Departmental Activity-Based Management (DABM) is a new approach that improves Activity-Based Management (ABM). One of the main problems with ABM is that it analyzes information differently than traditional accounting systems. ABM ignores departments, which are a main focal point in the tradition system. DABM incorporates the ideas of ABM and displays the information in the common language of departmental information that managers understand.

In stage one, of DABM, costs are assigned to departments instead of activities, as in ABM. Then, in stage 2, DABM uses multiple cost drivers to assign costs to specific products. Traditional accounting systems generally use one overhead base to assign costs. DABM users will generate more accurate information because it is unlikely that one overhead base will cause, or accurately represent all of the department costs.

The following two illustrations provide an example of how the same costs are allocated differently in an ABM and DABM system.

Table 2 - Departmental Activity-Based Management*

* Adapted from Table 2, p. 29.

These illustrations show that DABM provides all of the same information as ABM plus four types of addition information. First, DABM establishes the cost of material handling and inspection in each department. This information can help managers in calculating the cost/benefit relationship of each department. Second, DABM calculates the different departmental rates, while ABM only calculates a company-wide average. The cost of a move in each department is calculated to help analyze plant layout, required capital investment, and skill level of employees. Third, DABM provides information on the inspection cost attributed to each department, while ABM only calculates an average cost. This provides managers with more accurate information on where they need to focus their efforts in reducing inspection and move costs. Forth, DABM provides a more detailed and accurate description of the specific product costs.

There are five general advantages of using DABM instead of ABM listed in the article. The five reasons are as follows:

1. DABM is more similar to the tradition accounting approach than ABM. 
    Therefore, DABM is easier for a company to use and understand.

2. DABM costs significantly less to implement than ABM.

3. DABM calculates departmental costs, that can be used to perform
    cost/benefit analysis of decisions and to help allocate resources to
    specific departments.

4. DABM provides more specific information, such as, department’s cost
   drivers and cost rates. ABM only provides information on plant-wide
   activities.

5. DABM is flexible. For example, companies can work on one department
    at a time or numerous departments at once. Also, DABM can be broken
    down further than the department level, such as calculating rates for
    specific machines in each department.

There are a few problems that have occurred when the DABM system has been implemented. The two main problems mentioned in the article are:

1. Traditional cost system errors are not corrected when
    transferred into the new system.

2. Managers do not accept DABM numbers over the original
    numbers calculated by the tradition system.

Overall, switching to the DABM system is met with less resistance than ABM because of its similarities to the traditional approach. DABM provides more accurate and a greater amount of information than ABM, and is easier for a company to implement.

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