Books in Barron"s Business Library Series speak to men and women who are starting a company or managing a small-to-medium-size business. Advice and instruction is geared to daily operations and finding practical solutions for typical problems. Topics discussed in this book include understanding cost concepts, job-order costing, process costing, activity-based costing (ABC), activity-based management (ABM), cost-volume and break-even analysis, budgeting, cost analysis for non-routine decisions, how to make capital budgeting decisions, performance metrics such as the balanced score card, and a variety of cost management tools, including target costing and life-cycle costing. The authors cover all important issues that relate to budgeting and affect company profitability. A helpful appendix presents tables that account for the time value of money, and a glossary gives definitions of specialized cost management terms.