line of business reporting

line of business reporting　分部报告，业务部报告　

Process of reporting activities of various segments of an organization such as divisions，product lines，or sales territories；also called line of business reporting.The contribution approach is valuable for segmented reporting because it emphasizes cost behavior patterns and controllability of costs.The contribution approach is based on the theses that：（1）fixed costs are much less controllable than variable costs；（2）direct fixed costs and common fixed costs must be clearly distinguished.Direct fixed costs are those that can be identified directly with a particular segment of an organization，whereas common fixed costs are those that cannot be identified directly with the segment；and（3）common fixed costs should be clearly identified as unallocated in the contribution income statement by segments.Any attempt to allocate these types of costs，on some arbitrary basis，to the segments of the organization can destroy the value of responsibility accounting.It would lead to unfair evaluation of performance and misleading managerial decisions.