CHAPTER 4

JOB COSTING

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Describe the building-block concepts of costing systems

2. Distinguish between job costing and process costing

3. Outline a seven-step approach to job costing

4. Distinguish actual costing from normal costing

5. Track the flow of costs in a job-costing system

6. Account for end-of-period underallocated or overallocated indirect costs using alternative methods

7. Apply variations from normal costing

Chapter Overview

Chapter 4 describes the basics of a costing system by illustrating a normal job-costing system. The question “How much does it cost?” isn’t only about product cost. A well-designed costing system provides managers with information for many different purposes. Questions of strategy, performance, product choice, and profitability are a few of the purposes served. A costing system accumulates costs to aid and improve decision making. Though the illustration in the chapter is primarily focused on product costing, the concept of different costs for different purposes is evident.

Costing systems do provide information, though they are not the only source needed or used for making decisions. Information bears a cost and a costing system is a commodity that has a cost. The cost/benefit approach should be used in designing and choosing a costing system. Careful study of how operations are conducted forms the basis for the design of a costing system. Costing systems should reflect the underlying operations of an organization, and not vice versa.

Technological changes are highlighted throughout the chapter. The steps of how to cost a job can be used for understanding the nature and role of a costing system. Whether the work is carried out on a handwritten basis or by one in which information is gathered without human intervention, a basic understanding of how a costing system works is necessary for any user.

The attention focused on the calculation of rates can be used to develop an appreciation of unit costs. The admonition from Chapter 2 to beware of unit costs still holds. Attention is given to the numerator and the denominator in several instances, highlighting the importance of each individual element as well as the relationship between the two elements. “Cost per mile” or “cost per unit” are common expressions. The information presented in this chapter should enable a student to recognize the complexity that can exist in developing what appears to be a simple concept.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. Costing systems in general

A. Cost-benefit approach is essential in designing and choosing costing systems

1. Costing system is a commodity that has a cost

2. Costing system provides beneficial information

B. Costing system should be tailored to the underlying operations; operations should not be tailored to fit the costing system

1. Study how the underlying operations are conducted

2. Design costing system to provide information for underlying operations

C. Costing systems accumulate costs to facilitate decisions

1. Gather for general desires that are common among most managers

2. Use for product costing in particular to be used for making decisions and develop strategy, planning and control, cost management, and inventory valuation

D. Costing systems are only one source of information for managers

Learning Objective 1:Describe the building-block concepts of costing systems

II. Building-block concepts of costing systems

A. Purpose: Report cost numbers to reflect way chosen cost object uses resources of organization

B. Assignment of known costs

1. Assignment by tracing for direct costs of a cost object in an cost-effective way

2. Assignment by allocation for indirect costs of a cost object

a. Use of cost pool: a grouping of individual cost items

b. Use of cost-allocation base: a factor that systematically links indirect costs to cost object

C. Choice of cost object: to help managers make decisions

1. Major cost objects—products and responsibility centers

2. Designation of direct/indirect dependent upon cost object

Do multiple choice 1. Assign Exercise 4-21 and Problems 4-31 and 4-32.Learning Objective 2:

Distinguish between job costing and process costing

D. Types of costing systems—two types considered as opposite ends of a continuum

1. Job-costing systems: assign costs to distinct units of a product or service

a. Job is cost object

b. Job is individual unit, batch, or multiple units of a distinct product or service

c. Job is distinct and differs among customers and situations allowing for unique cost accumulation

2. Process-costing systems: assign costs to masses of identical or similar units and computes unit costs on an average basis

a. Cost object is masses of identical or similar units

b. Product is same for each customer or situation

c. Average or per-unit cost developed

3. Combination of elements of both job and process costing for costing system to describe the underlying operations

Do multiple choice 2. Assign Exercise 4-16.

