A costing system typically accounts for costs in two basic stages: accumulation followed
by assignment. Cost accumulation is the collection of cost data in some organized
way by means of an accounting system. For example, a publishing company that
purchases rolls of paper for printing magazines collects (accumulates) the costs of individual
rolls used in any one month to obtain the total monthly cost of paper. Beyond
accumulating costs, managers with the help of management accountants assign costs to
designated cost objects (such as the different magazines the company publishes) to
help them make strategic decisions (such as the pricing of different magazines and
which magazines to emphasize). Managers also assign costs to cost objects to implement
strategy. For example, costs assigned to a department aid in decision making
about department efficiency. Costs assigned to customers help managers understand
the profit earned from different customers and help them make decisions about how to
allocate resources to support different customers. Cost assignment is a general term
that encompasses both (1) tracing accumulated costs that have a direct relationship to
a cost object and (2) allocating accumulated costs that have an indirect relationship to
a cost object.