Core features of the ‘Einzelkosten- und Deckungsbeitragsrechnung’

Abstract

The origin of this decision-oriented approach stems from the confrontation with the needs of planning and controlling of decisions and actions in industries with joint costs and joint revenues and, moreover, the analysis of the requirements of different purposes and situations.

The special aim was the development of a true reconstruction of reality in accounting — as good as possible — which bears intersubjective examination ex post.

The company business is seen as a multidimensional progressing network of sequentially made decisions and actions and other effects which have mostly a temporal dimension and structure. It requires a multitude of accounting views to depict this dynamic multi-faceted complex.

One essential basis is the analysis of decision-relevant direct and indirect consequences and their ‘true’ representation depicted in accounting. This leads to a strict criterion to judge the traceability of accounting figures to the object considered: the identity principle.

Anothe essential basis is the separation between recording and keeping elementary data with their attributes in a purpose-neutral accounting database (Grundrechnung) and the use of these in problem-specific data applications

From the aspect of this concept each attempt to calculate net profits must be arbitrary. The principle of decision-relevant consequences and the identity prin-ciple rather demand multistep and multidimensional views of contribution anal-ysis ex anteand ex post. Additionally a bundle of contribution budgets and other contribution targets is needed