Overhead Allocation: a Goal Programming Approach

Abstract

Overhead is an incurred cost which is matched against cost objects via an intervening base of allocation. The problem of overhead allocation is to come up with a cost allocation procedure which is objective, applies, uniformly to all cost centers, is logically defensible, pays attention to the fact that no manager likes costs that are not under his control to be allocated to him, and makes use of the available data. This problem is solved in this paper via goal programming models. The procedures involved are illustrated through a detailed numerical example