III. Identifying and measuring costs of a job

Learning Objective 3:Outline the seven-step approach to job costing

A. Cost assignment process

1. Identify the job, the chosen cost object [Step 1]

2. Identify the direct costs categories of the job for tracing to cost object [Step 2]

3. Identify the indirect costs for allocating to cost object

a. Identify cause-and-effect relationship between indirect cost and allocation base

b. Select the cost-allocation bases [Step 3] [Surveys of Company Practice]

c. Identify the indirect costs associated with each cost-allocation base [Step 4]

i. Compute indirect-cost rate per unit of each cost-allocation base [Step 5]

ii. Compute the amount of indirect costs allocated to the job: for each individual cost-allocation base multiply by its indirect-cost rate [Step 6]

iii. Sum individual amounts to obtain total indirect cost allocated

4. Compute the total cost of the job by adding all direct costs and indirect costs assigned to the job [Step 7] [Exhibit 4-2] [Concepts in Action]

Do multiple choice 3. Assign Exercises 4-19, 4-20, and 4-23.

TEACHING TIP: The calculation and use of a predetermined rate is done in chronological order: Before work in process is begun, the indirect allocation rate is computed using budgeted amounts;During work in process, the rate is multiplied by the actual amount of allocation base used,

which is allocated overhead, the debit to WIP and credit to Manufacturing Overhead Allocated; After work is processed, the allocated overhead is compared to the actual amount,

Manufacturing Overhead Control, to determine the underallocated or overallocated (Allocated – Actual = Under if negative difference, Over if positive difference)

B. Cost analysis

1. Compare cost of the job to revenue for gross margin and gross margin percentage calculations

2. Compare costs and gross margins between jobs

3. Use to judge performance and make improvements

C. Source(s) for recognizing or identifying costs [Exhibit 4-3]

1. Source documents: original records that support journal entries in an accounting system

2. Necessity for accuracy and reliability

D. Role of technology

1. Aids in improving efficiency with quick and accurate product costs

2. Reduces costs

3. Provides instantaneous feedback for control decisions

IV. Time as a factor in job costing

A. Time frame for computation of indirect-cost rates

1. Choice of short span (weekly, monthly) or longer period (annual)

a. Numerator reason (costs) for use of annual period

i. Not overly influenced by seasonal patternsii. Not as affected by some erratic or period-specific costs

b. Denominator reason (quantity of allocation base) for use of annual period

i. Smoothes out the effect of monthly variations in output levels, especially for fixed costs

ii. Smoothes out the effect of monthly variations of number of workdays

2. Timeliness consideration when using annual rates

a. Use of actual costs of job means waiting until year end to allocate

b. Use of budgeted indirect-cost rates allow close approximation to actual

Learning Objective 4:Distinguish actual costing from normal costing

B. Managers’ access to job costs for various uses

1. Actual costing: actual costs calculated when known, possibly at year end

2. Normal costing: uses budgeted indirect-cost rates rather than actual indirect-cost rates

a. Traces actual direct costs to cost object [Exhibit 4-4]

b. Allocates indirect costs based upon budgeted indirect-cost rates to jobs

c. Adjusts for differences between indirect costs allocated on basis of budgeted rates and actual costs at year end

Do multiple choice 4. Assign Exercises 4-17 and 4-18, Problem 4-34.

V. Accounting for the flow of costs in a normal job-costing system

Learning Objective 5:Track the flow of costs in a job-costing system

A. Stages for making entries in a job-costing system: matching costs to the flow of operations

1. Acquisition of materials and other inputs for conversion process

a. Direct materials – two journal entries

i. Purchase of materials [actual costs]

ii. Use of materials/Debit WIP [actual costs]

b. Conversion process: Direct labor – two journal entriesi. Purchase of labor/Debit WIP [actual costs]ii. Payment for labor [actual costs]

c. Conversion process: Manufacturing overhead or indirect costs – two journal entries

i. Accumulation of actual costs [actual costs]

ii. Allocation/Debit WIP

(a) Actual costs for actual costing system

(b) Budgeted-indirect rate x actual quantity of cost-allocation base for normal costing system

TEACHING TIP: The use of two journal entries for each of the inputs to the manufacturing process is a helpful way to remember the specific entries. One entry of each set of two is a debit to Work in Process. Work in Process has the three debits, one for each element of manufacturing cost.

