Caterpillar has long been at the forefront of management accounting practice. When asked by a manager for the cost of something, accountants at caterpillar have been trained to ask "What are you going to use the cost element for?" One management accountant at Caterpillar explains: "we want to make sure the information is formatted and the right elements are included. Do you need a variable cost, do you need a fully burdened cost, do you need overhead applied, are you just talking about discretionary cost? The cost that they really need depends on the decision they are making."
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