what is an activity cost driver
DEFINITION of 'Activity Cost Driver'. A factor that influences or contributes to the expense of certain business operations. In activity based costing (ABC), an activity cost driver is something that drives the cost of a particular activity. A factory, for example, may have running machinery as an activity. The activity cost driver associated with running the machinery could be machine operating hours, which would drive the costs of labor, maintenance and power consumption of running the machinery activity.