2. Completion of conversion of raw material (out of WIP) to finished good – one journal entry, a mixture of actual and normal costs in a normal costing system

3. Sale of finished good – one journal entry, a mixture of actual and normal costs in a normal costing system

B. Nonmanufacturing costs can be accounted for in similar manner to manufacturing costs by use of individual jobs

Do multiple choice 5 – 7. Assign Exercises 4-24 (25) and 4-26, Problems 4-30, 4-36, and 4-37.

VI. Other normal costing issues

A. A timeliness issue

1. Indirect costs assigned to individual jobs on an ongoing and timely basis with normal costing instead of only at end of accounting period when actual costs known using actual costing

2. Inaccuracies of rates may exist from use budgeted indirect rates because estimates used

a. Underallocated indirect costs: allocated amount of indirect costs in accounting period is less than actual (incurred) amount

b. Overallocated indirect costs: allocated amount of indirect costs in accounting period is more than actual (incurred) amount

Learning Objective 6:Account for end-of-period underallocated or overallocated indirect costs using alternative methods

3. Adjustment made at end of year – three approaches

a. Adjusted allocation-rate approach (theoretical approach)

i. Actual cost rate calculated at end of year

ii. Each job has indirect costs recomputed with actual rate

iii. Benefit of both timeliness and convenience during year and accuracy of actual costing at end of year

iv. After-the-fact analysis provides useful insights for future decisions

b. Proration approach (theoretical approach)

i. Underallocated or overallocated overhead cost divided between work in process, finished goods, and cost of goods sold

ii. Division of cost based upon overhead amounts (before proration) in work in process, finished goods, and cost of goods sold [or on ending balances rather than overhead amounts in ending balances]

iii. Benefit of less complexity

c. Immediate write-off to cost of goods sold approach (practical approach)

4. Choice among approaches

a. Decision should be guided by use of resulting information

b. Cost/benefit test favors the simplest approach

Do multiple choice 8 and 9. Assign Exercise 4-27 and Problems 4-33 and 4-35.

B. Multiple overhead cost pools used if additional information is more beneficial then cost

Learning Objective 7:Apply variations from normal costing

C. Variation of normal costing

1. Using budgeted rates for direct costs as well as indirect costs

2. Calculating rates in the same manner

Do multiple choice 10. Assign Exercises 4-28 and 4-29.

CHAPTER QUIZ SOLUTIONS: 1. b 2. d 3.c 4.c 5.a 6.a 7.d 8.a 9.c 10.d

CHAPTER QUIZ

1. A cost-allocation base may be any of the following except a

a. cost driver.b. cost pool.c. way to link indirect costs to a cost object.d. nonfinancial quantity.

2. A company that manufactures dentures for use by local dentists would use

a. process costing.b. personal costing.c. operations costing.d. job costing.

3. The first step in the seven-step approach to job costing is to

a. select the cost-allocation base to use in assigning indirect costs to the job.b. identify the direct costs of the job.c. identify the job that is the chosen cost object.d. identify the indirect-cost pools associated with the job.

4. Using normal costing rather than actual costing requires that the allocating of indirect manufacturing costs to work in process be

a. done on a more timely basis, such as every two weeks rather than every month.b. journalized only at year end when adjusting entries are normally made.c. calculated by using the budgeted rate times actual quantity of allocation base.d. calculated by using the budgeted rate times the budgeted quantity of allocation base.

5. What is the best design for costing systems?

a. To be tailored to the underlying operations of the company.b. In accordance with generally accepted accounting principles for financial accounting reporting.c. To be compatible with the latest technology for data collection regardless of the cost.d. According to guidelines established by the Institute of Management Accountants for aiding

management decision making.

