Using Cost Codes In Budgeting

Using Cost Codes In Budgeting

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Essay

Job costing and batch costing are both methods of costing. Both are used in specific order costing. But job costing determines the cost of one unit of production but in batch costing, we will be unable to calculate the cost of one unit. For example you see 12 biscuits in one pack of biscuits. But this pack is the batch of 12. We will calculate the cost of one pack instead of one biscuit.

Using job costing

In a job costing system, costs may be accumulated either by job or by batch. For a typical job, direct material, labor, subcontract costs, equipment, and other direct costs are tracked at their actual values. These are accrued until the job or batch is completed. Overhead or "burden" may be applied either by using a rate based on direct labor hours or by using some other Activity Based Costing (ABC) cost driver. In either case, once overhead/burden is added, the total cost for the job can be determined. If the accountant is using a general ledger accounting system, which lacks true job costing functionality, the costs must be manually transferred out of Work in Process to Finished Goods (Cost of Goods Sold for service industries). Of course, in the days of computerized job costing software, journaling costs manually is an obsolete process. Such hand-journaling is mandatory for companies that continue to use general accounting software to do job costing. Enlightened accountants are moving forward and using job costing software, thereby improving cost control, reducing risk, and increasing the chance of profitability.essay is an example of a student's work

Disclaimer

Using cost codes in budgeting

In a true job cost accounting system, a Budget is set up in advance of the job. As actual costs are accrued, they are compared to budgeted costs, to determine variances for each phase of each job. Cost Codes are used for each phase, allowing "mini-budgets" to be generated and tracked. In the construction industry, the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) has established an industry standard Cost Coding system. Job costing system consists of various cost driver that drives job cost, moreover it

An advertising campaign for Pepsi is likely to be very specific to that individual client. Job costing enables all the specific aspects of each job to be identified. In contrast, the processing of checking account withdrawals is similar for many customers. Here, process costing can be used to compute the cost of each checking account withdrawal.

The seven steps in job costing are:

1.) Identify the job that is the chosen cost object,

2.) Identify the direct costs of the job,

3.) Select the costallocation bases to use for allocating indirect costs to the job,

4.) Identify the indirect costs associated with each costallocation base,

5.) Compute the rate per unit of each costallocation base used to allocate indirect costs to the job,

6.) Compute the indirect costs allocated to the job, and

7.) Compute the total cost of the job by adding all direct and indirect costs assigned to the job.

Example

These examples will assume that overhead is allocated on the basis of Direct Labor Hours. Direct Material is abbreviated DM, Direct Labor as DL, and Overhead as OH.

XYZ corporation manufactures airplanes. 1 order was completed (110), 2 received further work (111, 112), and 1 new order was received (113). Overhead is allocated at a rate of $100/DL Hour. All employees earn $20/hour. Beginning Work In Process Balances are as follows: 110, $25,000; 111, $10,000; 112, $12,000; 113 $0 (New Order). Below are the amounts of DM and DL used.

110 $2,000 DM, 25 DL hours. Therefore, $5,000 in new cost is added ($2,000 DM, $500 DL, $2,500 OH). The job had a total cost of $30,000. this amount is transferred out of Work in Process to Finished Goods or Cost of Goods Sold.

111 $3,000 DM, 30 DL hours. Therefore, $6,600 in new cost is added ($3,000 DM, $600 DL, $3,000 OH). The job has a new total cost of $16,600. This amount remains in Work in Process until completion.

112 $5,000 DM, 100 DL hours. Therefore, $17,000 in new cost is added ($5,000 DM, $2,000 DL, $10,000 OH). The job has a new total cost of $29,000. This amount remains in Work in Process until completion.

113 $1,000 DM, 10 DL hours. Therefore, $2,200 in new cost is added ($1,000 DM, $200 DL, $1000 OH). The job has a new total cost of $2,200. This amount remains in Work in Process until completion.

Caution: Remember, overhead is allocated on the basis of DL hours. While in this case, allocating overhead on the basis of DL cost ($5 of overhead for every $1 DL cost) would produce the same result, this may not always be the case. Since rates are developed based on a budget, if employees are actually paid a different rate from the budgeted rate, allocating at a $5 to $1 ratio would produce a different cost from the stated $100/DL hour allocation. Companies use slightly different overhead allocation methods.

PROCESS COSTING:

Process costing is an accounting methodology that traces and accumulates direct costs, and allocates indirect costs of a manufacturing process. Costs are assigned to products, usually in a large batch, which might include an entire month's production. Eventually, costs have to be allocated to individual units of product. It assigns average costs to each unit, and is the opposite extreme of Job costing which attempts to measure individual costs of production of each unit. Process costing is usually a significant chapter.

The importance of process costing

Costing is an important process that many companies engage in to keep track of where their money is being spent in the production and distribution processes. Understanding these costs is the first step in being able to control them. It is very important that a company chooses the appropriate type of costing system for their product type and industry. One type of costing system that is used in certain industries is process costing that varies from other types of costing (such as job costing) in some ways. In Process costing unit costs are more like averages, the process-costing system requires less bookkeeping than does a job-order costing system. So, a lot of companies prefer to use process-costing system.

Reasons for use

Companies need to allocate total product costs to units of product for the following reasons:

A company may manufacture thousands or millions of units of product in a given period of time.

Products are manufactured in large quantities, but products may be sold in small quantities, sometimes one at a time (automobiles, loaves of bread), a dozen or two at a time (eggs, cookies), etc.

Product costs must be transferred from Finished Goods to Cost of Goods Sold as sales are made. This requires a correct and accurate accounting of product costs per unit, to have a proper matching of product costs against related sales revenue.

Managers need to maintain cost control over the manufacturing process. Process costing provides managers with feedback that can be used to compare similar product costs from one month to the next, keeping costs in line with projected manufacturing budgets.

A fraction-of-a-cent cost change can represent a large dollar change in overall profitability, when selling millions of units of product a month. Managers must carefully watch per unit costs on a daily basis through the production process, while at the same time dealing with materials and output in huge quantities.

Materials part way through a process (e.g. chemicals) might need to be given a value, process costing allows for this. By determining what cost the part processed material has incurred such as labor or overhead an "equivalent unit" relative to the value of a finished process can be calculated.

Process cost procedures

There are four basic steps in accounting for Process cost:

Summarize the flow of physical units of output.

Compute output in terms of equivalent units.

Summarize total costs to account for and Compute equivalent unit costs.

Assign total costs to units completed and to units in ending work in process inventory.

Job costing vs. process costing

Job costing (known by some as job order costing) is fundamental to managerial accounting. It differs from Process costing in that the flow of costs is tracked by job or batch instead of by process.

The distinction between job costing and process costing hinges on the nature of the product and, therefore, on the type of production process:

Process costing is used when the products are more homogeneous in nature. Conversely, job costing systems assign costs to distinct production jobs that are significantly different. An average cost per unit of product is then calculated for each job.

Process costing systems assign costs to one or more production processes. Because all units are identical or very similar, average costs for each unit of product are calculated by dividing the process costs by the number of units produced.

Many businesses produce products with some unique features and some common processes. These businesses use costing systems that have both job and process costing features

A Detailed Worked Example

The following example illustrates how to approach a Process Costing question, paying particular attention to presentation and calculation. Candidates should always strive to present their solutions as neatly and methodically as possible, not only to help the marker follow the calculations, but also to allow themselves to check that they have not missed out a vital step.