Site Search                  

Job Order Costing - The Flow of Cost:

Learning objective of this article:

1. Understand the flow of costs in a job order costing system and prepare appropriate journal entries to record cost.
2. Apply overhead cost to work in process using a predetermined overhead rate.
3. Prepare T accounts to show the flow of costs in a job order costing system.
4. Prepare schedule of cost of goods manufactured and cost of goods sold.

To understand the flow of costs in job order costing system, we shall consider a single month's activity for a company, a producer of product A and product B. The company has two jobs in process during April, the first month of its fiscal year. Job 1, of 1000 units of product A was started in march. By the end of march, $30,000 in manufacturing costs had been recorded for the job 1. Job 2 an order for 10,000 units of product B was started in April.

The Purchase and Issue of Materials:

On April 1, the company had $7,000 in raw materials on hand. During the month, the company purchased an additional $60,000 in raw materials. The purchase is recorded in journal entry (1) below:

(1)

Raw materials is an asset account. Thus, when raw materials are purchased, they are initially recorded as an asset--not as an expense.

Issue of Direct and Indirect Materials:

During April, $52,000 in raw materials were requisitioned from the storeroom for use in production. These raw materials include both direct and indirect materials. Entry (2) records issuing the materials to the production department.

(2)

The materials charged to work in process (WIP) represents direct materials for specific jobs. As these materials are entered into the work in process account, they are also recorded on the appropriate job cost sheets. This point is illustrated in Exhibit 1.1 where $28,000 of the $50,000 in direct materials is charged to Job 1 cost sheet and the remaining $22,000 is charged to job 2 cost sheet. (In this example, all data are presented in summary form and the job cost sheet is abbreviated.)

The $2,000 charged to manufacturing overhead in entry (2) represents indirect materials used in production during April. Observe that the manufacturing overhead account is separate from work in process account. The purpose of the manufacturing overhead account is to accumulate all manufacturing overhead costs they are as they are incurred during a period.

Before leaving Exhibit 1.1 we need to point out one additional thing. Notice from the exhibit that the job cost sheet for job 1 contains a beginning balance of $30,000. We stated earlier that this balance represents the cost of work done during march that has been carried forward to April. Also note that work in process account contains the same $30,000 balance. The reason the $30,000 appears in both places is that the work in process account is a control account and the job cost sheets form a subsidiary ledger. Thus, the work in process account contains a summarized total of all costs appearing on the individual job cost sheet for all jobs in process at any given point in time. (Since the company had only job 1 in process at the beginning of April, job 1's $30,000 balance on that date is equal to the balance in the work in process account.

Exhibit 1.1

Issue of Direct Materials Only:

Some times the materials drawn from the raw materials inventory account are all direct materials. I this case, the entry to record the issue of the materials into production would be as follows:

Labor Cost:

As work is performed each day in various departments of the company, employee time tickets are filled out by workers, collected, and forward to the accounting department. In the accounting department, wages are computed and the resulting costs are classified as either direct or indirect labor. This costing and classification for April resulted in the following summary entry:

(3)

Only direct labor is added to the work in process account. In this example, direct labor is $60,000 for April.

At the same time the direct labor costs are added to work in process, they are also added to the individual job cost sheets, as shown in the Exhibit 1.2. During April, $40,000 of direct labor cost was charged to job 1 and the remaining $20,000 was charged to job 2. The labor cost charged to manufacturing overhead represent the indirect costs of the period, such as supervision, janitorial work, and maintenance.

