WhiletheDallas Cowboys have won five Super Bowls, many football fans recognizetheteam for its futuristic home,AT&TStadiumin Arlington, Texas.The80,000-seatstadium, built in 3 years, features two arches spanning a quarter-mile in length overthedome, a retractable roof,thelargest retractable glass doors intheworld (in each end zone), canted glass exterior walls, and a 600-ton video screen. To manage costs and make a profit, Manhattan Construction estimated and then evaluatedthecost of building each feature.

TheAT&TStadiumproject had five stages: (1) conceptualization, (2) design and planning, (3) preconstruction, (4) construction, and (5) finalization and delivery.Ateach stage,thejob-costingsystem tracked actual costs of direct materials, direct labor, and overhead costs (supervisor salaries, rent, materials handling, and so on). These costs were compared to budgeted costs to evaluate how well materials, labor and overhead resources were used. Without disciplinedjobcosting, managing costs on this complex project would be extremely difficult.Jobcostingwas key to Manhattan Construction turning a profit onAT&TStadium.

Discuss job order costing system. Be sure to address the following:

• Briefly explain job order costing.
• What are the characteristics of the companies that would use job order costing?
• Describe normal costing vs. actual costing.
• What characteristics of AT&T Stadium made the construction project a good candidate for job order costing?