 20–30 such measures. It is important to state that there is no optimal number of activity measures for an organization. Note also that managers often identify more than one activity measure for each activity.

Some activity measures, such as labour hours, are very closely related to the volume of production, whereas others, such as the number of orders, are not.