Cost Accounting Standards Board

Glossary of Terms

A
Abnormal cost An unusual or atypical cost whose occurrence is usually irregular and
unexpected and/or due to some abnormal situation of the production or
operation.

Abnormal idle Abnormal idle capacity is the difference between normal capacity and
capacity actual capacity utilization where the actual capacity is lower than the
normal capacity.

Abnormal idle time An unusual or atypical idle time occurrence of which is irregular and
unexpected or due to some abnormal situations.

Absorption of Assigning of overheads to cost objects by means of appropriate absorption

overheads rate.

Actual capacity Actual capacity utilization is the volume of production achieved or service
utilization provided in a specified period, expressed as a percentage of installed
capacity.

Administrative Cost of all activities relating to general management and administration of

overheads an entity.

Air pollutant Means any solid, liquid or gaseous substance (including noise) present in
the atmosphere in such concentration as may be or tend to be injurious to
human beings or other living creatures or plants or property or
environment.

Air pollution Air pollution means the presence in the atmosphere of any air pollutant.

Allocation of Allocation of overheads is assigning total amount of an item of cost directly

overheads to a cost object.

Amortisation Amortisation is the systematic allocation of the depreciable amount of an

intangible asset over its useful life.

Apportionment of Assigning of overhead is distribution of overheads to more than one cost

overhead objects on some equitable basis.

Asset An Asset is a resource;

(a) controlled by an entity as a result of past events; and
(b) from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the entity.

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 Cost Accounting Standards Board

Glossary of Terms

B
By-product Product with relatively low value produced incidentally in the manufacturing
of the product or service.

C
Captive Captive consumption means the consumption of goods manufactured by
consumption one division or unit and consumed by another division or unit of the same
entity or related undertaking for manufacturing other product(s).

Cartage The expenses incurred for movement of goods covering short distance for
further transportation for delivery to customer or storage.

Collection of Collection of overheads means the pooling of items of indirect expenses

overheads from books of account and supportive/corroborative records in logical
groups having regards to their nature and purpose. .

Conversion cost Conversion cost is the production cost excluding the cost of direct
materials.

Cost Cost is a measurement, in monetary terms, of the amount of resources

used for the purpose of production of goods or rendering services.

Cost centre Any unit of an entity selected with a view to accumulating all cost under
that unit. The unit can be division, department, section, group of plant and
machinery, group of employees or combination of several units.

Cost object An activity, contract, cost centre, customer, product, process, project,
service or any other object for which costs are ascertained.

Cost of production Cost of production of a product or a service consists of cost of materials

consumed, direct employee costs, direct expenses, production overheads,
quality control costs, packing costs, research and development costs and
administrative overheads relating to production.
Cost of Cost of transportation comprises of the cost of freight, cartage, transit
transportation insurance and cost of operating fleet and other incidental charges whether
incurred internally or paid to an outside agency for transportation of goods
but does not include detention and demurrage charges.

Cost unit Cost unit is a form of measurement of volume of production of a product or

a service. Cost unit is generally adopted on the basis of convenience and
practice in the industry concerned.

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 Cost Accounting Standards Board

Glossary of Terms

Current assets An entity shall classify an asset as current when :

(a) it expects to realise the asset, or intends to sell or consume it, in its
normal operating cycle;
(b) it holds the asset primarily for the purpose of trading;
(c) it expects to realise the asset within twelve months after the reporting
period; or
(d) the asset is cash or a cash equivalent unless the asset is restricted
from being exchanged or used to settle a liability for at least twelve months
after the reporting period.

Current liabilities An entity shall classify a liability as current when :

(a) it expects to settle the liability in its normal operating cycle;
(b) it holds the liability primarily for the purpose of trading;
(c) the liability is due to be settled within twelve months after the reporting
period ; or
(d) it does not have an unconditional right to defer settlement of the liability
for at least twelve months after the reporting period.

D
Defectives Materials, products or intermediate products that do not meet quality
standards. This may include reworks or rejects.
Depreciable The cost of an asset, or other amount substituted for cost in the financial
amount statement, less its residual value.

Depreciation Depreciation is the systematic allocation of the depreciable amount of an

asset over its useful life.

