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void mi_start_curr_serv(void){
I'm getting an error as "error: expected declaration or statement at end of input" in my compiler. I could not find any error with the above function. Please help me to understand this error.
2,369144581
Normally that error occurs when a } was missed somewhere in the code, for example:
void mi_start_curr_serv(void){
would fail with this error due to the missing } at the end of the function. The code you posted doesn't have this error, so it is likely coming from some other part of your source.
For me this problem was caused by a missing ) at the end of an if statement in a function called by the function the error was reported as from.
Try scrolling up in the output to find the first error reported by the compiler.
Fixing that error may fix this error.
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Costs are the necessary expenditures that must be made in order to run a
business. Every factor of production has a cost associated with it: labor,
fixed assets, and capital, for example. The cost of labor used in the
production of goods and services is measured in terms of wages. The cost
of a fixed asset used in production is measured in terms of depreciation.
The cost of capital used to purchase fixed assets is measured in terms of
the interest expense associated with raising the capital.
Businesses are vitally interested in measuring their costs. Many types of
costs are observable and easily quantifiable. In such cases there is a
direct relationship between cost of input and quantity of output. Other
types of costs must be estimated or allocated. That is, the relationship
between costs of input and units of output may not be directly observable
or quantifiable. In the delivery of professional services, for example,
the quality of the output is usually more significant that the quantity,
and output cannot simply be measured in terms of the number of patients
treated or students taught. In such instances where qualitative factors
play an important role in measuring output, there is no direct
relationship between costs incurred and output achieved.
DIFFERENT WAYS TO CATEGORIZE COSTS
Costs can have different relationships to output. Costs also are used in
different business applications, such as financial accounting, cost
accounting, budgeting, capital budgeting, and valuation. Consequently,
there are different ways of categorizing costs according to their
relationship to output as well as according to the context in which they
are used. Following this summary of the different types of costs are some
examples of how costs are used in different business applications.
FIXED AND VARIABLE COSTS
The two basic types of costs incurred by businesses are fixed and
variable. Fixed costs do not vary with output, while variable costs do.
Fixed costs are sometimes called overhead costs. They are incurred whether
a firm manufactures 100 widgets or 1,000 widgets. In preparing a budget,
fixed costs may include rent, depreciation, and super-visors'
salaries. Manufacturing overhead may include such items as property taxes
and insurance. These fixed costs remain constant in spite of changes in
Variable costs, on the other hand, fluctuate in direct proportion to
changes in output. Labor and material costs are typical variable costs
that increase as the volume of production increases. It takes more labor
and material to produce more output, so the cost of labor and material
varies in direct proportion to the volume of output. The direct
proportionality of variable costs to level of output may break down with
very small and very large production runs.
In addition, some costs are considered mixed costs. That is, they contain
elements of fixed and variable costs. In some cases the cost of
supervision and inspection are considered mixed costs.
DIRECT AND INDIRECT COSTS
Direct costs are similar to variable costs. They can be directly
attributed to the production of output. The system of valuing inventories
called direct costing is also known as variable costing. Under this
accounting system only those costs that vary directly with the volume of
production are charged to products as they are manufactured. The value of
inventory is the sum of direct material, direct labor, and all variable
manufacturing costs.
Indirect costs, on the other hand, are similar to fixed costs. They are
not directly related to the volume of output. Indirect costs in a
manufacturing plant may include supervisors' salaries, indirect
labor, factory supplies used, taxes, utilities, depreciation on building
and equipment, factory rent, tools expense, and patent expense. These
indirect costs are sometimes referred to as manufacturing overhead.
Under the accounting system known as full costing or absorption costing,
all of the indirect costs in manufacturing overhead as well as direct
costs are included in determining the cost of inventory. They are
considered part of the cost of the products being manufactured.
PRODUCT AND PERIOD COSTS
The concepts of product and period costs are similar to direct and
indirect costs. Product costs are those that the firm's accounting
system associates directly with output and that are used to value
inventory. Under a direct or variable cost accounting system, only direct
or variable costs are charged to production. Indirect costs such as
property taxes, insurance, depreciation on plant and equipment, and
salaries of supervisors are considered period costs. Period costs are
charged as expenses to the current period. Under direct costing, period
costs are not viewed as costs of the products being manufactured, so they
are not associated with valuing inventories.
If the firm uses a full cost accounting system, however, then all
manufacturing costs—including fixed manufacturing overhead costs
and variable costs—become product costs. They are considered part
of the cost of manufacturing and are charged against inventory.
OTHER TYPES OF COSTS
These are the basic types of costs as they are used in different
accounting systems. In addition, other types of costs are used in
different business contexts. In budgeting it is useful to identify
controllable and uncontrollable costs. This simply means that managers
with budgetary responsibility should not be held accountable for costs
they cannot control.
Financial managers often use the concepts of out-of-pocket costs and sunk
costs when evaluating the financial merits of specific proposals.
Out-of-pocket costs are those that require the use of current resources,
usually cash. Sunk costs have already been incurred. In evaluating whether
or not to increase production, for example, financial managers may take
into account the sunk costs associated with tools and machinery as well
as the out-of-pocket costs associated with adding more material and labor.
Financial planning also utilizes the concepts of incremental, opportunity,
and imputed costs. Incremental costs are those associated with switching
from one level of activity or course of action to another. Incremental
costs represent the difference between two alternatives. Opportunity costs
represent the sacrifice that is made when the means of production are used
for one task rather than another, or when capital is used for one
investment rather than another. Nothing can be produced or invested
without incurring an opportunity cost. By making one investment or
production decision using limited resources, one necessarily forgoes the
opportunity to use those resources for a different purpose. Consequently,
opportunity costs are not usually factored into investment and production
decisions involving resource allocation.
