Wu Peng
Investment Review Center of Wan'an County Finance Bureau
Abstract: Based on the overview of the principle of activity costing, taking the specific highway construction project as an example, the operation steps and implementation process of the activity costing method in the cost management of the project are analyzed according to the operation process and construction process characteristics of the construction project. The analysis results show that the calculation results of the operation costing method can show the labor cost, material cost, machinery usage fee, water and electricity cost, construction site management cost and enterprise management cost of each operation link, and further see which operations belong to the key cost generation objects and which operations belong to the cost items that do not produce benefits to the construction project, so as to carry out targeted cost control of construction projects.
Keywords: activity costing; highway construction projects; cost control;
About author:WU Peng (1986—), male, engineer, engaged in highway engineering cost related work.;
1 Overview of the principles of activity costing
The operation costing method belongs to the quantitative management technology, which mainly applies statistics, arrangement, analysis, management and other methods according to the main characteristics of highway construction projects to reduce the cost of highway construction projects. The main costs of highway construction include product costs and service costs. The generation of operation costs in the process of highway engineering project management can be summarized into many aspects, project cost utilization and resource utilization can be summarized as activity cost activities, and then the operation cost is attached to each product or service, and finally the cost corresponding to the final product is determined. The steps for the implementation of the activity costing method are shown in Figure 1 [1].
Figure 1 Implementation steps of activity costing Download the original figure
The calculation of operation cost of highway construction projects mainly consists of steps such as determining the operation, aggregating the resource cost, accounting the activity cost and product cost. (1) Determine the operation: The operation cost calculation process of highway construction project consists of a series of operation links, in which the operation must be fully integrated and the corresponding operation cost library must be constructed; According to the actual needs of the highway construction project, the operation is determined step by step, and the corresponding calculation is carried out. The resources consumed by each operation link of the construction project together constitute the project cost library. (2) Aggregate resource costs: The cost of highway construction projects includes two parts: direct costs and indirect costs, of which indirect costs mainly include on-site management fees, enterprise management fees, personnel insurance fees, financial costs, etc. When applying the activity costing method for expense aggregation, direct costs and indirect costs must be reasonably allocated to each operation according to resource drivers, so as to ensure that cost control gradually penetrates into all levels of the operation and strengthen the cost management of the whole process. (3) Calculate activity cost and product cost: determine the operation consumption on the basis of determining the operation driver and cost driver, and calculate the corresponding cost driver rate.
2 Project overview
A new highway is located in the southern region of the mainland, is part of the national highway network, and is also a new alternative highway on the basis of considering the low technical level, poor road conditions, and disrepair of the original highway. The road adopts the traditional asphalt pavement structure, which consists of a 4cm thick AC-13 modified asphalt concrete upper layer, a 5cm thick AC-16 asphalt concrete middle surface layer, an 18cm thick water-stabilized gravel upper base layer, a 17cm thick water-stabilized gravel lower base layer, and a 30cm thick grade sand gravel cushion from top to bottom. The construction of this highway project can effectively improve the travel conditions and transportation capacity of regional residents, and promote the rapid development of the regional economy.
3 Cost control of construction projects
3.1 Decomposition of cost control indicators
In order to facilitate the accounting requirements of the operation cost method for operations and processes, the construction of the upper layer of modified asphalt mixture of this highway project is refined into construction preparation, roadbed drainage prevention, subgrade excavation and filling, leveling and rolling, inspection and acceptance, mixture mixing, transportation, paving and rolling, quality inspection, etc., and some of these links are merged according to the principle of similar processes. Carrying out the activity cost analysis also requires materials such as post-target budget, machinery leasing list, labor subcontract, production schedule, bill of quantities, resource purchase unit price and contract, and other specific variables or data can be replaced by empirical values if they cannot be directly obtained.
The cost of the highway construction project is mainly composed of labor costs, material costs, mechanical shift fees and project management costs, etc., the object of operation cost management should be determined according to the characteristics of the cost component elements, and the determined cost management object should be implemented to the specific responsible units, departments and personnel, for example, the specific responsible departments and personnel of labor costs should be construction personnel of the construction department, cost personnel of the budget department, technical personnel of the technical department, etc.; The specific department and personnel responsible for material costs should be project managers or budget personnel of the material management department.
