Question

List and explain the similarities and differences among ABC, GPK, and RCA.

Answer 1

Similarities among ABC, GPK and RCA:

1) The biggest similarity among these three is their allocation base. All these three accounting system uses multiple allocation base to allocate its costs/overheads.

2) The other similarity is their refined costing system. All these three methods have very refined costing system that helps in accurate identification and allocation of costs.

Differences among ABC, GPK and RCA:

	ABC	GPK	RCA
Cost Drivers	Activity based costing	Resource output related costing	One of both.
Allocation of Overheads	On the basis of activities	On the basis of Cost Centres	One of the two or both.
Cost Accounting System	Full Costing	Marginal Costing	Both
Fixed Cost Allocation	Actual, budgeted or practical capacity	Budgeted or practical capacity	Theoretical capacity
Decision Making Relevance	Mid to long term	Short term	All three