Cost analysis for LC

[syx]

Dear chromatographers,

Is there any guidance for calculating cost analysis for a method in liquid chromatography? Where I can find the references?

Regards,
SYX

[tom jupille]

I'm not aware of anything published on chromatography methods in particular. Any good accounting textbook should at least have the basics, and there are, of course, texts specifically on cost accounting.

In general, the direct costs are not too much of a problem:

- time
- consumables

The indirect costs are the issue:

- support staff
- utilities
- capital costs (instrument time)
- administrative overhead

How they are allocated depends largely on your company's accounting policies, and that depends a lot on where you are, both geographically and institutionally (e.,g., commercial, government, university, etc.)

[syx]

Dear Mr. Tom,
Thank you for the explanation.
Next question:
For a substance, how we can count the cost: per hour, or per run of analysis?
This problem breaks my head.

[tom jupille]

In principle, you can do it either way. In practice, it depends on your company's or institution's accounting policies. Also, accounting rules and regulations vary from country to country.

My advice would be to confer with someone in the accounting department of your company/institution.

If you really want to be on conversational terms with accounting, this book looks like a good place to start (at least from reading the description):

http://www.phindia.com/bookdetail.php?i ... 203-1940-0