The Activity Based Costing (ABC) in Electric Power Company of the State of Bahia (Coelba): relevant factors to implementation, the model and the results obtained

Abstract

The world is evolving faster and faster and because of this new demands from the companies are constantly arisen. In this context the Managerial Accountancy seeks solutions to new necessities based especially on quality information. The basic idea of the Activity-based Costing (ABC), which affirms that the available resources are used by activities and these are used by products and services, represented a proposal to treat more accurately the indirect costs as an alternative way of providing information to those who take decisions. The general purpose of this research was to check the factors which contributed to the implementation of the model by Companhia de Eletricidade do Estado da Bahia Coelba -, and what was the model adopted by them. Specifically, it was intended to identify the initial factors which led to the choice and adoption of the ABC and present the model adopted and the results of the implementation of this model. This study can be characterized as qualitative-descriptive, in which the case study was adopted as the procedure of research and the data was obtained from non-structured interviews and a questionaire. The main reason to the implementation was the necessity of reducing the costs through more reliable and accurate reports. Coelba adopted a hybrid model adapted to its own necessities and characteristics but it was strongly based on the model of Kaplan and Cooper (1998). The results after two years of the implementation of the model exceeded the initial expectations, a fact that maintains the intention of the company of keeping on using the system.