ECONOMICS

Detailed explanation-1: -Cost ascertainment: The primary objective of cost accounting is to determine the cost of production of every unit, job, operation, process, department or service. The technique of ascertaining cost is known as „Costing‟. In order to determine cost, all the expenses are accumulated, classified and analysed.

Detailed explanation-2: -Standard Costing-Standard costing is a process in which a company compares the expenses incurred for the manufacture of goods to the expenditures that should have been incurred.In essence, it is a comparison of actual costs vs conventional expenses. Variances are the discrepancies between the two.

Detailed explanation-3: -Cost Accounting is a formal mechanism of ascertaining and controlling the costs of products or services. It is thus helpful to the management in decision making which also requires the costing information.

Detailed explanation-4: -Cost ascertainment is the process of determining costs on the basis of actual data. Hence, the computation of historical cost is cost ascertainment while the computation of future costs is cost estimation. Both cost estimation and cost ascertainment are interrelated and are of immense use to the management.

Detailed explanation-5: -2. COST ASCERTAINMENT-ELEMENTS OF COST: (a) Material Costs: (i) Procurement of Materials, (ii) Inventory Management and Control, (iii) Inventory Accounting & Valuation (iv) Physical Verification, treatment of losses (v) Scrap, spoilage, defectives and wastage.