Development Development is the application of research findings or other knowledge to

a plan or design for the production of new or substantially improved
materials, devices, products, processes, systems or services prior to the
commencement of commercial production or use.
Development cost Development cost is the cost for application of research findings or other
knowledge to a plan or design for the production of new or substantially
improved materials, devices, products, processes, systems or services
before the start of commercial production or use.

Direct employee Employee cost, which can be attributed to a cost object in an economically
cost feasible way.

Direct expenses Expenses relating to manufacture of a product or rendering a service,

which can be identified or linked with the cost object other than direct
material cost or direct employee cost.

Direct materials Materials, the costs of which can be attributed to a cost object in an
economically feasible way.

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 Cost Accounting Standards Board

Glossary of Terms

Distribution Distribution overheads, also known as distribution costs, are the costs
overheads incurred in handling a product or service from the time it is ready for
despatch or delivery until it reaches the ultimate consumer including the
units receiving the product or service in an inter-unit transfer.

E
Employee cost Benefits paid or payable for the services rendered by employees (including
temporary, part time and contract employees) of an entity.

Environment Environmental pollution means the presence in the environment of any

pollution environmental pollutant.

Environment Environment includes water, air and land and the inter-relationship which
exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other
living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property.

Environmental Environmental pollutant means any solid, liquid or gaseous substance

pollutant present in such concentration as may be, or tend to be, injurious to
environment.

Excess capacity Excess capacity utilization is the difference between installed capacity and
utilization the actual capacity utilization when actual capacity utilization is more than
installed capacity.

F
Factory overheads Same as production overheads.

Fixed costs Fixed costs are costs which do not vary with the change in the volume of
activity. Fixed indirect costs are termed fixed overheads.

Freight Freight is the charges paid or payable for transporting materials/ goods
from one location to another.

I
Idle capacity Idle capacity is the difference between installed capacity and the actual
capacity utilization when actual capacity utilization is less than installed
capacity.

Idle time The difference between the time for which employees are paid/payable to
employees and the employees’ time booked against cost objects.

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 Cost Accounting Standards Board

Glossary of Terms

Imputed cost Notional cost, not involving cash outlay, computed for any purpose.

Indirect employee Employee cost, which cannot be directly attributed to a particular cost
cost object.

Indirect expenses Expenses, which cannot be directly attributed to a particular cost object.

Indirect material Material cost that cannot be directly attributed to a particular cost object.
cost

Indirect materials Materials, the costs of which cannot be directly attributed to a particular
cost object.

Installed capacity Installed capacity is the maximum capacity of producing goods or providing
services, according to the manufacturer’s specifications or determined
through an expert study.

Intangible asset An intangible asset is an identifiable non-monetary asset without physical

substance.

Interest and Interest, including any payment in the nature of interest for use of non
Finance charges equity funds and incidental cost that an entity incurrs in arranging those
funds.

Intermediate An intermediate product is a product that requires further processing

product before it is saleable.

J
Joint costs Joint costs are the cost of common resources used to produce two or more
products or services simultaneously.

Joint product Products or services that are produced simultaneously, by the same
process, identifiable at the end of the process and recognised as main
products or services having sufficient value.

M
Manufacturing Same as cost of production.
cost
Manufacturing Indirect costs involved in the manufacturing process.
overheads

Marketing Marketing overheads comprise of selling overheads and distribution

overheads overheads.

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 Cost Accounting Standards Board

Glossary of Terms

Material cost The cost of material used for the purpose of production of a product or
rendering a service.

N
Net current asset Net current asset is the excess of current assets over current liabilities.

Normal capacity Normal capacity is the production achieved or achievable on an average

over a number of periods or seasons under normal circumstances taking
into account the loss of capacity resulting from planned maintenance.
Normal idle Normal idle capacity is the difference between installed capacity and
capacity normal capacity.

O
Overheads Overheads comprise costs of indirect materials, indirect employees and
indirect expenses.
Overtime premium The extra amount payable beyond the normal wages and salaries for
beyond the normal working hours.

P
Packing materials Materials used to hold, identify, describe, store, protect, display, transport,
promote and make the product marketable.

Packing material The cost of material of any nature used for the purpose of packing of a
cost product.