3.2 Costing of construction project operations
After comprehensively analyzing the project cost plan and the project basic cost, the construction cost accounting is carried out, and the project cost control is strengthened according to the accounting results. First, calculate the actual cost incurred in the construction process of the project, compare the actual cost and the budget cost, determine the difference between the two, and further analyze the reasons for the difference, and take effective measures to carry out differentiation.
3.2.1 Preparations
The basic preparation stage of operation cost control of highway construction project mainly provides a comprehensive understanding of the entire construction process of the project, the sequence of various operations and project cost flow, and the possible impact of each construction process on cost control. The construction process of this highway engineering project is mainly simplified into construction preparation, roadbed engineering, pavement construction and quality inspection. Cost drivers involved in construction preparation include construction surveys, site clearance; The cost drivers involved in the roadbed project include roadbed drainage prevention, roadbed excavation and filling, leveling and rolling, inspection and acceptance; Cost drivers involved in pavement construction and quality inspection include pavement materials, machinery and equipment, paving and compaction, and quality inspection.
3.2.2 Confirm the job
The construction cost of highway engineering projects is divided into manual management operations, equipment management operations, material management operations, technical quality management operations, construction management operations, etc., of which manual management operations are collected as unit operations, equipment management and technical quality management operations are summarized as engineering operations, material management operations are summarized as batch operations, and construction management operations are summarized as energy consumption operations [2]. According to the construction organization of highway engineering and the actual construction situation, the construction process design and operation division are carried out. According to the construction process of this highway project, the foundation construction is divided into construction preparation, roadbed construction, pavement construction and quality inspection.
3.2.3 Aggregation of resources and homogeneous operations
All the data involved in the construction process of this highway project are derived from the project bidding documents and financial book data, which have been reasonably simplified and consolidated for ease of analysis and calculation. The project resource allocation schedule is composed of personnel costs, material costs and machinery usage fees of each construction process, and on this basis, the project resource consumption table and the on-site management personnel cost table are statistically calculated.
Aggregate homogeneous jobs in resource aggregation results into a homogeneous job library. In order to facilitate statistics and accounting, each operation of the same nature should be classified into a homogeneous operation bank according to the nature of the cost, so that each operation bank constitutes a cost collection center. The resource cost consumed by each activity library is recognized, recorded, and measured through the basic functions of accounting. Through the summary of operation costs, the total cost of on-site management operations of the highway construction project is 3 million yuan, and the total cost of enterprise management operations is 5 million yuan; Labor costs, material costs, machinery usage costs, and water and electricity costs were 10 million yuan, 40.5 million yuan, 3 million yuan and 1 million yuan respectively.
3.2.4 Determine cost drivers and allocate activity costs
The cost drivers of highway engineering construction projects mainly include the number of components, the amount of excavation, mechanical working hours, labor hours, road surface length and width, site area, material consumption, etc., and the cost drivers corresponding to the operation library are clearly defined according to the actual project situation. According to the relevant data in the cost summary table of the activity library, combined with similar engineering cost management experience and the resource capacity provided by the resource library, the operation volume is estimated; The actual consumption of the operation motive is measured on site; The unconsumed work motivator is the difference between the operation amount and the actual consumption of the operation motive; Activity driver allocation rate = activity library cost/activity volume× 100%; Actual Activity Cost = Activity Library Cost × (Activity Driver Actual Consumption / Activity Volume) [3].
4 Conclusion
In summary, compared with the traditional cost accounting method, the total cost of the highway construction project obtained by the activity costing method is closer to the unit cost value, and can reflect the specific benefits of the occurrence of various cost items in the construction process of the project, which is convenient for the project management to eliminate those cost items that do not produce benefits to the construction project. Through the application of the activity costing method, it can also clearly determine which work is indispensable in the construction process, and improve the refinement and efficiency of the cost control process of highway construction projects.
bibliography
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[2] ZHU Guanxiang. Dynamic control of the whole process of highway engineering cost based on operation costing method[J].Traffic Construction and Management,2020(3):170-171.)
[3] LIU Jianhua. Cost control of highway engineering based on operation costing method[J].Modern Enterprise,2021(4):48-49.)
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