Imputed costs are costs that are not actually incurred, but are associated
with internal transactions. When work in process is transferred from one
department to another within an organization, a method of transfer pricing
may be needed for budgetary reasons. Although there is no actual purchase
or sale of goods and materials, the receiving department may be charged
with imputed costs for the work it has received. When a company rents
itself a building that is could have rented to an outside party, the rent
may be considered an imputed cost.
BUSINESS APPLICATIONS USE DIFFERENT TYPES OF COSTS
Costs as a business concept are useful in measuring performance and
determining profitability. What follows are brief discussions of some
business applications in which costs play an important role.
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
One of the major objectives of financial accounting is to determine the
periodic income of the business. In manufacturing firms a major component
of the income statement is the cost of goods sold (COGS). COGS is that
part of the cost of inventory that can be considered an expense of the
period because the goods were sold. It appears as an expense on the
firm's periodic income statement. COGS is calculated as beginning
inventory plus net purchases minus ending inventory.
Depreciation is another cost that becomes a periodic expense on the income
statement. Every asset is initially valued at its cost. Accountants charge
the cost of the asset to depreciation expense over the useful life of the
asset. This cost allocation approach attempts to match costs with revenues
and is more reliable than attempting to periodically determine the fair
market value of the asset.
In financial accounting, costs represent assets rather than expenses.
Costs only become expenses when they are charged against current income.
Costs may be allocated as expenses against income over time, as in the
case of depreciation, or they may be charged as expenses when revenues are
generated, as in the case of COGS.
COST ACCOUNTING
Cost accounting, also sometimes known as management accounting, provides
appropriate cost information for budgeting systems and management decision
making. Using the principles of general accounting, cost accounting
records and determines costs associated with various functions of the
business. This data is used by management to improve operations and make
them more efficient, economical, and profitable.
Two major systems can be used to record the costs of manufactured
products. They are known as job costing and process costing. A job cost
system, or job order cost system, collects costs for each physically
identifiable job or batch of work as it moves through the manufacturing
facility and disregards the accounting period in which the work is done.
With a process cost system, on the other hand, costs are collected for all
of the products worked on during a specific accounting period. Unit costs
are then determined by dividing the total costs by the number of units
worked on during the period. Process cost systems are most appropriate for
continuous operations, when like products are produced, or when several
departments cooperate and participate in one or more operations. Job
costing, on the other hand, is used when labor is a chief element of cost,
when diversified lines or unlike products are manufactured, or when
products are built to customer specifications.
When costs are easily observable and quantifiable, cost standards are
usually developed. Also known as engineered standards, they are developed
for each physical input at each step of the production process. At that
point an engineered cost per unit of production can be determined. By
documenting variable costs and fairly allocating fixed costs to different
departments, a cost accounting system can provide management with the
accountability and cost controls it needs to improve operations.
BUDGETING SYSTEMS
Budgeting systems rely on accurate cost accounting systems. Using cost
data collected by the business's cost accounting system, budgets
can be developed for each department at different levels of output.
Different units within the business can be designated cost centers, profit
centers, or departments. Budgets are then used as a management tool to
measure performance, among other things. Performance is measured by the
extent to which actual figures deviate from budgeted amounts.
In using budgets as measures of performance, it is important to
distinguish between controllable and uncontrollable costs. Managers should
not be held accountable for costs they cannot control. In the short run,
fixed costs can rarely be controlled. Consequently, a typical budget
statement will show sales revenue as forecast and the variable costs
associated with that level of production. The difference between sales
revenue and variable costs is the contribution margin. Fixed costs are
then deducted from the contribution margin to obtain a figure for
operating income. Managers and departments are then evaluated on the basis
of costs and those elements of production they are expected to control.
COST OF CAPITAL
Capital budgeting and other business decisions—such as lease-buy
decisions, bond refunding, and working capital policies—require
estimates of a company's cost of capital. Capital budgeting
decisions revolve around deciding whether or not to purchase a particular
capital asset. Such decisions are based on an estimate of the net present
value of future revenues that would be generated by a particular capital
asset. An important factor in such decisions is the company's cost
of capital.
Cost of capital is a percentage that represents the interest rate the
company would pay for the funds being raised. Each capital
component—debt, equity, and retained earnings—has its own
cost. Each type of debt or equity also has a different cost. While a
particular purchase or project may be funded by only one kind of capital,
companies are likely to use a weighted average cost of capital when making
financial decisions. Such practice takes into account the fact that the
company is an ongoing concern that will need to raise capital at different
rates in the future as well as at the present rate.
OTHER APPLICATIONS
Costs are sometimes used in the valuation of assets that are being bought
or sold. Buyers and sellers may agree that the value of an asset can be
determined by estimating the costs associated with building or creating an
asset that could perform similar functions and provide similar benefits as
the existing asset. Using the cost approach to value an asset contrasts
with the income approach, which attempts to identify the present value of
the revenues the asset is expected to generate.
Finally, costs are used in making pricing decisions. Manufacturing firms
refer to the ratio between prices and costs as their markup, which
represents the difference between the selling price and the direct cost of
the goods being sold. For retailers and wholesalers, the gross margin is
the difference between their invoice cost and their selling price. While
costs form the basis for pricing decisions, they are only a starting
point, with market conditions and other factors usually determining the
most profitable price.
FURTHER READING:
Cooper, Robin, and Regine Slagmulder. "Introduction to
Enterprise-Wide Cost Management."
Management Accounting.
August 1998.
Hilton, Ronald W.
Managerial Accounting.
McGraw-Hill, 1991.
Horngren, Charles T., George Foster, and Srikant M. Datar.
Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis.
Prentice Hall, 1999.
Horngren, Charles T., and Gary L. Sundem.
Introduction to Financial Accounting.
4th ed. Prentice Hall, 1990.
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