(A) lack of cost awareness in management thinking

Under the long-term influence of the planned economy system, many enterprise managers still think that cost management is only a matter of the financial department and has little to do with other departments and other personnel. It is even considered that cost management is the "post-accounting" part of "work first and then accounting", and the market price and price changes of materials needed for the project are not fully understood, let alone predicting the construction project cost in advance, controlling it in the process and summing up and improving it afterwards, which invisibly increases the project cost and leads to the lack of competitiveness of enterprises.

(B) unscientific management content

First, the management of labor costs is strict in price control, but the number of employees can not be well controlled, especially the scattered number of employees is chaotic. In addition, the figures on the employment list can not be strictly checked, and they are not carefully checked, which leads to the exaggeration of the number of employees and the increase of labor costs.

Second, controlling the material cost can't achieve the expected effect. First of all, the choice of material suppliers is not taken seriously, there is no process of shopping around, and the price of materials is on the high side; Secondly, it is the control of material quantity. In the process of construction, the construction personnel did not strictly control the amount of materials according to the drawings and quotas, resulting in waste of materials and increased costs.

Third, the management of machinery cost is not in place, mainly in the utilization rate of machinery. The low utilization rate of machinery is a common phenomenon in most construction projects, and there will be a situation that some mechanical equipment is idle and another mechanical equipment is insufficient, which will lead to the increase of mechanical cost and mechanical cost. In addition, in the process of use, the daily maintenance of machinery is not paid attention to, so the maintenance cost of machinery will also increase.

(C) the management method is not flexible

At present, the cost control object of many highway construction enterprises is limited to direct cost, so the corresponding management methods are limited to traditional methods such as formulating standard cost and financial budget, cost planning, cost accounting and cost variance analysis. In the complicated and changeable market economy environment, it is far from enough to control the cost of engineering projects only by the above methods. Once many highway construction enterprises adopt certain control methods and standards, they will remain unchanged for a long time, regardless of the impact of market environment changes on cost control. In fact, with the constant changes in the market, the control methods and standards initially adopted by the project may no longer be applicable. Therefore, enterprises should constantly evaluate the feasibility of various standards currently adopted according to market changes and make adjustments to ensure that these standards are reasonable and effective. In addition, in the management system, many highway construction enterprises pay attention to post-event management, ignoring pre-event prediction and decision-making, and it is difficult to give full play to the preventive role of cost management. In terms of cost responsibility, there is no management system of responsibility budget, responsibility accounting and responsibility analysis, which is not closely integrated with the economic responsibility system of the project.

Second, the improvement measures and countermeasures of construction project cost management

(A) establish a "people-oriented" awareness of cost management and mobilize all staff to participate in cost management.

The humanistic management thought of full participation emphasizes relying on the inherent potential of each employee, inspiring the initiative and creativity of employees from the deep heart, allowing employees to solve problems themselves, constantly improve their homework and improve cost management. In all the activities of the project, people are the main body, and people are also the key factors in the process of cost occurrence and formation. Therefore, cost management should be based on each employee. Therefore, it is necessary to publicize and educate all employees' cost awareness, cultivate all employees' cost awareness, require managers at all levels and all employees to fully realize that the potential of enterprises to reduce costs is huge, encourage participation awareness, and change the cost management of a few people into the participation management of all employees.

(B) establish a systematic concept of cost management

First of all, the cost of the construction project should be managed in the whole process, so that it is no longer limited to the construction process, but should comprehensively consider the overall cost of the whole process from bidding to preliminary preparation, construction process, completion acceptance and maintenance during the warranty period, so that enterprises and projects can always maintain strong competitiveness. At the same time, according to the requirements of the whole process cost management, all cost contents are managed by strict and meticulous scientific means, so as to enhance the competitiveness of products in the market and make enterprises invincible in the fierce market competition.

Secondly, under the condition of market economy, the focus of project cost management should shift from internal to external, from production management to business decision management. It is necessary to fully understand the development trend of related technologies, grasp market trends, analyze market supply and demand, and study and analyze various decision-making costs such as related costs, differential costs, opportunity costs, cash costs, replacement costs, avoidable costs, deferrable costs, and future costs. Effectively avoid the huge losses caused by decision-making mistakes to enterprises, and provide the basis for ensuring enterprises to make the best decisions and obtain the best economic benefits.

(C) the use of activity-based costing for cost management of highway construction projects

Activity-based costing, ABC method for short. It is a cost calculation method that allocates indirect costs and auxiliary resources to activities, production processes, products, services and customers more accurately. The goal of activity-based costing is to increase the value of customers and the ultimate profit of enterprises. The object of activity-based costing is "activity" rather than traditional "product".

The so-called "homework" is the work of each unit, which is interrelated and forms the production and operation process of the enterprise. Homework consumes certain resources and time and affects the production and operation process of enterprises, and ultimately affects the value provided by enterprises to customers and the realization of their ultimate profits. Therefore, deepening activity management is an important means to improve enterprise efficiency.

Operations can be divided into basic operations and auxiliary operations, as well as direct operations, indirect operations and quality assurance operations. Activity-based costing is a systematic and centralized method, because activities are interrelated and cannot be artificially divided. Together they constitute an organic process. Managers should take corresponding measures according to the internal relations between activities to eliminate non-value-added activities and improve the efficiency of activities.

(D) the establishment of a scientific cost management security system

A scientific cost management system should include a complete and efficient organization and a reasonable and feasible management system.

The organizational structure of construction project management can be divided into three levels: first, the decision-making level of project management is the core of project management, which grasps the construction production and cost management of construction projects as a whole and the allocation right of construction production factors; The second is middle management, which consists of a group of compound talents in construction, production management and technology, including all kinds of professional and technical personnel, accountants and other management personnel, responsible for implementing the construction and management decisions of the project decision-making level and controlling the construction process of the labor operation level from different angles; The third is the labor operation layer, which is the first-level organization that exports labor services for the project construction, including the managers and operators at the construction team level. It is the executor of the actual operation on site and is responsible for its tasks and objectives. The smooth progress of any management work is guaranteed by the organization. Only by perfecting the orderly and strict organization and management system can we ensure that the management work advances along the established goals.

Clear operation process and strict management system are the basis of cost management. It is extremely important to formulate a reasonable cost management system to standardize and guide the cost management of the project. Especially for an independent project, in order to ensure the effectiveness of cost management, the project cost management system must be an operational implementation document, which requires every employee to strictly follow.