Abstract
Cost can be defined as the monetary amount of the sacrifices made to produce goods and services. Obtaining information on the nature of costs will be an important information input for managers in decision-making, due to its ability to be used both as a competitive and control tool. It is important to analyze the costs and determine the cost behaviors in the proper use of this information. Cost analysis covers the distribution of costs incurred by businesses and the relationship between these costs and production volume. Costs can be divided into two main groups as fixed and variable costs depending on the level of being affected by the production volume. Mixed costs with these two costs can be included in this classification. Various techniques are used in the separation of total costs as fixed/variable. Among these techniques, the “accounting technique” is largely based on personal judgments, while the “least squares technique” is based on calculations completely away from personal judgments. Along with the techniques in these two extremes, the graphical technique, the highest-lowest point technique and the double averages techniques are frequently used in the structural analysis of costs. In the study, the structural analysis of costs, fixed and variable cost separation and determination of the flexible budget equation expressing how much cost will be incurred at which production level are discussed. In the study, the cost behavior of a training and research hospital was analyzed based on the clinical costs of January 2008 period. The techniques mentioned were used in determining the relationship between clinical costs, the number of patients and the day of hospitalization, and in the separation of fixed / variable costs, similar least squares and graphical techniques with similar calculations, and different results were obtained in other techniques. In the structural analysis of costs in the study, it is thought that determining the relationship between the cost-activity volume on the basis of departments instead of periodically based analysis will contribute to the literature.