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Total cost is less applicable to short-term decision making, where it is more likely that only variable costs will be considered. The alternative definitions for total cost are noted below. All of these costs should be considered when deriving the return on investment.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals Operations Management What is Total Manufacturing Cost? Total manufacturing cost is the aggregate amount of cost incurred by a business on its production operations within a reporting period. The result is the cost of direct labor.
Related Courses Activity-Based Costing Activity-Based Management CostAccounting Fundamentals What is Costing? Costing is any system for assigning costs to an element of a business. This type of costing is called absorption costing.
What is the Cost of Labor? The cost of labor is the salaries and wages paid to employees , plus related payroll taxes and benefits. The term may also relate to a specific time period or a job (if the employer is using a job costing system to track costs). Gross wages paid to employee Social security tax 62.00
Product cost can also be considered the cost of the labor required to deliver a service to a customer. In the latter case, product cost should include all costs related to a service, such as compensation , payroll taxes , and employee benefits.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals What are Conversion Costs? Conversion costs are those production costs required to convert raw materials into completed products.
Related AccountingTools Courses Accounting for Inventory Activity-Based CostingCostAccounting Fundamentals What is Not Included in Manufacturing Overhead? Thus, the costs of such items as corporate salaries, audit and legal fees, and bad debts are not included in manufacturing overhead.
Burden Rate for Labor Payroll taxes and benefits are added to an employee's wages to arrive at the total cost of labor for that individual. For example, if the annual benefits and payroll taxes associated with an individual is $20,000 and his wages are $80,000, then the burden rate is $0.25 per machine hour used.
If the decision instead involves a number of individuals, then a cost is not controllable from the perspective of any one individual. Also, if a cost is imposed on an organization by a third party (such as taxes), this cost is not considered to be controllable.
Related Courses Bookkeeping Guidebook CostAccounting Fundamentals The difference between cost and expense is that cost identifies an expenditure , while expense refers to the consumption of the item acquired. Definition of Expense Expense is a cost whose utility has been used up; it has been consumed.
Related Courses Activity-Based CostingCostAccounting Fundamentals What is a Cost Allocation? Cost allocation is the process of identifying, aggregating, and assigning costs to cost objects. A cost object is any activity or item for which you want to separately measure costs.
Related Courses Activity-Based CostingCostAccounting Fundamentals Cost Management Guidebook What is Cost Structure? Cost structure refers to the types and relative proportions of fixed costs and variable costs that a business incurs. Administrative overhead Variable costs.
Inventory costs can be classified as follows. Ordering Costs Ordering costs include the wages of the procurement department and related payroll taxes and benefits, and possibly similar labor costs by the industrial engineering staff, in case they must pre-qualify new suppliers to deliver parts to the company.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals How to Audit Inventory What is COGS? COGS is the cost of those goods associated with product sales. The main categories of costs included in COGS are direct materials , direct labor , factory overhead , and production supplies.
Here are several examples of direct expenses: The materials used to construct a product for sale The cost of the freight needed to transport goods to and from a manufacturing facility The labor incurred to produce hours billable to a client Labor and payroll taxes paid based on the number of units produced Production materials consumed during the manufacture (..)
If a company is in the services business, then direct labor is likely to be the largest component of its total variable cost. This is because billable hours comprise most of the cost of goods sold, along with the related costs of payroll taxes and employee benefits.
Related Courses Activity-Based CostingCostAccounting Fundamentals What is a Standard Labor Rate? There are two definitions of the standard labor rate concept, which are noted below.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals The Interpretation of Financial Statements What is the Cost of Goods Sold? Cost of goods sold is the total of all costs used to create a product or service, which has been sold. It is allowed by the IRS for tax reporting purposes.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals What is Full Costing? Full costing is used to determine the complete and entire cost of something. The concept is most commonly used for recording the full cost of inventory in the financial statements.
What is Total Labor Cost? Total labor cost is the aggregate cost of the hours worked by all employees , plus all related payroll taxes and benefits. Total labor cost is comprised of a number of line items, which include the following: Direct labor cost. Payroll taxes.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals What is a Job Cost Sheet? A job cost sheet is a compilation of the actual costs of a job. The report is compiled by the accounting department and distributed to the management team, to see if a job was correctly bid.
