MEASUREMENT OF FIXED PERSONNEL EXPENSES FROM ABC COSTING: A STUDY IN A DENTAL SERVICES COMPANY

Abstract

The objective of this article was to investigate the fixed personnel costs related to the activities performed in a dental clinic in light of Activity-Based Costing (ABC). To achieve the proposed objective, a descriptive research study with a qualitative-quantitative approach was conducted, operationalized through a case study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Content analysis, descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. To verify the significance of statistical differences between the costs of the tracked activities, the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was employed, considering a significance level of 95%, i.e., a p-value equal to or less than 0.05. The research results allowed us to identify that prevention and restoration activities are the most costly performed by the dentists. Regarding reception activities, it was found that the activity of patient acquisition is the most costly. As for the activities of the oral health assistants, it was observed that the activity of material handling represents the highest personnel cost. The analyzed data indicate a considerable variation in the personnel costs of the dentists' activities, as the average cost was around 1,641.88, which is significantly higher than the median, which stood at 1,284.75, suggesting the presence of some activities with exceptionally high costs, which raises the average. When comparing the personnel costs of the dentists' activities, a p-value of 0.046 was identified, confirming that the variations related to the different activities performed by the dentists are not due to chance.