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Nowadays, every organization, whether it is producing goods or providing services, requires a control that guarantees the permanence of the same, in view of the constant technological changes, the implementation of new strategies and in turn the competitiveness through innovation in products, services, elaboration, and mainly the price that an organization exposes to its article. This causes that the information provided by the company in the set of daily operations, expressed in a clear way in cost accounting, becomes a fundamental tool for the consolidation of the entities.

For this purpose, cost accounting has been developed to provide understandable, useful and comparable information based on past revenues and costs necessary for product costing, as well as on projected revenues and costs for decision making. That is why the top management and the administrative department are constantly faced with different situations that directly affect the operation of the company, so the information obtained about the costs and expenses incurred by the organization to carry out its activity and that governs its behavior, are of vital importance for decision making in a fast and effective way, this makes that nowadays cost accounting takes great relevance to the needs of the users of the information.

Polimeni. R. (1997), adds: The main activity of all levels of management is decision making: the careful consideration of alternative courses of action and the selection of the best alternative in order to achieve specific objectives. Likewise, for management to be successful, comprehensive information related to production and costs must be provided on a systematic and timely basis. This information is obtained from accounting, more specifically cost accounting. In view of these considerations, it is important for every manager to know and analyze the costs of a product or service, because it provides the necessary information for institutional planning, the study of alternatives, decision making or measures to avoid the negative performance of factors that generate deviations between actual and planned costs, and the exercise of management control and evolution functions. This has to be an instrument to take advantage of the available resources in any economic process, and knowing it facilitates the effect of the decisions that are presented in relation to already established programs and the assurance of a correct planning and utilization of the material and human resources that we have.

As for Venezuela, today companies are faced with competitive situations, price controls defined as a mechanism by which a governmental authority imposes determined amounts for the prices of goods and services within a determined market, usually with the purpose of maintaining the availability of those goods and services for consumers, The latter is understood as the set of measures and instruments taken by the state to collect the necessary revenues to carry out the public sector's functions.

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These aspects have an impact on the determination of their profit margins. Therefore, it is essential to control and evaluate each of the activities used in the production process, which allows to know the real costs of the organization. However, very few small and medium-sized companies carry out an accounting control that allows them to verify all of the above. Armas, (1999), quoted by Chacón, Bustos and Rojas (2006), ratifies the above described when he adds that: it is rare for a small company to keep cost accounting; this has led to the bankruptcy of many companies without their managers noticing it. Perhaps some of the most obvious reasons are the costs involved in hiring qualified personnel in this area and the lack of awareness of the need for technical assistance in the field of costs.

In addition, the State also created the new Organic Law of Fair Prices, which has the purpose of developing the general regulation of prices, costs and maximum profits, which applies to all companies, public or private, and will be executed by a new body: the National Superintendence for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights (SUNDDE). The new Law creates three controls: price control, control of maximum profit margins and the creation of a new registry of companies. It allows the Superintendency to fix the maximum selling price of any good or service, including in relation to producers, distributors and marketers. The fixing of the maximum price must be based on the economic analysis of the information collected in this respect, in accordance with the guidelines to be issued.

This maximum price set is considered by the Law as a "fair price". Administrative Ruling No. 003 of SUNDDE clarifies the general accounting criteria for the determination of these prices. By emphasizing what is proposed by the Superintendence of Costs and Fair Prices, every organization has the duty to design a structure which can assign costs and expenses to the products manufactured, thus exercising a better control over them and associating them in a logical and objective manner to the products, with the purpose of setting a fair sales price, respecting the guidelines established in the Organic Law of Fair Prices and its Regulations.

Reference Consulted

Polimeni, R. Fabozzi, F. Adelberg, A. and Kole, M. (1997). Cost Accounting. Concept and applications for managerial decision making. Third Edition. Editorial McGraw Hill.

Chacón, G. Bustos, C. and Rojas, E. (2006). Production Processes and Cost Accounting. Actualidad Contable FACES Year 9 Nº 12, January-June 2006. Mérida. Venezuela. Available at http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=25701203 (accessed 2014 January 23).

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