Customer Reviews

Activity-Based Cost Management in Government

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gary Cokins does an excellent job explaining Activity Based Costing and Activity Based Management from beginning to end. By reading the first chapter alone, one can tell he is an expert in his field. He begins explaining the subject matter with the basics and continues through using an easy to follow logic. For public sector organizations that are considering ABC/M, or already using it, this book is a master guide for its methodology. It has very helpful charts which the author uses in his explanation of the material, making it easy for the reader to follow.

I have spent over 30 years in government, and the one aspect always apparent is that the government is always trying to improve performance with fewer resources, and therefore recognizes the need for activity based costing. This book is, by far, the leading reference to refer to for guidance on how to implement ABC/M. The reader does not have to be a cost accountant to comprehend the methodology or technique used to implement ABC/M. The author cites actual cases in the public sector where federal or local agencies have implemented this technique and the successes made. He begins with the issue or problem and cites the solution, the model structure used, the results, and the lessons learned. These actual case examples help show how ABC/M can resolve problems in the real world.

Overall, I found this book to be an excellent resource in its field, as it is easily understood, yet comprehensive. I strongly recommend it to any government manager that wants to help their organization excel.

We in the public sector need this book the most--why the hefty price? Mr. Cokins, your other books are affordable. Give us break as a public service!

Activity based cost management is increasingly taking hold in government and is helping many organizations make dramatic improvements in their understanding of costs. Gary Cokins, a widely respected cost management craftsman and teacher, has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement cost management in his book "Activity-Based Cost Management in Government." He does a great job covering a wide range cost topics in a clear and coherent manner; and he consistently reinforces - through relevant concepts, examples and quotations - the pragmatic value of cost information to support fact based decision making.

Gary's book sheds light on a subject that I have heard a great deal about but had no practical experience in. The use of ABC/M tools and techniques is growing rapidly in the federal government. This book is an essential primer for managers within the Federal government as well as government consultants. I particularly enjoyed reading about the example projects in Chapter 18.

I have read most of the ABC books published since the topic first surfaced in the mid-1980s. Some books have covered how to build ABC models in detail, providing a wealth of direction as a guide book to implementation. Others have dwelled on the theory of strategic cost measurement and management, backing up their obsevations with case studies in a variety of industries. Gary has tackled the most difficult of application areas in his new book, that of government and public sector.
Reading through this book will build a sound knowledge of why a government organization should implement ABC, how to go about it, and how to avoid the problems that pioneering government organizations have already discovered and learned to avoid.
After gaining that understanding,you will use this book as a reference for how to address model building issues and questions, how to answer the questions and biases of managers and executives who must understand ABC to have it affect their decision making, and how to build onto what is learned in your organization from ABC to implement performance measurment and improvement. Performance improvement is what these system exist to support, and ABC concepts and systems work well to integrate scorecard, process reengineering, continuous improvement, and other managment tools and decision support systems that are all to often implemented independently. That is the viewpoint that Gary has used to guide this book.
Gary's book is one that I pick up to get a trusted viewpoint when I have an difficult issue to address implementing ABC and performance measurement.

Gary Cokins has done it again! I've been involved in activity-based costing now for the past seven years and read many books and articles on the subject--even taken and given graduate courses on ABC/M, too--I was beginning to wonder if there was anything new! Well, the theory and practice of ABC/M continues to progress--and without a doubt, Mr. Cokins has had a lot to do with that progression. He also makes the great argument that business and government have much more in common than they have apart--Cokins debunks the too-often-held myth that government cannot garner the same benefits and insights from ABC/M that businesses can.

For any public sector organization considering or currently implementing activity based costing, Gary Cokins' excellent book is a must-read. Although government agencies are increasingly required to improve performance with fewer resources and recognize the need to implement a cost accounting system, there has been little published guidance on ABC applicable to the public sector. Comprehensive, well-wrwitten, and easily understandable, this book exceptionally fills that gap for novice and experienced cost accountant alike.

Cokins begins with a thorough introduction to the fundamentals of activity based cost management and its applicability to a government setting in such areas as outsourcing/privatization studies, fees for service, process improvement, performance measurement and budgeting. All basic concepts are covered, such as views of cost assignment, cost drivers, level of data collection required and allocation of support costs. Everything is explained in easy to understand language and copiously illustrated with visuals and actual government examples. Practical advice on successful implementation and pitfalls to avoid is offered throughout.

After laying a solid foundation, chapters 5-8 address more advanced topics including utilizing ABC/M to assess quality and value, balanced scorecard performance measures, activity based budgeting and supply chain management. Using ABC for these purposes, although probably not attainable in its initial implementation, are important to bear in mind as longer term goals.

I found chapteres 9 - 11 essential for agencies beginning ABC implementation. In Chapter 9, Cokins discusses the value of rapid prototyping with a few key employees in order to produce a repeatable, reliable and relevant production system, and guides you through the process step by step. Chapter 10 presents case studies of successful ABC implementation in the public sector, and Chapter 11 discusses what you will need to obtain employee buy-in.

Overall, I found this book to be an extremely valuable resource and recommend it highly.

As a practitioner of ABC, this book earns my 5-star rating by providing the first seminal work in why and how to implement ABC in government organizations.

The book provides a combination of case example and sound theoretical explanation to educate readers about the most current thinking on how government organizations can improve their strategic cost management capabilities through the adoption of ABC in addition to other integrated management related methodologies such as supply chain, capacity management, cost of quality and the Balanced Scorecard™.

I think it is a must read for all government managers concerned with improving their ability to manage costs, and for all consultants, practioners and students in the field of strategic cost management.

For those government managers who intend to incorporate ABC into their arsenel of analytical tools, this book is a must read.

I have an earlier book written by this author entitled, "Activity-based Cost Management, Making It Work" that was written during earlier days of implementing activity-based costing. Cokins' new book, while it addresses activity-based functionality for government, also presents some "matured" thinking and advice on ABC/M which I found to be extremely helpful in validating some of my own observations and learnings from implementing ABC/M. For a newcomer to ABC/M, the book presents the case for why government entities can profit from using ABC/M, how to get an implementation going, critical factors for success and some case studies of actual government implementations. But, it also gets into more advanced applications such as using ABC/M to support performance measurement, supply chain management, and budgeting. These chapters are not as easily digested, but they are a rich source of reference for those planning to broaden the use of activity-based cost/management.