Development of the Beyond Activity Based Costing System in Faculty of Management and Medical Informatics of Tabriz: A New Approach for Costing in Higher Education

Background and Aim: Traditional costing systems are not efficient enough to calculate up-to-date costs and analyze training costs in education organizations. The present study was conducted with the aim of establishing an activity-based costing system in Tabriz School of Management and Medical Informatics. Materials and Methods: The current multi-method study was conducted in academic year 2017-2018, aimed to establish cost accounting system which we called Beyond Activity Based Costing System (BABCS). First, using Business Process Modeling and Notation (BPMN), 3,729 activities inside 384 processes were identified, then illustrated and finalized in Bizagi-Modeler software. Overhead costs, were allocated initially to final activity centers then to cost objects based on the workload and time duration of activities. Data management was conducted in Excel and cost analysis was performed via Dptsco cost accounting platform. Results: Despite the capability of the ongoing accounting system (Nezam Novin) in registering and description of the budget and spending of the faculty, it still needs to be reviewed and upgraded to achieve the objectives of accrual accounting. The total cost of the faculty in the study year is equal to 61,872,545 thousand Rials, of which 57,159,882 thousand Rials are related to education and 4,812,663 thousand Rials are the share of research activities. Based on the results obtained from the BABCS system, the average cost of each course unit in the college was calculated to be 5,102 thousand Rials and the average cost of student education was calculated to be 356,092 thousand Rials. The maximum and minimum cost of student education related to the field of Master of Management and Reforms in the Health System (MPH) was calculated at 800,130 thousand Rials and the Bachelor of Health Information Technology was calculated at 100,171 thousand Rials. Conclusion: Tabriz School of Management and Medical Informatics has spent most of its resources on staff salaries and benefits. Establishment of activity-based costing system and its connection with other Portals and database of the university can play an effective role in managing the work flows and improving staff productivity and efficiency of the faculty organization.