Related Courses CostAccounting Fundamentals What are Manufacturing Costs? Manufacturing costs are the costs incurred during the production of a product. These costs include the costs of direct material , direct labor , and manufacturing overhead.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals What is Actual Overhead? Actual overhead is indirect factory costs that have been incurred. This is essentially all factory costs, except for direct material and direct labor costs.
Or, the incremental cost of shutting down a production line includes the costs to lay off employees, sell unnecessary equipment, and convert the facility to some other use. As a third example, the sale of a subsidiary includes the legal costs of the sale. Bringing in the new hires would eliminate the overtime being worked.
The cost of both types of indirect labor can be fully loaded with the costs of benefits and payroll taxes for financial analysis or costaccounting purposes, since these additional costs are closely associated with the indirect labor positions.
Related Courses CostAccounting Fundamentals What is Original Cost? Original cost is the price paid to initially acquire an asset. This cost is considered to include the cost to buy an asset, transport the asset to where it is intended to be used, install it, and test it.
Direct labor costs are most commonly associated with products in a job costing environment, where the production staff is expected to record the time they spend working on various jobs. These are also considered to be direct labor costs. What is Included in Direct Labor Cost?
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals What is Factory Burden? Factory burden is those costs incurred in the production process, other than direct costs. These costs are accumulated into cost pools at the end of each reporting period, and then allocated to units of production.
Related Courses Activity-Based CostingCostAccounting Fundamentals What is a Fixed Cost? A fixed cost is a cost that does not increase or decrease in conjunction with any activities. Examples of other fixed costs are insurance, depreciation , and property taxes.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals What is Direct Labor? Direct labor is production or services labor that is assigned to a specific product, cost center , or work order.
Related Courses CostAccounting Fundamentals Public Company Accounting and Finance What is Compliance Cost? Compliance cost is the total cost incurred by a firm to comply with applicable regulations. These regulations may cover such areas as tax reporting, environmental topics, transport, and finances.
Related Courses Constraint Management CostAccounting Fundamentals What is Capacity Cost? Capacity costs are expenditures made to provide a certain volume of goods or services to customers. Each successive shift constitutes an incremental capacity cost.
Gross Margin (%) = (Revenue COGS) / Revenue Net Profit Margin: Again, expressed as a percentage, this financial metric indicates a companys profitability after accounting for expenses, including COGS, operating expenses, taxes, interest, etc. Be sure to regularly review and update the data.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals How to Audit Inventory What is Direct Material Cost? Direct material cost is the cost of the raw materials and components used to create a product. The total is the direct material cost of the product.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals Cost Management Guidebook What are Prime Costs? Prime costs are the costs directly incurred to create a product or service. Piece rate pay.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Activity-Based CostingCostAccounting Fundamentals What is Factory Overhead? Factory overhead is the costs incurred during the manufacturing process, not including the costs of direct labor and direct materials.
Material Costing for Initial Inventory Acquisition A company must decide whether it will record acquired materials at their purchased prices, or if additional costs will be added, such as freight in , sales taxes , and customs duties. Overhead is only allocated to work-in-process and finished goods inventory.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory Activity-Based CostingCostAccounting Fundamentals Overhead is those costs required to run a business, but which cannot be directly attributed to any specific business activity, product, or service. Thus, overhead costs do not directly lead to the generation of profits.
Related Courses Accountants’ Guidebook Bookkeeping Guidebook CostAccounting Fundamentals What is a Revenue Expenditure? A revenue expenditure is a cost that is charged to expense as soon as the cost is incurred. This yields the most accurate income statement results.
Related Courses Accounting for Inventory CostAccounting Fundamentals What is a Job Order Costing System? A job order costing system accumulates the costs associated with a specific batch of products. Material costs, where inventory items are relieved from stock and charged to a job as used.
Related Courses CostAccounting Fundamentals What is a Labor Variance? A labor variance arises when the actual cost associated with a labor activity varies (either better or worse) from the expected amount. The expected amount is typically a budgeted or standard amount.
Or, the standard cost associated with a labor standard is compared to the actual labor cost incurred, which results in a labor rate variance. Labor Routings A labor standard for a complex process may include a number of individual labor standards that are compiled into a comprehensive labor routing.
In the typical inflationary cost environment, accessing an old LIFO layer means that a business will likely report a low cost of goods sold and therefore a higher-than-usual profit , which in turn means that it may have to pay an unusually large amount of income tax. The costaccountant can provide them with this information.
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