Kalkulatsioon

Kalkulatsioon is the systematic process of estimating the costs associated with producing a product, delivering a service, or completing a project, in order to determine an appropriate price, budget, or profitability target. The term is common in Estonian accounting and management contexts and is cognate with German Kalkulation and Dutch kalkulatie, reflecting a long tradition of quantitative cost analysis.

A kalkulatsioon typically distinguishes direct costs (materials, labor) from indirect costs or overhead (factory overhead, administrative expenses). Costs are allocated to products or projects using cost drivers and allocation bases, with further distinctions between fixed and variable costs. The resulting cost price may be used as the basis for pricing, profitability analysis, and decision making.

Several methods exist for calculating costs. Traditional costing assigns overhead proportionally to units or direct costs; activity-based costing (ABC) links overhead to activities that consume resources; standard costing uses predefined cost standards for variances; and target costing starts from a desired selling price and works backward to determine allowable costs.

The kalkulatsioon process usually proceeds in stages: define the scope of the product or project; identify and quantify all relevant costs; select cost drivers and allocate indirect costs; apply any required markup or target margin; and perform sensitivity or scenario analyses to test robustness. It plays a central role in bids and tendering as well as in budgeting and profitability planning.

Limitations include data quality, estimation uncertainty, and evolving input prices. Good kalkulatsioon relies on transparent assumptions, documented methodology, and regular updates as conditions change. When used carefully, it supports price competitiveness, resource allocation, and strategic decision making.