Every now and then, you must be controversial and address a subject where your beliefs run counter to common practice. Overhead and overhead-cost recovery is one of these subjects. The controversy has ...

Allocating direct costs to production is pretty straightforward -- you know what the materials and direct labor costs. The hard part is determining the amount of overhead to allocate to finished goods ...

Activity-based costing is an improved method for allocating overhead costs. Instead of using one factor for cost allocation, this new method focuses on different aspects of the production process and ...

Many of the costs a business incurs doing business come down to its ability to deliver a product or service to customers. But not all of them. Companies need to consider overhead costs as well. These ...

As a former corporate controller and senior vice president of operations, I have experienced both sides of allocated overhead. I have learned manufacturing executives have more control over costs ...

Entrepreneurs, small business owners and managers need accurate, timely financial data to run their operations. Specifically, understanding and connecting costs to items or departments helps them ...

Overhead allocation is a source of great disagreement in our industry. Should the allocation be based on job price? On job cost? Per project? Or per field man-hour. We understand the pros and cons of ...

While some business overhead is unavoidable, reducing these expenses can boost profit margins. Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are from our advertising partners who compensate us ...