Cost accounting provides information concerning the revenues and costs that might result from alternative actions. Based on this informaton, management makes short - range and long-range decisions concerning entering new markets, developing new products, discontinuing individual products or whole product lines, buying making a necessary component of a product, and buying versus leasing equipment. In the decisions to add new products and discontinue existing products, reliable cost information is especially crucial to the competitive success of the firm. Misstated costs create the possibility that undesirable business might be initiated or continued and desirable business rejected. In these ways, cost information plays an essential role in identifying, evaluating, and selecting strategies for the organization.