expected  to  be  able  to  provide  more  accurate  cost 
information  on  the  calculation  of  credit  application 
fees with ABC compared with traditional cost system. 
 
2  THEORICAL FRAMEWORK 
Hansen  and  Mowen  (2015)  define  costs  as  cash  or 
cash equivalents sacrificed to obtain goods or services 
that are expected to provide benefits now and in the 
future  for  the  company.  Horngren,  et  al.,  (2013) 
argues that costs are sacrifices or resources used for 
specific  purposes.  Different  cost  for  different 
purposes,  which  means  that  each  cost  classification 
has  different  objective  in  the  decision  making 
(Horngren,  et  al.,  2012).  Horngren,  et  al.,  (2012) 
classified  costs  into  two;  direct  costs,  which  is  the 
cost  that  directly  related  to  cost  objects  and  its 
economic value can be easily calculated and indirect 
costs, which is the cost that associated with product 
costs but its economic value can not be traced easily. 
If the procedure for assigning the costs is wrong, 
this  will  lead  to  a  wrong  decision  taken  by 
management. Tracing coss into cost objects is divided 
into two methods (Hansen and Mowen, 2015), the 
direct  tracing  and  driver  tracing  method.  Direct 
tracing  can  be  perform  by  identifying  costs  that 
specifically related directly to the cost object and thus 
charged directly into the cost object. Driver tracing is 
a  method  of  allocating  or  charging  costs  by  paying 
attention to the causal relationship between the cost 
and the cost object. Indirect costs are costs that cannot 
be traced directly so that it requires a method called 
cost  allocation.  Allocation  is  usually  based  on 
assumptions  or  policies  set  by  management. 
Horngren, et al., (2012) explains that there are four 
reasons of why the costs allocation is very important. 
It is to predict the impact of business decisions, used 
as a tool to shape the motivation desired by functional 
managers, to calculate income and assess the cost of 
assets,  and  to  calculate  costs  or  justifications  in 
spending.  Generally  there  are  three  cost  allocation 
systems,  which  are  the  direct  costing,  traditional 
costing, and Activity Based Costing (ABC) systems  
Traditional  costing  system  focus  on  production. 
costs.  This  system  is  also  known  as  volume  based 
costing  because  the  overhead  is  charged  based  on 
volume  of  the  cost  drivers  (Cooper  and  Kaplan, 
1999).  In  its  development,  traditional  costing  is 
deemed  unable  to  produce  reliable  information  so 
Cooper  and  Kaplan  (1999)  developed  an  allocation 
method  based  on  activities  called  Activity  Based 
Costing  (ABC).  Blocher  and  David  Stout  (2012) 
explain that ABC system is a cost allocation system 
that  allocated  costs  to  its  cost  objects  based  on  the 
activities carried out for these cost objects, Stout and 
Propri (2011) mentioned that if ABC implementation 
is done correctly, it will be able to provide accurate 
information  about  costs  to  management  regarding 
product costs so that the information can be used as a 
basis for decision making  for strategies such as the 
process of repairing, pricing, and managing customer 
relationships. 
Blocher,  Stout,  and  Cokins,  2012  stated  that  to 
gain full closure on the flow of the ABC system , one 
must understand about activity, resource, driver cost, 
resource  cost  driver,  and  activity  cost  driver.  ABC 
described  a  causal  relationship  between  resource, 
activity and cost object. In conclusion, the assignment 
of costs according to ABC is done through two stages, 
namely  assigning  overhead  costs  to  activities  and 
assigning activities to the cost object using two cost 
drivers;  the  resource  cost  driver  and  activity  cost 
driver (Blocher, Stout, and Cokins, 2010; Cooper and 
Kaplan, 1999). 
In practice, it is difficult to apply the ABC system 
to  companies  and  allocate  the  overhead  costs 
compared  to  traditional  method.  ABC  requires 
companies  to  identify  significant  activities  in  their 
business  process.  However,  the  allocation  of  costs 
with ABC is considered sufficient enough to provide 
more accurate information on the overhead cost of the 
company. 
The  benefits  of  the  ABC  system  are  1)  ABC  is 
useful  to  determine  the  cost  of  the  product  more 
accurately. 2) ABC system is very useful for company 
management  to  conduct  profitability  analysis  more 
accurately, both in profitability analysis of products, 
customers, processes and departments. 3) ABC can be 
used  as  an  inventory  valuation  measure.  4) 
Appropriate  and  effective  implementation  of  the 
ABC  system  can  help  companies  to  manage  their 
activities  better,  to  eliminate  activities  that  do  not 
provide  value  and  improve  the  quality  of  the 
company's internal processes consistently. 
The  weakness  of  the  ABC  system  is  1)  The 
application of the ABC system requires the support of 
human  resources  and  adequate  information 
technology and a long time to socialize to all parts of 
the company. 2) Identification of causal relationships 
between company operating activities and production 
costs  requires  careful  and  adequate  steps.  Mistakes 
that occur in determining the trigger of activity will 
bring distorted cost information to management and 
could  cause  serious  damage.  Cooper  and  Kaplan,  
(1999)  in  his  research  explained  how  ABC  can  be 
used to improve performance in insurance companies. 
The  application  of  ABC  can  be  used  in  various 
service  industries  such  as  banks,  medical  service 
industries and government departments.