RCA or Resource Consumption Accounting is properly stated as a fully integrated, principle-based, comprehensive and dynamic management accounting approach which offers managers the decision based information for project optimization. Comparatively RCA is a flexible, new, extensive management approach for accounting depending mainly on the GPK or Grenzplankostenrechnung known as German management accounting approach and also permits for the utilization of activity-driven drivers.
What is RCA?
Earlier, RCA had been known as an approach for management accounting starting in the year 2000 and was later improved at The Consortium of Advanced Management-International or CAM-I in an interest group of Cost Management Section of RCA beginning in the end part of 2001. Over the years RCA was validated and refined through pragmatic case studies, publications of industry journal and various other research papers.
In the month of July 2009, PAIB or Professional Accounts in Business Committee of IFAC or International Federation of Accountants acknowledged RCA in the IGPG or International Good Practice Guidance publication known as Evaluating and Improving Costing in Organizations and the other text, A Costing Levels Continuum Maturity Model. It focuses on international principles of costing and through the Costing Levels Maturity Model recognizes RCA reaches a greater level of visibility and accuracy in comparison to activity driven costing for information regarding managerial accounting while the RCA incremental benefits information go beyond the incremental administrative cost and effort to calculate, collect and report its data.
Concepts of RCA
Concepts of RCA which differentiates it from other approaches of management accounting comprises of the following:
• GPK method of Germany that includes quantity-dependent operational model utilizing proportional and fixed costs found at the resource level of a company
• Concept of Gordon