Activity-Based Costing (ABC) research often measures adoption as a binary organisational status, while activity-management research captures the extent to which firms use related practices. This descriptive survey study assesses whether these alternative measurement approaches produce consistent pictures of ABC use in UK non-manufacturing firms. Of 219 completed questionnaires, 204 provided usable observations for the reported ABC-status and activity-management analyses. Formal ABC adoption was reported by 21.08% of the usable sample, whereas 59.31% reported using ABC-level activity-management practices to at least a small extent. Activity Analysis (AA), Activity-Cost Analysis (ACA), and ABC-level use are treated as related, potentially overlapping practices rather than mutually exclusive stages. Cross-group patterns show that formal adopters report the strongest ABC-level use, while firms at earlier, rejected, or non-consideration statuses may still report selected activity-oriented practices. The findings demonstrate that reported ABC prevalence is sensitive to measurement choice and caution against comparing adoption rates that operationalise ABC differently. The study therefore contributes an empirical measurement perspective rather than a causal theory of ABC implementation.
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