Exhibit 1.2

Manufacturing Overhead Costs:

All costs of operating the factory other than direct materials and direct labor are classified as manufacturing overhead costs. These costs are entered directly into the manufacturing overhead account as they are incurred. To illustrate, assume that the company incurred the following general factory costs during April:

The following entry records the incurrence of these costs:

(4)

In addition, let us assume that during April, the company recognized $13,000 in accrued property taxes and that $7,000 in prepaid insurance expired on factory buildings and equipment. The following entry records these items:

(5)

Finally let us assume that the company recognize $18,000 in depreciation on factory equipment during April. The following entry records the accrual of this depreciation:

(6)

In short, all manufacturing overhead costs are recorded directly into the manufacturing overhead account as they are incurred day by day through a period. It is important to understand that manufacturing overhead is a control account for many--perhaps thousands--of subsidiary accounts such as indirect materials, indirect labor, factory utilities, and so forth. As the manufacturing overhead account is debited for costs during a period the various subsidiary accounts are also debited. In this example we omit the entries to the subsidiary accounts for the sake of brevity.

Calculation of Predetermined Overhead Rate and Application of Manufacturing Overhead to Work in Process (WIP):

Since actual manufacturing costs are charged to the manufacturing overhead control account rather than work in process account. How are manufacturing costs assigned to work in process? The answer is, by means of the predetermined overhead rate. A predetermined overhead rate is established at the beginning of each year. The predetermined overhead rate is calculated by dividing the estimated total manufacturing overhead cost for the year by the estimated total units in the allocation base (measured in machine hours, direct labor hours, or some other base). This rate is then used to apply overhead costs to jobs.

To illustrate assume that the company has used machine hours to compute predetermined overhead rate and that this rate is $6 per machine hour. Also assume that during April, 10,000 machine hours were worked on Job 1 and 5,000 machine hours were worked on Job 2 (a total of 15,000 machine hours). Thus, $90,000 in overhead cost  (15,000 machine hours  $6 per machine hour = $90,000) would be applied to work in process. The following entry records the application of manufacturing overhead to work in process:

(7)

The flow of cost through the manufacturing overhead account in Exhibit 1.3

Exhibit 1.3

The actual overhead cost in the manufacturing overhead account in Exhibit 1.3 are the costs that were added to the account in entries (2)--(6).  Observe that the incurrence of these actual overhead costs and the application of overhead to work in process represents two separate and entirely distinct processes.

The Concept of Clearing Account:

The manufacturing overhead account operates as a clearing account. As we have noted, actual factory overhead costs are debited to the accounts as they are incurred day by day through the year. A certain intervals during the year, usually when a job is completed, overhead cost is applied to the job by means of the predetermined overhead rate, and work in process is debited and manufacturing overhead is credited. This sequence of events is illustrated below:

As we emphasized earlier, the predetermined overhead rate is based on estimates of what overhead costs are expected to be, and it is established before the year begins. As a result, the overhead cost applied during a year will almost certainly turn out to be more or less than the overhead cost that is actually incurred. For example, notice from Exhibit 1.3 that the company's actual overhead costs for the period are $5,000 greater than the overhead cost that has been applied to work in process (WIP), resulting in a $5,000 debit balance in the manufacturing overhead account. This debit balance in manufacturing overhead account is called under-applied overhead. Any credit balance in manufacturing overhead account is called over-applied overhead. Any balance in the manufacturing overhead account (under or over-applied overhead) is treated in one of the following ways:

1. Closed out to cost of goods sold
2. Allocated between work in process, finished goods, and cost of goods sold in proportion to the overhead applied during the current period in the ending balance of these accounts.

These two methods are illustrated on Disposition of Under- or Over-applied Overhead Balances page.

For the moment, we can conclude by nothing from Exhibit 1.3 that the cost of a completed job consists of the actual materials cost of the job, the actual labor cost of the job, and the overhead cost applied to the job. Pay particular attention to the following subtle but important point: Actual overhead costs are not charged to jobs; actual overhead costs do not appear on the job cost sheet nor do they appear in the work in process account. Only the applied overhead cost, based on the predetermined overhead rate, appear on the job cost sheet and in the work in process account. Study this point carefully.

