For years we have heard, "It's all about creating value for customers," in mission statements, in boardrooms, and in classrooms. For a long time, this has been interpreted as providing product quality—features and functions that meet (or exceed) customer desires. Indeed, companies strive to provide this end product. But how does a company provide this value at an acceptable cost? Accountants have tried breaking down the costs of operations as finely as possible, developing overhead rates that allocate products and services to the sixth decimal in an effort to develop and provide managers with the most accurate data possible for their decisions. Accountants provide manufacturing variances on pretty much everything measurable. Every labor category for every department is analyzed in reams of paper to help supervisors squeeze more efficiency out of the workers. So does all this accounting information actually provide value for the accountant's customers—the managers using the reports?
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