Difficulty: Moderately Challenging
Step1
The principles of full cost accounting are important to understand such that ultimately the ability to assign costs per unit or outputs including services or even outcomes can better define one's business processes. The first step in identifying costs in this manner are by appropriating the services aimed to cost.
Step2
Upon identifying the services and units of service produced the related activities are detailed and then identified in terms of direct labor, personnel overhead, amount of labor and capital involved in producing the output and outcome. The sum arguably of all of the costs structured in this way relate to a full cost accounting of outcomes and services that speak to the books more efficiently.
Step3
The convenience of this accounting structure speaks to the determination of improvements in delivery of service, because the sensitivity analysis that may be performed can demonstrate what the service would cost when tweaking a parameter or two. For example what would the cost be in a different location or using different equipment.