Non-manufacturing Costs:

In addition to manufacturing costs, companies also incur marketing and selling costs. These costs should be treated as period expenses and charged directly to the income statement and therefore should not go into the the manufacturing overhead account. To illustrate the correct treatment of non-manufacturing costs, assume that the company (in this example) incurred $30,000 in selling and administrative salary costs during a months, the following entry records these salaries.

(8)

Depreciation on factory equipment is debited to manufacturing overhead account but depreciation on office equipment is considered a period expense and is not included in manufacturing overhead. Assume that depreciation of office equipment during the month was $7,000. The entry is as follows.

(9)

Finally assume that advertising was $42,000 and that other selling and administrative expenses during the month was $8,000. The following journal entry records these items:

(10)

Since the amounts in entries above all go directly into expense accounts, they will have no effect on the costing of the company's production for the month. The same will be true of any other selling and administrative expenses incurred during the month including sales commission, depreciation on sales equipment, rent on office facilities, insurance on office facilities, and related costs.

Cost of Goods Manufactured (COGM):

When a job has been completed, the finished out put is transferred from the production department to the finished goods  warehouse. By this time, the accounting department will have charged the job with direct materials and direct labor cost and manufacturing overhead will have been applied using the predetermined overhead rate. A transfer of costs is made within the costing system that parallels the physical transfer of the goods to the finished goods warehouse. The costs of the completed jobs are transferred out of the work in process (WIP) account and into the finished goods account. The sum of all amounts transferred between these two accounts represents the cost of goods manufactured for the period.

Let us assume that the job 1 was completed during the period. The following entry transfers the cost of  job 1 from work in process (WIP) to finished goods.

(11)

The $158,000 represents the completed cost of job 1, as shown on the job cost sheet in Exhibit 1.3. Since job 1 was the only job completed during April, the $158,000 also represents the cost of goods manufactured for the month.

The job 2 was not completed by month-end, so its cost will remain in the work in process (WIP) account and carry over to the next month. If a balance sheet is prepared at the end of April, the cost accumulated thus far on the job 2 will appear as "work in process inventory" in the assets section.

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS):

As units in the finished goods are shipped to the customers, their costs are transferred from the finished goods account into the cost of goods sold account. If complete job is shipped, as in the case where a job has been done to a customer's specification then it is a simple matter to transfer the entire cost appearing on the job cost sheet into the cost of goods sold account. In most cases, only a portion of the units involved in a particular job will be immediately sold. In these situations the unit cost must be used to determine how much product cost should be removed from finished goods and charged to cost of goods sold.

Assume that the company has completed 1000 units and 750 out of 1000 units have been shipped to customers for a price of $225,000. The unit product cost is $158. Following journal entries would record the sales (all sales are on account).

(12)

(13)

($158 × 750units = $118,500*)

With entry (13), the flow of cost through our job order costing system is completed.

Summary of Cost Flow:

To pull the entire example together, journal entries (1) through (13), T accounts, and schedules of cost of goods manufactured and cost of goods sold are presented below:

Journal Entries:

T Accounts:

Cost of Goods Manufactured:

Income Statement:

You may also be interested in other useful articles from "job order costing system" chapter:

1. Measuring Direct Materials Cost in Job Order Costing System
2. Measuring Direct Labor Cost in Job Order Costing System
3. Application of Manufacturing Overhead
4. Job Order Costing System - The Flow of Costs
5. Multiple Predetermined Overhead Rates
6. Under-applied overhead and over-applied overhead calculation
7. Disposition of any balance remaining in the manufacturing overhead account at the end of a period
8. Predetermined Overhead Rate and Capacity
9. Recording Non-manufacturing Costs
10. Recording Cost of Goods Manufactured and Sold
11. Job Order Costing in Services Companies
12. Use of Information Technology in Job Order Costing
13. Advantages and Disadvantages of Job Order Costing System
14. Job Order Costing Discussion Questions and Answers
15. Job Order Costing Exercises
16. Case Studies

Back to Home Page | Back to Job order costing system Page

Managerial Accounting

Financial Accounting