A definition for piracy is an act of robbery typically at sea but also applicable on land. It refers to raids across land borders. Can I use a pirate analogy for misguided accountants? I believe I can if you allow me to use some imagination. When accountants misallocate calculating past period historical costs (e.g., product costing), the result is simultaneously over- and under-costing compared to the economic reality because re-assigning expenses and costs is a zero-sum-error calculation. Are the accountants robbing anyone? Yes. At one level they are acting like Robin Hood taking from some (i.e., product costs) to give to others. At a more personal level they are robbing managers and employee teams from having reasonable cost accuracy from which to draw insights for decisions such as product, service-line, channel, and customer rationalization (Cokins, 2019).

One of the readings this unit is a blog published by Analytics-Based Performance Management which compares managerial accountants to pirates. The main argument provided by the author stems from the unethical or irresponsible calculations for managerial accountants when costing products using simple, cost effective allocation rates rather than more accurate, and more costly, metrics.

Do you agree or disagree with the authors arguments? Identify a few comments made by the author of the blog and provide your thoughts and analysis, integrating textbook theory and external resources to support your argument.

Converse with your peers about your opinion of the authors arguments.