Because logistics costs can account for such a large proportion of total costs in the business it is critical that they be carefully managed.
However, it is not always the case that the true costs of logistics are fully understood.
Traditional approaches to accounting based upon full-cost allocation can be misleading and dangerous. Activity-based costing meth- ods provide some significant advantages in identifying the real costs of serving different types of customers or different channels of distribution. Logistics management impacts not only upon the profit and loss account of the business, but also upon the balance sheet. Logistics is also increasingly being recognized as having a significant impact upon economic value added and hence shareholder value. It is critical that decisions on logistics strategies made based upon a thorough under- standing of the impact they will have on the financial performance of the business.