Cost accounting is a form of managerial accounting that aims to capture a company's total cost of production by assessing both its variable and fixed costs. There are different types of cost accounting, including standard costing, activity-based costing (ABC), lean accounting, and marginal costing.

Cost accounting involves assigning costs to cost objects that can include a company's products, services, and any business activities. Cost accounting is helpful because it can identify where a company is spending its money, how much it earns, and where money is being lost.

Cost accounting is the process of tracking, analyzing and summarizing all fixed and variable “input” costs related to the production of a product, acquisition of goods for sale or the delivery of a service.

Definition and Purpose: Cost accounting refers to the process of recording, classifying, analyzing, and summarizing costs associated with the production or service provision. Its primary purpose is to provide detailed information for decision-making, cost control, and performance evaluation.