CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

        The primary goal of a business concern, its production of goods and services and sell them in a price which recovers all cost yields adequate return on its rested capital. Cost accounting provides financial information to assist others in establishing individual and department goal consistent with overall company goal.

        It is a universal concept, but the method of its implementation vines among organization and firms.

        Profit maximization is the fundamental task of management of a company that is established solely for profit making and management needs relevant and adequate information that will aid them in planning, co-ordinating and decision making in order to maximize profit and minimize cost. Based on these, certain techniques and procedures are applied in order to have a comparative analysis about “COST” both directly and indirectly engaged in the manufacturing services.

        Costing is defined as collecting, recording, classifying and allocating expenditure to ascertain the cost product or series for planning and control purpose by indicating points where corrective action is required. It is that system which analysis past, present and future data to provide the basis for management action. Cost accounting is that part of management accounting which establishes budget, standard cost and actual cost of operations, process, department or product and the analysis of variance profitability or social use of goals.

        According to Oxford Dictionary of Accounting, 3rd Edition (2005), costing are techniques and procedures used in cost accounting and management accounting to obtain the cost of service, products, processes and cost center to provide the information required to undertake performance measures, decision making, planning and control. Costing is designed to suite the goods are processed or manufactured or the way goods are provided.

        Based on the above definition of costing technique, an organization will yield increase in profit, they apply the costing at where it is deemed appropriate. At this point, the research is to examine costing as being applied in Dangote Flour Mills PLC Calabar to see the impact it has created in the profitability of the organization.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problem is how management is effective in performance of its functions such as planning, organizing, directing and controlling in order to attain its key objectives in profit maximization; it needs a whole lot of relevant data concerning the costs associated with the manufacturing process.

        This study argues in its statement of problem that the inability to ascertain the actual cost of specified things, trace accumulated cost to a cost object, allocate accumulated cost for a cost and providing comparative analysis of accumulated data and report depends on the costing adopted and applied in an organization.

1.3   OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of this study are as following:

1.     To find out the most appropriate costing technique to be adopted by an organization.

2.     To identify the problem associated with the application of costing in an organization.

3.     To examine the impact of costing in an organization.

4.     To make useful recommendations based on research       finding.

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.     How does costing techniques aids in the profitability of an         organization?

2.     Does costing techniques help in the ascertainment of cost         of a   specified product?

3.     Which of the costing technique is deemed appropriate to applied in an organization?

4.     How can an organization maintain an effective an efficient costing system?

5.     What is the problem associated with costing in the manufacturing company?

1.5   RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The following research hypotheses were formulated to this study:

Hypothesis 1

H0:    There is no significant difference between the impact of costing techniques and profitability in Dangote Flour Mills Plc, Calabar.

H1:    There is a significant difference between the impact of costing techniques and profitability in Dangote Flour Mills Plc, Calabar.

Hypothesis 2

H0:    There is no significant difference between the impact of costing techniques and productivity in Dangote Flour Mills Plc, Calabar.

H1:    There is a significant difference between the impact of costing techniques and productivity in Dangote Flour Mills Plc, Calabar.

Hypothesis 3

H0:    There is no significant difference between the impact of costing techniques and effective costing system in Dangote Flour Mills Plc, Calabar.

H1:    There is a significant difference between the impact of costing techniques and effective costing system in Dangote Flour Mills Plc, Calabar.

1.6   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

        The ultimate goal of any industry or organization is to maximize profit. The goal can be achieve in the manufacturing company like Dangote Flour Mills PLC Calabar through costing techniques on the profitability of an organization.

        This study is necessary because it would enable the employer and employee of Dangote Flour Mills PLC, Calabar to improve the ethical behaviour in the management of the company.

        It would be of immense benefit to investors who want to invest in the company and the shareholder of the company to earn more profit. It will also serve as a reference sources to researchers who might want to further studies in the similar topic.

1.6   SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study is limited to Dangote Flour Mills PLC, Calabar with special emphasis on the “costing and its impact to manufacturing company”.

1.7   LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

        The study limitation was the inability of management to diverge certain information which they consider sensitive and fear of publication which might be detrimental to their operation. Also, were limited financial resources in terms of transportation and as well as time constraint.

1.8   DEFINITION OF TERMS AND ACRONYMS

For the purpose of clarity and to avoid ambiguity, certain terms are defined:

1.     COST: According to Lucey I. (2002), cost is the amount of expenditure (actual or national) incurred on, or attributable to a specified thing or activity.

2.     COSTING: Costing is defined as a collecting, recording, classifying and allocating expenditure to ascertain the cost of product or series for planning and control purpose by indicating points where corrective action is required (Anuolam, 1997).

3.     STANDARD COSTING: This can be defined as preparation of standard costs and their use to clarify the financial result of a business particularly by the measurement of variations of actual cost from standard costs and the analysis of causes of the variation for the purpose of maintaining maximum efficiency by executive action (Batty, 1986).

4.     COSTING SYSTEM: This method is to be adopted by an organization depends upon the nature of productive being undertaken by the organization (Kingsley, 2005).

5.     COST ANALYSIS: According to Horngren (1997), cost analyses are a process of re-arranging and reclassifying cost and reveal significant relationship to management.

6.     MARGINAL COSTING: There distinguishes between fixed costs and variable cost as conventionally classified. The marginal cost is a product. Its variable cost (Lucey, 2002).

7.     ABSORPTION COSTING: Absorption costing is the approach used in all published accounts and all financial accounting statement (Kingsley, 2003).

8.     JOB COSTING: This is defined as a form of specific order costing in which costs are attributed.

9.     BATCH COSTING: This is a form of costing which applied where a quantity of identical articles is manufactured as a batch (Horngren, 1997).

1.9   ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

        The study was organized into five chapters. Chapter One dealt with the introduction, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, ob

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