Robert Kaplan and Robin Cooper present the principles and practice of activity-based costing (those systems that measure where time and resources are actually spent), how they differ from traditional systems, and how they will evolve during the next few years into an integrated part of a company's financial system. Shows how ABC principles can drive business performance and decision making in operations, product development, customer acquisition and retention, services, supplier and distributor relationships, resource allocation, and pricing. Much like the Balanced Scorecard, Cost and Effect examines how activity-based costing systems and practices can be fully integrated with enterprise-wide systems, using "knowledge-age" tools to make real-time decisions.