6. Which of the following accounts is not classified as an asset?

a. Manufacturing overhead control b. Materials controlc. Work-in-process controld. Finished goods control

7. The costs incurred on jobs which are currently in production but are not yet complete would appear in

a. the materials control account.b. the finished goods control account.c. the manufacturing overhead control account.d. the work-in-process control account.

8. The Precision Widget Company had the following balances in their accounts at the end of the accounting period:

Work in Process $ 5,000Finished Goods 20,000Cost of Goods Sold 200,000

If their manufacturing overhead was overallocated by $8,000 and Precision Widget adjusts their accounts using a proration based on total ending balances, the revised ending balance for Cost of Goods Sold would be

a. $192,880. b. $200,00. c. $207,120. d. $208,000.

9. Liberty Box Company calculated an indirect-cost rate of $12.50 per labor hour for fringe benefits for use in their normal costing system. At the end of the year, the actual costs of fringe benefits was $105,000 more than the budgeted amount used to compute the indirect-cost rate. The total of labor hours worked for the year was the same amount as budgeted, 70,000 hours. If Job #640 required the use of 15 labor hours and the company used the adjusted allocation rate approach, by what amount would the cost of Job #640 change?

a. $560.00 b. $281.25 c. $22.50 d. $20.50

10. If each professional in a service company is paid on an annual salary basis, why might the firm want to use a predetermined or budgeted rate for direct or professional labor?

a. A predetermined or budgeted rate is easier to justify to a client who might question a billing rate.b. Professional staff persons do not keep accurate records of the jobs on which they work.c. Professional staff incurs more client costs, such as travel, lodging, and out-of-town meals, while

working on a job.d. Year-end bonuses paid to the professional staff are difficult to trace to individual jobs.

WRITING/DISCUSSION EXERCISES

1. Describe the building-block concepts of costing systems

Who determines the cost-allocation base and how do they do this? The accountants are involved in the determination of the cost-allocation base but are not alone in the process. The need for costing systems to be tailored to the underlying operations requires that the accountants understand the process and system for which they are accounting. The design of the costing system should have begun with careful study of how operations are conducted and what information is needed for reports. Also, from performing the functions of scorekeeping and attention directing, the accountants would develop information useful for suggesting cause-and-effect relationships between costs and other activities. Those who work in the system (the line managers) would have a different kind of knowledge of relationships providing insight about the suggestions of the accountants. Through teamwork, effective cost-allocation bases could be developed. Careful observation from a variety of perspectives is helpful in recognizing relationships. Continued study and observation are needed to understand if the relationships persist. Most relationships change somewhat over time and use.

2. Distinguish between job costing and process costing

Compare and contrast job costing to process costing by focusing on the underlying structure of a company’s operations. Costing systems are developed according to the underlying structure of operations for a company. Exhibit 4-1 is helpful in considering the type of structure in place for either job costing or process costing. In the service sector, the jobs are assigned to particular people or specialists who spend their time working on that particular job. Much of the operational structure would center on the persons involved. For process costing types of environments, the emphasis would be more on the process rather than the people.

Source documents would differ between the two types of operations. Operations conducive to job costing would probably require attention to more detail about the product, whereas operations suited for process costing would detail the process.

3. Outline the seven-step approach to job costing

Should there be an eight-step approach, another step to consider profitability? Notice that in the text, the discussion following the computation of step seven is that of profitability, relating the cost of the job to revenue that the job would generate. The last stage in job costing is “Sale of Finished Goods” because that is the reason for manufacturing a product, its sale.

The text defines cost (Chapter 2) as a resource sacrificed or forgone to achieve a specific objective. The double entry system of accounting requires that sacrifices be matched to benefits (rights to responsibilities), the give-and-take of each transaction. Costs are incurred to generate revenue. A question to ask about each cost object: How is this “object” providing benefit in proportion to the amount of cost assigned?

