This reasonable allocation of fixed costs to products or orders entails the same problem as the “fair” distribution of fixed costs does. It is not possible in this chapter to go into the advantages and disadvantages of variable costing (fixed overhead not included in computation of unit product cost) or full costing (also called absorption costing, includes portion of fixed costs); a large body of literature is available on the topic. In general, though, it is important that the company can perform calculations using both of these costing principles. Furthermore, there are specific requirements for external financial reporting.