1. 4.3. Statistics Finland's experience on cost accounting
Pasi Henriksson, Director of Administration

2. Stable budget development
Finances 2012 to 2016
Stable budget development
EUR million
2012
2013
2014
2015 estimate
2016 Budget proposal
FUNDING
65.2
65.3
65.8
63.1
61.3
Budget appropriation
49.2
50.4
51.8
50.7
- Revenues from operations subject to charge
8.9
8.1
7.6
7.7
7.0
Other
2.0
1.9
1.4
0.9
- Appropriations carried forward
5.1
4.9
4.4
3.6
2.7
EXPENDITURE
60.3
60.9
62.2
60.4
58.8
- Change in appropriations
-0.2
-0.4
-0.8
-0.9
28 November, November, 2018
Statistics Finland

3. Personnel 2012 to 2016
2012
2013
2014
2015 Perfor-mance target document
2016 Budget proposal
Personnel, staff-year
864
842
832
750
730
monthly-paid employees
736
720
651 -
- interviewers
128
106
112 99
Retired 38 56 40
28 November, November, 2018
Statistics Finland

4. Statistics Finland’s internal and external accounting
Refers to producing necessary accounting data for external parties, e.g. the Ministry of Finance, the Tax Authority
Regular bookkeeping (external bookkeeping)
Budget accounts (government expenditure accounts).
2) Internal accounting:
Refers to producing necessary accounting data for internal purposes
Cost accounting
Allocation of working hours.

5. The contents of bookkeeping
In bookkeeping, expenditure and income are allocated as precisely as possible.
Every book entry at Statistics Finland always includes
a) the business bookkeeping account,
b) the budget account and
c) the cost accounting data.
The agency's external business bookkeeping is monitored with the business bookkeeping account.
The realisation of the agency's budget is monitored with the budget account.
Cost centres, as well as tasks and activities are needed in Statistics Finland’s cost accounting and working hour tracking.

6. Working time reporting system and cost accounting
The working time reporting system creates the basis for cost accounting, pricing and result calculation.
In Statistics Finland, the role of working time reporting is crucial in cost accounting. Cost accounting cannot be carried out without working hour tracking.
Statistics Finland's cost structure in 2014:
mEUR %
Personnel costs 47 76
Premises 6 9
Other expenses 15
Total expenses 62
100

7. Why do costs have to be monitored at Statistics Finland?
Cost accounting provides information about the activities of public entities.
This is important because the services are produced with tax revenue. The activities must be transparent.
Cost accounting is needed for the management of the agency to support decision-making.
If all expenses of the activities are not known, decisions can be made based on insufficient information.
We must know whether we should do something ourselves or buy the service.
Cost accounting is needed in order for us to be able to price products and service, e.g. in activities subject to charge.

8. Statistical production process (incl. Assigments, standard products)
STOJ supports Statistics Finland's process management
Services in the STOJ system
Core process
Working time reporting system
(allocation of hours worked)
Common for Statistics Finland
(SH, TP, TI, HA) support functions
Translation services
Graphic services
Statistical production process (incl. Assigments, standard products)
Support functions
Development activities
Project management / development programmes
PORTTI reporting portal (BI-data warehouse, MS SQL Server)

9. Statistics Finland's cost accounting model
EUR
Column headings
Row headings
2014
2015
62 832,72
,65
Others/Not classified
,14
1 Core activity
,78
,09
1.1 Statistics production
,84
,72
1.2 Final performances of charged activities
,34
,27
1.3 Coordination and communication
,35
,62
1.4 Other products and services
,93
,02
2 Core activity support
,19
,72
2.1 Data collection support
,96
,93
2.10 Other services for core activity
,89
,71
2.2 Own projects of statistical topics
,50
,95
2.3 Classifications and methods
,29
,58
2.4 Publication support
,67
,63
2.5 Information service, library
,71
,01
2.6 Support services for charged activities
,79
,76
2.7 Core activity IT
,71
,70
2.9 Research services
,67
,45
3 Support activities
,67
,60
3.1 Management and general administration
,76
,11
3.2 Administration
,28
,99
3.3 IT services
,45
,05
3.4 Training
,89
,33
3.5 Internal communication
,65
,74
3.6 Facilities and materials management
,39
,01
3.7 Other support activities
,25
,37
4 Absences
,05
,70
4.1 Absences
All total
The aim of the cost accounting model has been to define a calculation model for dividing costs to final performances and to make a solution for its technical implementation.
In Statistics Finland's cost accounting model, the costs of core activity support, other support activities and absences are allocated to final performances and to cost allocation accounting codes (incl. projects) according to the calculation rules of each support activity group.
The calculation model follows the activity hierarchy that can be reported from the reporting portal Portti.
27 November 2015
Administration/Financial administration

