yleiskustannusjakaja

Yleiskustannusjakaja, known in English as a general cost allocator, is an accounting term referring to a method used to distribute indirect costs (overhead) across various cost objects, such as products, services, or departments. These indirect costs are expenses that cannot be directly traced to a specific cost object, examples including rent, utilities, administrative salaries, and depreciation of shared equipment.

The purpose of using a yleiskustannusjakaja is to assign a fair and reasonable portion of these common costs to each unit of output or activity. This is crucial for accurate product costing, pricing decisions, performance evaluation, and profitability analysis. Without such a mechanism, it would be difficult to determine the true cost of producing a particular item or providing a specific service, potentially leading to misguided business strategies.

Common methods for allocating general costs include using a single, plant-wide overhead rate based on a driver like direct labor hours, machine hours, or direct labor cost. More sophisticated approaches involve using multiple overhead rates for different departments or using activity-based costing (ABC), which identifies specific activities and assigns costs based on the consumption of those activities. The choice of yleiskustannusjakaja significantly impacts the perceived cost of cost objects, making its selection a critical accounting decision. The goal is to find a method that reflects the consumption of resources by different cost objects as accurately as possible.