A cost which cannot be affected by management within a given time span is called which?

• A. Controllable cost
• B. Environmental internal failure costs
• C. Committed cost
• D. Uncontrollable cost

Answer: (D)

Whether a cost can be influenced in the short term determines how it’s classified. Controllable costs are those a manager can affect through decisions and actions within the period, while uncontrollable costs cannot be changed during that time, regardless of what the manager does. In this question, the cost cannot be altered within the given time span—likely because it’s fixed by contracts or past commitments—so it fits the idea of an uncontrollable cost. Committed costs describe long-term obligations that are hard to cut quickly, which is related but the emphasis here is on the ability to influence the cost in the period, making uncontrollable the best match. Costs tied to quality issues (like internal failure costs) aren’t about controllability in the short term, so they don’t define this concept.