A cost component is a user-defined category for the classification of costs.
Cost components have the following functions:
- To break down an item's standard cost, sales price, or valuation price.
 - To create a comparison between the estimated production order costs and the actual production order costs.
 - To calculate production variances.
 - To view the distribution of your costs over the various cost components in the Cost Accounting module.
 
Cost components can be of the following cost types:
- Operation Costs
 - Material Costs
 - Surcharge on Material Costs
 - General Costs
 - Not Applicable
 
If you use Assembly Control (ASC), you cannot use cost components of the General Costs type.