Action costs

The handling costs in accounting are those costs that are incurred in trading companies in order to provide trading services.

General

The action costs are a traditional term from commercial management . Its founder, business economist Rudolf Seyffert , understood this to be the difference between the cost price and cost price , so that the following calculation steps result:

   Einkaufspreis                   
   + Bezugskosten
   = Einstandspreis
   + Handlungskosten 
   = Selbstkostenpreis
   + Gewinnzuschlag 
   = netto Verkaufspreis

The costs of a trading company are traditionally subdivided into the categories cost price and handling costs in the context of the trade calculation . The trading costs are to be understood as the total costs that arise from exercising the trading function. In retail , the largest share of the handling costs is accounted for by personnel costs and space costs.

Since there is no further processing in the retail sector , the cost element of manufacturing costs, which is central in production companies, does not apply .

species

The action costs are made up of:

Costs of putting together an offer (e.g. searching for and finding items that may be in demand),

Space costs ( rental price of sales rooms in stationary retail, sales cart in mobile retail or web space in electronic retail),

Storage costs (storage space, warehouse management and stored goods)

Personnel costs (e.g. for stocking shelves, shipping logistics or sales advice) and related ancillary costs (vacation, illness, training, etc.),

Advertising costs (e.g. brochures, advertising banners),

Packaging costs (repackaging or repackaging of goods),

Depreciation ,

Administrative costs ,

Taxes and Other Fees .

The handling costs are either directly attributable to the cost unit as individual costs (“special handling costs ”) or must be calculated proportionally and allocated as overheads (“general handling costs ”).

calculation

All of the cost types added up result in the total cost of handling. These lead to the business key figure of the extra charge:

{\ displaystyle {\ text {Handling costs surcharge}} = {\ frac {\ text {Handling costs}} {\ text {Cost of goods}}} \ cdot 100 \, \%}

The trading cost surcharge expresses which percentage surcharge on the cost price is necessary to determine the cost price.

Business aspects

A change in the inventory turnover has an effect on the handling costs. If the increase in the inventory turnover rate is based on an increase in sales (with constant inventory ), this leads to a degression of the fixed costs ("general handling costs "), so that the handling costs ultimately decrease. For Robert Nieschlag , the share of the trading costs in the goods sold became less important, "the more goods units enter the company and leave it again". Hereby he described the inventory turnover rate. However, if the cause of the increase in inventory turnover is a reduction in inventory, the fixed handling costs are not affected by this; there is only a release of capital .

Action costs in retail

In 2011, the trading costs (in% of gross sales) in shoe retailing reached 39.2%, followed by textile retailing (36.9%), watch and jewelry retailing (32.9%) or retail book trade (32.7%).

Individual evidence

^ Rudolf Seyffert, Wirtschaftslehre des Handels , 1972, p. 509

↑ Hartmund Barth, cost and performance accounting in trade , 1989, p. 13

^ Rudolf Seyffert, Wirtschaftslehre des Handels , 1972, p. 509

↑ Helmut Laumer, The storage of trade in economic and business management view , 1965, p. 114 f.

↑ Robert Nieschlag, cost accounting and calculation in grocery self-service shops , in: Self-service and Superparkt, 6/1963, p. 22 ff.

↑ Helmut Laumer, Warehousing of the trade in an economic and business perspective , 1965, p. 115

[1] Rudolf Seyffert, Wirtschaftslehre des Handels , 1972, p. 509