These enable managers to monitor organisational functions.
A responsibility centre can be defined as any functional unit headed by a manager who is responsible for the activities of that unit.
There are four types of responsibility centres:
a) Revenue centres
Organisational units in which outputs are measured in monetary terms but are not directly compared to input costs.
b) Expense centres
Units where inputs are measured in monetary terms but outputs are not.
c) Profit centres
Where performance is measured by the difference between revenues (outputs) and expenditure (inputs). Inter-departmental sales are often made using "transfer prices".
d) Investment centres
Where outputs are compared with the assets employed in producing them, i.e. ROI.