The Cost Accountant is a comprehensive manual for a cost accountant starting their career in the field of costing. It is the result of 30 years of professional engagement with the subject across various sectors of industry. Its aim is to focus on the issues that cost accountants truly face in practice rather than in theory.

It also directs attention to problems that are not addressed in the existing literature, either because they are taken for granted or because they have never been encountered. Topics such as activity-based costing and sensitivity analysis are presented in a practical manner, so that their application to real cases is feasible.

The Cost Accountant emphasizes the extensive presentation of raw material and supply expenses because, today, they represent the most significant part of production cost and are the only completely variable component without disputes. Other authors consider these expenses more or less given, while in practice, this is not the case. In contrast, the Cost Accountant does not refer to analytical accounting issues, as these have been presented exhaustively, especially in the Greek literature.

We welcome new cost accountants on this exciting journey and wish them all the best for the future. Many believe that costing is a mixture of accounting and complex calculations aimed at allocating cost components to the products or services produced by an economic organization. While this is true, a critical element is missing. The allocation must always be done in the fairest possible manner.

If this is not achieved and there are injustices, with certain products burdened with costs that do not correspond to them, then costing is a failure and leads management to incorrect decisions. It is the sense of justice that drives the cost accountant to systematically re-evaluate the methods they use when changes, organizational or otherwise, occur in the business. To revise, when necessary, the structure of cost centers, allocation criteria, and the stages of executing their work.

All of the above require many man-hours not only from the cost accountant but also from all relevant departments of the organization. The obvious, easy tendency to change nothing because it will disrupt the business operation is not a solution for the cost accountant, because the sense of justice is stronger. If the costing system is not fair, then the repercussions are severe.

Not only can management decisions be incorrect, for example, when a product or a group of products needs to be discontinued, but furthermore, poor costing leads to the creation of offers to customers that will be unrealistic.