What is responsibility accounting and responsibility centers?
Responsibility accounting refers to a system that undertakes the identification of responsibility centers, subsequently determines its objectives. It also helps in the development of processes related to performance measurement as well as the preparation and analysis of performance reports of the identified responsibility centers. Show
What is Responsibility Accounting, and How Does it Work?Responsibility accounting is a type of management accounting in which a company's management, budgeting, and internal accounting are all held accountable. The fundamental goal of this accounting is to assist all of a company's planning, costing, and responsibility centers. Accounting often entails the creation of monthly and annual budgets for each responsibility center. It also keeps track of a company's costs and revenues, with reports compiled monthly or annually and sent to the appropriate manager for review. The focus of responsibility accounting is mostly on responsibilities centers. For example, if Mr X, a unit manager, plans his department's budget, he is accountable for keeping it under control. Mr X will have all of the necessary information about his department's costs. Mr X will look for the problem and take the necessary actions and processes to correct it if the expenditure exceeds the allocated amount. Mr X will be held personally accountable for the performance of his unit. Objectives of Responsibility AccountingSee below for the major objectives or principles of responsibility accounting –
Features of Responsibility AccountingRead on to know more about the host of responsibility accounting features, you Responsibility accounting system can be implemented only on the basis of due information of input and output. The monetary term of inputs is costs, and outputs are correspondingly called revenues. Hence, cost and revenue information is crucial for responsibility accounting. Apart from the data of cost and revenue, planned and actual financial data is also required. It is only with effective budgeting that the accounting plan implementation can be communicated to the concerned levels of management.
Clear lines of authority and effective organization structure is absolutely necessary for the success of a responsible accounting system. The accounting system is appropriately designed to be consistent with the existing organizational structure.
Only after responsibility centers are identified, the responsibility accounting system can be implemented. The centers go on to represent the decision points within the organization. As the responsibility account primarily relates to control, any deviation or disruption in the plan has to be noted and reported at the earliest. On the report of such an issue, corrective measures have to be taken. Such information is the basis on which ‘responsibility’ or performance reports are prepared. Different Types of Responsibility CentersA responsibility center is a functional business entity that is given definite objectives and goals, dedicated personnel, procedures and policies as well as the duty for generating a financial report. Managers are vested with specific responsibility in terms of expenses incurred or revenue generation or the investment of funds. Let us take a look at the four types of responsibility centers. It contributes to both revenue and expenses, resulting in profit and loss, respectively. For example – The product line is a profit center, and the responsible person is the product manager. The center only contributes to specific costs that have been incurred. For example – The housekeeping department will only incur costs. The revenue center only leads to the generation of sales. For example – Sales department of an organization. The center is responsible for profits and returns on investment. The latter includes the fund which is invested in the organization's operations. For example – A subsidiary entity of a company is an investment center. The responsible person in that instance would be the president of the subsidiary. Responsibility Accounting ExampleThe following scenario acts as an example of responsible accounting – The responsibility accounting system of the company, Lush Footwear, allows the departmental heads to allocate the expenses and control such costs based on immediate needs. The executive management of Lush Footwear is tracking managers’ performance, and at the same time, there are considerably fewer top-level executives who would direct the operations. To carry out the demarcated functions properly, the executives of Lush Footwear prints the responsibility accounting performance reports for the analysis of the holistic performance of all the departments. If it is seen that the statistics seem to meet the established objectives, further responsibility accounting budgets are allocated by the top management. Steps in the Responsibility Accounting ProcessThe steps for proper implementation are as follows:
Test your Knowledge –Now that you have some idea about the topic of responsibility accounting, how about testing your newly gained knowledge! Find out if you are able to answer the following quiz. i. Responsibility accounting undertakes the collection as well as reporting of costing information on - (a) Cost center basis (b)Department basis (c) Product basis (d) Function basis ii. Responsibility accounting covers the following – (a) All employees (b) Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer (c) Middle Managers (d) Managers You can find the solutions to the quiz at the end of the article. Advantages of Responsibility Accounting
Disadvantages of Responsibility Accounting
Objectives of Social Responsibility AccountingIt will be useful for you to know that, connected to the inherent principles of responsibility accounting, an important concept of social responsibility accounting has emerged. Before we determine what the objectives of social responsibility accounting are, let us know a little bit about the concept. Social responsibility accounting, even though used generally in the context of corporate social responsibility, involves the communication of the environmental and social effects of a firm’s economic steps. It is usually done with respect to a specific interest group or towards the society at large. The focus on multinational corporations and the tools mostly include – public hearing, public audit, social audit, use of complaint box and citizen charter and public expenditure tracking survey. Let us now look at the underlying objectives of social responsibility accounting.
If you are keen to learn more about responsibility accounting, do not forget to install Vedantu’s app on your device, and check the online materials available on the platform. Did you know?Among all the different kinds of responsibility centers such as cost centers, profit centers, revenue centers and investment centers – profit centers enjoy maximum autonomy. If business unit managers are not given sufficient autonomy, they will not be able to undertake critical operating decisions connected with profit generation. There are a multitude of decisions that may have to be taken within a short period of time. Such decisions may range from pricing, product mix, purchase, and inventory, among others. What is the difference between responsibility accounting and responsibility center?A responsibility center is an organizational unit headed by a manager, who is responsible for its activities and results. In responsibility accounting, revenues and cost information are collected and reported on by responsibility centers.
What is a responsibility accounting?Responsibility accounting is a kind of management accounting that is accountable for all the management, budgeting, and internal accounting of a company. The primary objective of this accounting is to support all the Planning, costing, and responsibility centres of a company.
What is the responsibility center?A responsibility center is a functional entity within a business that tends to have its own goals and objectives, policies, and procedures, thereby giving managers specific responsibility for revenues, expenses incurred, funds invested, etc.
What is a responsibility center and examples?A responsibility center can be a cost center, a profit center, an investment center, or other company-defined administrative center. Examples of responsibility centers are a sales office, a purchasing department for several locations, and a plant planning office.
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