Pollution control Pollution control means the control of emissions and effluents into
environment. it constitutes the use of materials, processes, or practices to
reduce, minimize, or eliminate the creation of pollutants or wastes. It
includes practices that reduce the use of toxic or hazardous materials,
energy, water, and / or other resources.

Primary packing Packing material which is essential to hold and preserve the product for its
material use by the customer.

Prime cost Prime cost is the aggregate of direct material cost, direct employee cost
and direct expenses.

Production Indirect costs involved in the production of a product or in rendering

overheads service.

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 Cost Accounting Standards Board

Glossary of Terms

Q
Qualifying asset An asset that necessarily takes a substantial period of time to get ready for
its intended use or sale.

Quality Quality is the conformance to requirements or specifications.

Quality control A procedure or a set of procedures exclusively designed to ensure that the
manufactured products or performed services adhere to a defined set of
quality criterion or meet requirements of the client or the customer.

Quality control Cost of resources consumed towards quality control procedures.

cost

R
Rejects Defectives which cannot meet the quality standards even after putting in
additional resources.

Repairs and Cost of all activities which have the objective of maintaining or restoring an
maintenance cost asset in or to a state in which it can perform its required function at
intended capacity and efficiency.

Research Research is original and planned investigation undertaken with the

prospect of gaining new scientific or technical knowledge and
understanding.

Research cost Research cost is the cost of original and planned investigation undertaken
with the prospect of gaining new scientific or technical knowledge and
understanding,

Residual(salvage) The estimated amount that an entity would currently obtain from disposal
value of an asset, after deducting the estimated costs of disposal, if the assets
were already of the age and in the condition expected at the end of its
useful life.

Rework Defectives which can be brought up to the standards by putting in

additional resources.

Royalty Royalty is any consideration for the use of asset (tangible and/or
intangible) to the owner.

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 Cost Accounting Standards Board

Glossary of Terms

S
Scrap Discarded material having no or insignificant value and which is usually
either disposed off without further treatment (other than reclamation and
handling) or reintroduced into the process in place of raw material.

Secondary Packing material that enables to store, transport, inform the customer,
packing material promote and otherwise make the product marketable.

Selling overheads Selling overheads are the expenses related to sale of products or services
and include all indirect expenses incurred in selling the products or
services.

Semi variable Semi variable costs are the costs that contain both fixed and variable
costs elements. They partly change with the change in the level of activity.

Soil pollutant Soil pollutant is a substance which is the source of soil contamination.

Soil pollution Soil pollution means the presence of any soil pollutant(s) in the soil which
is harmful to the living beings when it crosses its threshold concentration
level.

Split off point The point in the production process at which joint products become
separately identifiable.

Spoilage Production that does not meet the quality requirements or specifications
and cannot be rectified economically.

Standard cost A predetermined cost of a product or service based on technical

specifications and efficient operating conditions.
Stand-by service Any facility created as backup against any failure of the main source of
service.

Stand-by utilities Any utility created as backup against any failure of the main source of
utilities.

Support- Service The cost centre which primarily provides auxiliary services across the
Cost centre entity.

T
Technical service Technical service fee is any consideration payable to provider of technical
fee or managerial services.

Transit insurance Transit insurance cost is the amount of premium to be paid to cover the
cost risk of loss/damage to the goods in transit.

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 Cost Accounting Standards Board

Glossary of Terms

U
Useful life of the Useful life of asset is either :
asset (a) the period over which a asset is expected to be available for use by an
entity; or
(b) the number of production or similar units expected to be obtained from
use of the asset by the entity.

Utilities Significant inputs such as power, steam, water, compressed air and the
like which are used for manufacturing process but do not form part of the
final product.

V
Variable costs Variable costs are the cost which tends to directly vary with the volume of
activity.

W
Waste Material lost during production or storage and discarded material which
may or may not have any value.

Water pollution Water pollution means such contamination of water or such alteration of
the physical, chemical or biological properties of water or such discharge of
any sewage or trade effluent or of any other liquid, gaseous or solid
substance into water (whether directly or indirectly) as may, or is likely to,
create a nuisance or render such water harmful or injurious to public health
or safety, or to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural or other
legitimate uses, or to the life and health of animals or plants or of aquatic
organisms.

Works overheads Same as production overheads.

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