CHAPTER 4 Job Costing

Basic Costing Terminology… Several key points from prior chapters:  Cost Objects including responsibility centers, departments, customers, products, etc.  Direct Costs and Tracing materials and labor  Indirect Costs and Allocation overhead

…logically extended Cost Pool  any logical grouping of related cost objects Cost-allocation Base  A cost driver is used as a basis upon which to build a systematic method of distributing indirect costs For example, let’s say that direct labor hours cause indirect costs to change. Accordingly, direct labor hours will be used to distribute or allocate costs among objects based on their usage of that cost driver

Costing Systems Job-Costing (what this chapter is about)  A system accounting for distinct cost objects called Jobs. Each job may be different from the next, and consumes different resources  Wedding announcements, aircraft, advertising Process-Costing (we’ll do this one next)  A system accounting for mass production of identical or similar products Oil refining, orange juice, soda pop

Costing Approaches Actual Costing – allocates:  Indirect costs based on the actual indirect-cost rates times the actual activity consumption Normal Costing – allocates:  Indirect costs based on the budgeted indirect-cost rates times the actual activity consumption Both methods allocate Direct costs to a cost object the same way: by using actual direct-cost rates times actual consumption

Seven-step Job Costing 1.Identify the Job to be costed 2.Identify the Direct Costs of the Job 3.Select the Cost-Allocation base(s) to use for allocating Indirect Costs to the Job 4.Match Indirect Costs to their respective Cost- Allocation base(s) 5.Calculate an Overhead Allocation Rate: Actual OH Costs ÷ Actual OH Allocation Base 6.Allocate Overhead Costs to the Job: OH Allocation Rate x Actual Base Activity For the Job 7.Compute Total Job Costs by adding all direct and indirect costs together

Job Costing Overview

Imagine a factory making airplanes! Materials Work-in Finished Inventory Process Goods

Identify the costs of your products Direct material  Tires, Windshields, Body panels, Engines, Dashboards etc. Direct labor  Wages of line workers in the factory Overhead  Supervisor salaries, utilities, insurance on factory, miscellaneous supplies

Overhead costs We can have one pool or multiple pools of overhead cost In any event, we must choose an allocation base and then apply the costs to various jobs.  Rate = actual costs in the pool actual quantity of AB  or rate = estimated costs in pool estimated quantity of AB Normal Costing

Allocate the cost The indirect costs for a job are calculated as  (units of allocation base)X(allocation rate)  If you have multiple OH pools, then you will make multiple applications of overhead  Allocation rates are based on annual periods to get a better sense of activity for the entire period. Summarize costs  DM + DL + allocated indirect costs

What kinds of accounts do we use? Costs flow through the inventory accounts and ultimately end up on the income statement Inventory Accounts  DM - subsidiary accounts for each DM  WIP - subsidiary accounts for each Job  FG - subsidiary accounts for each product

Direct materials inventory Increased for purchases of materials Decreased by the use of materials Materials used will result in the following entry:  WIP inventory DM inventory  DM, used = DM, beg + purchases - DM, end

Work in Process As direct costs are incurred, you increase the WIP inventory As indirect costs are incurred, you increase Manufacturing Overhead Control As overhead costs are allocated to jobs you increase the WIP and decrease the MO Allocated account.

Finished Goods As jobs are completed, you transfer the costs from WIP inventory to Finished Goods inventory  COGM = WIP, beg + manufacturing costs incurred - WIP, end As jobs are sold you take the costs out of FG and transfer them to COGS  COGS = FG, beg + COGM - FG, end

Tracking Costs Direct Materials Direct Labor Overhead Job 1 Job 3 Job 2 Special Documents Track Job Costs

Tracking Costs Documents:  Job Cost Record - accumulates costs by job, these serve as the sub ledger of WIP Entries to WIP-Job A from DM, Wages Payable, OH  Materials requisition - releases materials from inventory to factory floor Entries from DM to WIP-Job A  Labor time record - workers track time by job Entries to WIP-Job A and Wages payable For example, public accountants fill out time sheets to keep track of how long they work on each client.

Tracking Costs Documents:  Labor time record - workers track time by job Entries to WIP-Job A and Wages payable  For example, public accountants fill out time sheets to keep track of how long they work on each client.

Journal Entries Journal entries are made at each step of the production process The purpose is to have the accounting system closely reflect the actual state of the business, its inventories and its production processes

Flow of Costs Illustrated

Accounting for Overhead Recall that two different overhead accounts are used in the journal entries:  Manufacturing Overhead Control is debited for the actual overhead costs incurred.  Manufacturing Overhead Allocated was credited for estimated (budgeted) overhead applied to production through the Work-in-Process account.

Accounting for Overhead Actual costs will almost never equal budgeted costs. Accordingly, an imbalance situation exists between the two overhead accounts  If Overhead Control > Overhead Allocated, this is called Underallocated Overhead  If Overhead Control < Overhead Allocated, this is called Overallocated Overhead

Accounting for Overhead This difference will be eliminated in the end-of- period adjusting entry process, using one of three possible methods The choice of method should be based on such issues as materiality, consistency, and industry practice

Three Methods for Adjusting the Over/Underapplied Situations Adjusted Allocation Rate Approach  all allocations are recalculated with the actual, exact allocation rate Proration Approach  the difference is allocated between Cost of Goods Sold, Work-in-Process, and Finished Goods based on their relative sizes Write-Off Approach  the difference is simply written off to Cost of Goods Sold

End of Chapter 4 That’s three chapters (nearly) done!