An Introduction to Cost Terms and Purposes TRUE - FLASE 1) Products, services, departments, and customers may be cost objects. 2) Costs are accounted for in two basic stages; assignment followed by accumulation 3) Actual costs and budgeted costs are two different terms referring to the same thing 4) Accountants define a cost as a resource to be sacrificed to achieve a specific objective. 5) A cost object is always either a product or a service. 6) A department could be considered a cost object. 7) The same cost may be direct for one cost object and indirect for another cost object 8) Assigning direct costs poses more problems than assigning indirect costs. 9) Improvements in information-gathering technologies are making it possible to trace more costs as direct. 10) Misallocated indirect costs may lead to promoting products that are not profitable. 11) The materiality of the cost is a factor in classifying the cost as a direct or indirect cost. 12) The cost of a customized machine only used in the production of a single product would be classified as a direct cost. 13) Some fixed costs may be classified as direct manufacturing costs. 14) The distinction between direct and indirect costs is clearly set forth in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). 15) Fixed costs have no cost driver in the short run, but may have a cost driver in the long run