ABSTRACT
The federal trade commission has probably been one of the principal influences which have furthered among manufacturers a sense of the necessity of cost accounts. The new name of “cost accounts,” truly understood, is perfectly comprehensive, for all the expenses of manufacturing, from the building of a manufacturing plant to finishing the products for the market, are nothing but the costs of such products, and they are none of them ever recoverable at all except as they are recovered in the sale of the products. There is another cost-accounting term that has come into use and that seems not unlikely to achieve a popularity like that of “overhead,” and this is “pre-determined costs.” As a matter of convenience the estimate forms may include columns for the actual costs to be inserted when known. The employer should be advised of the differences between actual and estimated costs in such detail as he may require.
