- average fixed cost (AFC)
- total fixed costs divided by the total number of units produced, which results in a per-unit cost
- average variable cost (AVC)
- total variable costs divided by the total number of units produced, which results in a per-unit cost
- conversion costs
- total of labor and overhead for a product; the costs that “convert” the direct material into the finished product
- cost driver
- activity that is the reason for the increase or decrease of another cost; examples include labor hours incurred, labor costs paid, amounts of materials used in production, units produced, or any other activity that has a cause-and-effect relationship with incurred costs
- direct labor
- labor directly related to the manufacturing of the product or the production of a service
- direct materials
- materials used in the manufacturing process that can be traced directly to the product
- fixed cost
- unavoidable operating expense that does not change in total, regardless of the level of activity
- high-low method
- technique for separating the fixed and variable cost components of mixed costs
- indirect labor
- labor not directly involved in the active conversion of materials into finished products or the provision of services
- indirect materials
- materials used in production but not efficiently traceable to a specific unit of production
- intangible good
- good with financial value but no physical presence; examples include copyrights, patents, goodwill, and trademarks
- manufacturing organization
- business that uses parts, components, or raw materials to produce finished goods
- manufacturing overhead
- costs incurred in the production process that are not economically feasible to measure as direct material or direct labor costs; examples include indirect material, indirect labor, utilities, and depreciation
- merchandising firm
- business that purchases finished products and resells them to consumers
- mixed costs
- expenses that have a fixed component and a variable component
- period costs
- typically related to a particular time period instead of attached to the production of an asset; treated as an expense in the period incurred (examples include many sales and administrative expenses)
- prime costs
- direct material expenses and direct labor costs
- product costs
- all expenses required to manufacture the product: direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead
- relevant range
- quantitative range of units that can be produced based on the company’s current productive assets; for example, if a company has sufficient fixed assets to produce up to 10,000 units of product, the relevant range would be between 0 and 10,000 units
- scatter graph
- plot of pairs of numerical data that represents actual costs incurred for various levels of activity, with one variable on each axis, used to determine whether there is a relationship between them
- service organization
- business that earns revenue primarily by providing an intangible product
- stepped cost
- one that changes with the level of activity but will remain constant within a relevant range
- tangible good
- physical good that customers can handle and see
- total cost
- sum of all fixed and all variable costs
- total fixed costs
- sum of all fixed costs
- total variable costs
- sum of all variable costs
- variable cost
- one that varies in direct proportion to the level of activity within the business