10. Methodological description, image1
Final performances
accounting code1
Total costs
Total costs of final performances
accounting code2
Direct expenses (posting method, systems: Rondo, M2, Kieku, Ajanhallinta)
Expenditure on wages and salaries
Acquisitions of materials and supplies
Administrative expenses
Facilities expenses
Other expenses
Support performances
cost allocation accounting code1
accounting code3
Costs of support activities
Costing of cost allocation accounting code
accounting code4
cost allocation accounting code2
accounting code5
28/11/2018
Etunimi Sukunimi

11. Implementation and stages of cost accounting in the system
KIEKU
Implementation and stages of cost accounting in the system
TOOL USED MS SQL SERVER
Valmis reports in the Portti reporting portal
Financial admin. DW - result data set of cost accounting
Financial admin. DW - external accounting realisation data
Operational guidance and planning system STOJ
Final performance/ support performance examination
Classification of accounting codes (incl. projects) into cost allocation groups
Selection rules of cost allocation accounting codes (checking / editing)
Data checking
Stage 1 - Formation of LASKE data
Realisations of STOJ and drivers outside accounting (e.g. use of IT services)
Checking of cost allocation rules / programming (cost allocation sums and recipients, share of recipients in cost allocation, location of accounting codes in the solution matrix)
Stage 2 - drivers and cost allocation shares
Reciprocal cost allocation takes account of mutual interaction of support activities
Solution of equation groups / result vector
1. matrix calculation is used to find out the total costs of support activities
2. costs of final performances are calculated (with the share found out in stage 2)
Stage 3 - reciprocal cost allocation
Direct expenses of cost allocation accounting codes (stage 1 data) formed from final performances and support performances are downloaded to the data warehouse (DW)
Cost allocation events are downloaded
In DW cost allocation with both final performances and support performances as such
Reporting of the results in Portti (ready reports/ cube reports with Excel)
Stage 4 -
results

12. Outputs of the cost accounting system
Laske can be used to produce Statistics Finland's financial statement reporting (starting from 2015).
Cost coverage calculation of charged activities
Cost coverage calculation of co-financed activities
Comparable data can be presented calculated for 2014 in the financial statement for 2015
Other outputs
Total costs of final outputs
Total costs of statistical topics
Total costs of process stages
Cost coverage of assignments
Cost coverage of product groups
Cost comparisons and analyses of support activities
Total costs of development / projects
Total costs of cost pools
Pricing calculations
Cost calculations for external funders
etc.
27 November 2015
Administration/Financial administration

13. Outputs of the cost accounting system (charged activities)
Laske - costings of charged activities
2013
2014
Revenues
Direct income
Revenues from charged activities
Other revenues
785
1 348
Direct income total
Revenues total
Costs
Direct expenses
Materials, supplies and goods
Travel expenditure
Other expenses (incl. rents)
Expenditure on wages and salaries
Purchases of services
Direct expenses total
2 Core activity support (cost allocation)
2.1 Data collection support
2.10 Other services for core activity
- 26
2.6 Support services for charged activities
2.7 Core activity IT
2 Core activity support (cost allocation) total
3 Support activities (cost allocation)
3.1 Management and general administration
3.2 Administration
3.3 IT services
3.4 Training
3.5 Internal communication
3.6 Facilities and materials management
3.7 Other support activities
3 Support activities (cost allocation) total
4 Absences (cost allocation)
4.1 Absences
4 Absences (cost allocation), total
5 Depreciation and interests (cost allocation)
5.1 Depreciation
Costs total
HA/Taloushallinto

14. Utilisation of LASKE results
Facilitates decision making by the management.
Cost consciousness increases – even things that are free of charge generate costs.
Pricing becomes easier and more versatile.
Reporting speeds up and uses plain language (e.g. financial statement reporting).
Manual reporting diminishes and becomes easier.
Enables monitoring of the total costs of Statistics Finland's all activities.
27 November 2015
Administration/Financial administration

15. Challenges
Versatile reporting is easy to implement, but how reports are used require "reflection".
Work needs to be started on how the compilation of cost-benefit analyses is implemented.
What do the figures really reveal?
Cost allocation is partly a question of decision.
From the perspective of final performances, most of the costs are fixed; there is either no cause or its calculation is too laborious with relation to benefit.
The system is complete, so their use can now be developed.
27 November 2015
Administration/Financial administration