Identify the criterion used when indirect costs are assigned using cost drivers.

What Is an Activity Cost Driver?

An activity cost driver is an action that triggers higher or lower variable costs for a business. Sometimes referred to as a causal factor, it is associated with the managerial accounting concept of activity-based costing (ABC). Keeping tabs on activity cost drivers is important as it can help boost efficiency and company profits.

Key Takeaways

• An activity cost driver is an action that triggers higher or lower variable costs for a business.
• Activity cost drivers give a more accurate determination of the true cost of business activity by considering the indirect expenses.
• Keeping tabs on these fluctuating costs can help boost efficiency and company profits.
• Activity cost drivers are used in activity-based accounting (ABC).

How Activity Cost Drivers Work

A cost driver affects the cost of specific business activities. In ABC, an activity cost driver influences the costs of labor, maintenance, or other variable costs. Cost drivers are essential in ABC, a branch of managerial accounting that allocates the indirect costs, or overheads, of an activity.

There may be multiple cost drivers associated with an activity. For example, direct labor hours are a driver of most activities in product manufacturing. If the expenditure for labor is high, this will increase the cost of producing all company products or services. If the cost of warehousing is high, this will also increase the expenses incurred for product manufacturing or providing services.

Keeping tabs on cost drivers makes it easier to determine the actual cost of production and make more accurate financial projections.

More technical cost drivers are machine hours, the number of engineering change orders, the number of customer contacts, the number of product returns, the machine setups required for production, or the number of inspections. If a business owner can identify the cost drivers, the business owner can more accurately estimate the true cost of production for the business.

Cost Allocation

When a factory machine requires periodic maintenance, the cost of the maintenance is allocated to the products produced by the machine. For example, the cost driver selected is machinery hours. After every 1,000 machine hours, there is a maintenance expense of $500. Therefore, every machine hour results in a 50-cent (500 / 1,000) maintenance cost allocated to the product being manufactured based on the cost driver of machine hours.

Distribution of Overhead Costs

Using cost drivers simplifies the allocation of manufacturing overhead. The correct allocation of manufacturing overhead is important to determine the true cost of a product. Internal management uses the cost of a product to determine the prices of the products they produce. For this reason, the selection of accurate cost drivers has a direct impact on the profitability and operations of an entity.

Activity-based costing (ABC) is a more accurate way of allocating both direct and indirect costs. ABC calculates the true cost of each product by identifying the amount of resources consumed by a business activity, such as electricity or man hours.

Special Considerations: The Subjectivity of Cost Drivers

Management selects cost drivers as the basis for manufacturing overhead allocation. There are no industry standards stipulating or mandating cost driver selection. Company management selects cost drivers based on the variables of the expenses incurred during production.

What Are Some Examples of Activity Cost Drivers?

Activity cost drivers include direct labor hours, the cost of warehousing, order frequency, and product returns.

What Do You Mean by Cost Driver?

Cost drivers are the activities that trigger business expenses.

What Is the Activity-Based Costing Method?

Activity-based costing (ABC) is a method of assigning overhead and indirect costs—such as salaries and utilities—to products and services. Doing this helps to get a better grasp on costs, allowing companies to form a more appropriate pricing strategy and churn out higher profits.

The Bottom Line

Examining activity cost drivers helps companies to reduce unnecessary expenses and get to grips with how much an order really costs. The importance of accessing this knowledge shouldn’t be understated. The ultimate goal is to maximize profits; a key way to accomplish this is by being aware of all expenses and keeping them in check.

See Also:
Cost Center
Value Drivers: Building Reliable Systems to Sustain Growth
Direct Labor Variance Formulas
Direct Material Variance Formulas
Step Method Allocation

In accounting, the cost driver definition is a factor that incurs cost. Use cost drivers to allocate variable and indirect costs to production activities or output. Include both indirect costs and direct costs to compute the full cost of production. Because indirect costs, such as variable overhead, are not directly traceable to production activities, allocate them according to a cost driver rate to apply these costs to production activities. Based on the activity of the cost driver, the cost driver rate is the rate indirect costs applied to production activities.

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Choosing Cost Drivers

An indirect or variable cost may have several possible cost drivers. Traditional costing methods allocate indirect costs to production activities based on volume of output. Conversely, activity-based costing allocates indirect costs to particular production activities related to that cost.

When deciding which driver to use in terms of allocating indirect cost, consider the cause-and-effect relation between the cost and the driver. In addition, consider whether or not the cost driver activity is easily measurable. It is also necessary to consider the cost behavior of the relevant cost. The relevant cost refers to the cost’s response to the activity of the driver. In addition, approximate the relationship between costs and cost drivers using regression analysis.

Use these drivers at differing hierarchical levels. For example, an indirect or variable cost may be relevant at the unit level, the batch level, the product level, the customer level, or the facility level. Once you determine the appropriate hierarchical level, choose a cost driver activity at that level in order to allocate the indirect or variable cost.

Cost Driver Rates

A cost driver rate is the amount of indirect or variable cost assigned to each unit of cost driver activity. For example, you may apply indirect overhead to direct labor hours as $50 dollars per hour. In this case, for each hour of direct labor required for production, the company would then allocate $50 of indirect overhead costs to the production activities or output.

Cost Driver Examples

For illustrative purposes, below are some cost driver examples of indirect or variable costs as well as relevant cost driver bases for these costs.

Cost				Cost Driver 
Maintenance expense		Machine hours
Fuel costs			Miles traveled
Electricity expense		Hours of factory operation
Material handling expense	Tons of material handled

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Source:

Hilton, Ronald W., Michael W. Maher, Frank H. Selto. “Cost Management Strategies for Business Decision”, Mcgraw-Hill Irwin, New York, NY, 2008.

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