Cost Accounting is a type of management accounting. It is a specialized area of expertise concerned with analyzing the costs of products manufactured or sold by a company. For a corporation to be profitable, it’s critical to understand the precise costs associated with a product and use that information to set appropriate prices. Cost accountants do just that and are therefore vital to overall financial decision-making. Cost Accountants are responsible for budgeting, cost management, performance evaluation, and asset management within a company or organization. They typically collaborate as part of an executive team to create a financial plan for the organization. They may work with corporate executives or heads of companies to strategically plan for a company, or they may prepare financial reports for tax authorities, creditors, stockholders, and regulatory agencies. Cost accountants are responsible for collecting, adjusting, auditing, and scrutinizing financial information from all areas of a company. They must collate the facts and numbers, which may include data about personnel, planning systems, operating policies, wages, and bonuses into financial reports that can be thoroughly analyzed.

Eligibility Criteria

• Must possess at least 50% aggregate from a recognized institution in 12th, from any board PUC/CBSE/ICSE/ISC, etc. However, the cut-off margin varies with the selection process of different colleges.
• There are no standardized entrance exams for enrolling in Accounting and finance. The availability of these exams is exclusively based on the prospects of the University.
• Any degree is viable, but opting for B.Com/BBA or a diploma in Accounting and finance will provide a better overview and understanding of this career than you do from other courses.
• An M.Com in Accounting and finance can also prove to be helpful while looking for a higher degree and better learning.

Tasks to perform

• To negotiate and create estimations and organization to enable, communicate with customers, suppliers, people from other organizations, or construction scaffolders.
• Adjustments and modifications to construction costs should be discussed with designers, designers, landowners, constructors, and freelancers.
• Evaluate the cost-effectiveness of commodities, initiatives, or activities, taking note of real costs vs estimates as the program progresses.
• Compile expense and consumption reports, as well as other required paperwork, at frequent intervals during the project's length.
• Examine the materials and labour process to determine whether producing or purchasing elements is much more cost-effective.

Knowledge required

• Finance and Management – Understanding of corporate governance concepts and procedures, as well as capital industry, finance, and business information monitoring and interpretation.
• Legal System — Awareness of statutes, political systems, court processes, jury decisions, federal regulation, executive actions, department guidelines and the constitutional legislative process is needed in politics and government.
• Arithmetic Prowess — Being able to evaluate and interpret various mathematical equations and use them to address complex problems in arithmetic, geometry, calculus, and other areas.
• Computer Application — Understanding the prospects and functioning of circuit boards, processing units, circuits, electrical devices, computer equipment, plus applications and programming.
• Client and Legitimate Service — Implementation of standards and procedures for the provision of customer and services rendered. This involves identifying customer expectations, meeting product quality requirements and assessing customer loyalty.

Skills required

• Rational interpretation — Use of rationality and inference to distinguish the positives and disadvantages of creative improvements, assumptions, or responses to situations.
• Strategic Thinking — Evaluating the possible expenses and advantages of various decisions in order to recognise the best one.
• Effective Involvement — Necessitates paying complete focus to what others are suggesting, using the time to consider the arguments being made, responding to questions as needed, and not disrupting at inconvenient moments.
• Processes Assessment — Entails identifying metrics or indices of service quality as well as the steps required to enhance or change effectiveness in relation to the system's objectives.
• Strategic Thinking — Evaluating the possible expenses and advantages of various decisions in order to recognise the best one.

Job roles offered

Once you procure the required qualifications for becoming a Cost Accountant, a myriad of options is open to you. There are multiple projects you can undertake throughout this line of work, and there are many other fields you can branch out to as well.

• Sales Engineer: Sales engineers work with businesses and organizations to market complex scientific and technological items. As a sales engineer, you've received education in both engineering (or a science linked to the business) and sales. You imagine, build, and market new goods or programs that you assist develop in addition to helping your clients boost their productivity and profits. As an experienced sales engineer, your goal is to renegotiate products or solution purchases that reward their customers. Sales engineers are employed in a variety of businesses, spanning technological, manufacture, and entertainment. To deliver efficient sales and satisfied clients, you must be an expert in your field. Effective corporate, strategic, and intellectual reasoning abilities are also required of sales engineers.
• Construction Estimator: The overall cost of a building project is determined by an estimate. Validation of the program's Description of Activities is the very first stage in this process. The Scope of Work is a statement that specifies all of the tasks that must be completed to finish the construction project. The scope papers, together with the construction plans and specifications, provide a starting point for an estimation process, which is a list of items that will be required to complete the project. Construction estimation methods require effective communication skills in addition to their quantitative and quantitative abilities since they collaborate with a variety of different construction practitioners.
• Electrical Estimators: For corporate, domestic, and institutional electrical contracting work, electrical estimators assess costs and possible profitability. As electrical estimators study designs and identify aspects such as wire lengths and fixtures needed, they must pay close attention to precision and use an intellectual approach to ensure that these parts and their implementation are priced appropriately. Before commencing employment as an electrical estimator, many work as electricians to obtain experience with electricity standards and procedures. Electrical estimators examine construction designs for residential, commercial, and industrial projects to calculate the project's electrical requirements. The placement of pipelines, workstations, and main equipment, as well as knowledge on specialty fittings in specified places, are all included in these designs. Electrical estimators also examine these blueprints to determine wire connections and socket placements following electrical rules.
• Service Advisors: Service advisers serve as a link between consumers who bring their cars to a dealership for repairs and the professionals who work on them. As a service adviser, you'll be in charge of talking with clients to identify which services are required, sending work orders to technicians, obtaining necessary components, and retrieving money after services are finished. Service advisors operate in workplaces and may be located in new and used automobile dealerships. Service advisors can be automobile mechanics or dealership workers, and these individuals can advance to become dealership or automotive repair managers.
• Project Manager: Project managers use project management techniques to organize, finance, analyze, and reflect on an initiative. They may propose the project concept or be assigned to it after it has been accepted. The project manager serves as a link between senior management, stakeholders, and the project team members. They guarantee that the project management plan is solid, that progress is reported on a constant schedule, and that the project is carried out within the agreed budget and timeline. A project is anything that has a beginning, middle, and end that results in a product, and it requires the monitoring and guidance of a project manager throughout its life cycle. That implies construction companies work in a wide range of industries, including software development and information technology, human resource management, branding and promotion, architecture, and everywhere in between.

Career opportunities

Cost Accountants can opt for various fields of work in the companies listed below:

• Rolls-Royce
• Smiths Detection
• UBS
• Alliance Recruitment Agency
• CIEL HR
• Tenneco
• Global Payments Inc.
• Xylem Inc.
• Hilton
• K G Somani & Co LLP

Colleges offering courses

• SRM University Chennai - SRM Institute of Science and Technology
• Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune
• Manipal University, Jaipur
• Presidency University, Bangalore
• MSRUAS Bangalore - MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences
• Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar
• Galgotias University, Greater Noida
• Gujarat Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar
• Jain University, Bangalore
• Graphic Era University, Dehradun