4. Distinguish actual costing from normal costing

How did the term “normal costing” originate? Normal costing differs from actual costing in that the indirect costs are allocated using a predetermined allocation rate rather than the actual rate. Calculating a rate or average requires division, often displayed as numerator/denominator. The numerator is the budgeted cost when using a predetermined rate because the actual costs are not yet known. The choice of the allocation base requires thoughtful judgment. In the early stages of using predetermined rates, the concept of “normal” capacity was most prevalent. Normal capacity (introduced in Chapter 9) is the amount of average demand over several time periods, two to five years, that would consider seasonal, cyclical, and trend factors. Use of a “normal” amount would yield a rate that would be useful over a longer period of time because it would not be so affected by short-term conditions. Normal capacity as the denominator in the predetermined rate—that which differentiated this type of costing from actual—became known as “normal costing” as opposed to actual costing.

5. Track the flow of costs in a job-costing system

Explain the underlying operations structure of a manufacturing company by explaining the journal entries, in order and in detail, of a jo- costing system. “Costing systems should be tailored to the underlying operations; the operations should not be tailored to fit the costing systems.” In later chapters, even more different accounting systems for the manufacturing process are illustrated because the manufacturing process differs from what has been illustrated or described thus far.

The “story” or accounting of the manufacturing process described in this chapter:

Materials (1) Purchase of raw materials (pay the (2) Use of raw materials to begin the work of supplier of materials) conversion into a finished good that can be sold

Work in Process (2) Introduction of materials(3) Purchase and use of labor to work on (7) Completion of the conversion process into material to convert into a finished good finished goods now available for salethat can be sold [4-Paying the workers](6) Use-allocation of many varied goodsand services to enable the conversion process to occur (5-buying the goods andservices)

Finished Goods (7) Gathering the goods for sale (8) Selling the goods

6. Account for end-of-period underallocated or overallocated indirect costs using alternative methods

Because normal costing uses budgeted rates rather than actual rates in computing amounts used in the accounting system, won’t financial statements prepared from that system be inaccurate? Accuracy is used in the text to refer to the use of actual cost, so the term is appropriate in questioning the financial statements. The end-of-period treatment of underallocated or overallocated indirect costs is done for the purpose of approximating actual costs. By definition, underallocated or overallocated indirect costs are the difference computed in comparing allocated costs to actual cost. The disposing of that difference results in the “use” of actual costs. The approaches to disposing of the differences range from substituting the actual indirect cost for the allocated indirect cost (adjusted allocation rate approach) to approximating actual cost (immediate write-off to cost of goods sold).

7. Apply variations from normal costing

The use of budgeted or predetermined rates allows decision makers to have more timely information. Does the use of budgeted rates afford the decision maker any other benefit? Timeliness is a key reason for the use of budgeted indirect cost rates in normal costing. Their use, however, does require adjustment at the end of the period to approximate or substitute actual costs for allocated costs. A decision maker can benefit from knowing the reasons for the differences that have occurred requiring the adjustment. Comparisons are created between the allocated and the actual costs, the predictions used for the budgeted numbers and the actualities behind the actual numbers, and the way in which a relationship was thought to exist and how it actually did work. After-the-fact analysis of actual versus allocated provides managers with useful insights for future decisions, a primary role of feedback. Extending the use of budgeted or predetermined rates through variations of normal costing extends the feedback available to managers.

GENERAL APPROACH OF COST ASSIGNMENT TO COST OBJECT

{Seven-Step Approach}

Step 4: Identify the indirect costs associated with Indirect Cost Pooleach allocation base

Step 3: Select the cost-allocation base touse in allocating Cost Allocation Baseindirect costs tothe cost object

Step 5: Compute the rateper unit of each Allocation Rate =cost-allocation baseused to allocate Indirect cost indirect costs to the Cost allocation base cost object

Step 6: Compute the indirect costs Allocated costs allocated to the cost object

Step 7: Add all indirectand direct costs

assigned to cost object $ Indirect Costs AllocatedStep 1: (Identify) the $ Direct Costs Traced Cost object

chosen cost object

Step 2: Identify the direct costs of the job Direct costs