Job Order Costing

Things You Must Know

Cost Accounting

Job costing is used by companies with many different products or services.
Products are typically produced in batches. Each batch is called a “job”

 JOB COST SHEET:

Used to determine the cost of making one product

Cost to make a product consists of:

Direct Materials – what you put into the product
Direct Labor – hours worked to make the product
Manufacturing overhead – expenses allocated (applied) to the product

 

Direct Materials:

Bill of Materials –
Lists all the materials needed to make the product and how much is needed for each type of material used

Materials Requisition Form –
Used to pull materials from the warehouse to put on the production line

Direct Labor:

Time Sheet –
Workers document how much time they spend working on each product or job (time clock or entered into the phone or computer)

Manufacturing Overhead:
These are indirect costs which are impossible to trace to a particular product – the cost must be allocated to each job using a “predetermined overhead rate”

Predetermined Overhead Rate:

Total Estimated Manufacturing Overhead Costs This Period = $ cost per activity
                              Estimated Total Activity

 

The predetermined overhead rate is an estimate of how much it will cost the company in manufacturing overhead costs each time the activity is done.

 

The company should select an activity that causes the company to spend overhead dollars and is easy to count every time it occurs
Examples: direct labor hours, machine hours, direct material $, units made

 

Once you know how often the activity occurred, you then apply manufacturing overhead to the cost of production using the predetermined manufacturing overhead rate.

Predetermined overhead rate ($ per activity)
x Quantity of the activity used for the job
= Dollars of manufacturing overhead costs added to the job

 

Apply overhead means to add the cost of manufacturing overhead to the cost of the job.

Overhead “applied” to a job is not the actual cost of the job, it is just an estimate

The Cost of Producing a Job:

Direct Material (easy to determine what went into the product)
+ Direct Labor (easy to determine what it cost to work to make the product)
+ Manufacturing Overhead (indirect, can’t trace, must allocate using the rate)
= Total Cost of the Job

 Total cost of the job
 Total units in the job = total cost per unit of product

 

The accounting system must record the manufacturing costs as the job is manufactured.

The product costs – direct material, direct labor and manufacturing overhead are put into
work in process as the costs are incurred on the manufacturing line.

Actual manufacturing overhead costs are recorded to manufacturing overhead expense
during the period and then moved to work in process when manufacturing overhead is
applied using the predetermined manufacturing overhead rate.

JOURNAL ENTRIES MADE FOR MANUFACTURING COSTS

Transaction and Journal Entry

Purchases of raw materials

Raw Materials
         Accounts Payable/Cash

 

Put raw materials on the production line

Work in Process (direct)
       Manufacturing Overhead (indirect)
       Raw Materials

 

Labor costs

Work in Process (direct labor)
       Manufacturing Overhead (indirect labor)
       Salaries and Wages Payable/Cash

 

Actual Manufacturing Overhead Incurred

Manufacturing Overhead
       Accounts Payable/Cash
       Accumulated Depreciation

 

Apply Manufacturing Overhead

Work in Process
       Manufacturing Overhead

 

(The amount to use in the journal entry is calculated by using the predetermined overhead rate x the amount of actual activity)

When production is complete

Finished Goods
          Work in Process

 

When goods are sold

Cost of Goods Sold
         Finished Goods (Inventory)

 

Non-Manufacturing Costs

(Period Costs)

______Expense
      ______Payable/Cash

 

General Rules:

Debit WIP for product costs –
direct material, direct labor, apply manufacturing overhead

 Debit manufacturing overhead for manufacturing overhead incurred.

The manufacturing overhead account accumulates all actual overhead amounts.

The WIP account accumulates all product costs. When the product is complete, these costs move to the finished goods account and when the goods are sold, these costs move to the cost of goods sold account.

 

UNDERAPPLIED AND OVERAPPLIED MANUFACTURING OVERHEAD

Actual manufacturing overhead costs are recorded to manufacturing overhead expense during the period as they are incurred.

Manufacturing overhead is then moved to work in process when manufacturing overhead is applied using the predetermined manufacturing overhead rate.

Applying overhead is done using an estimate. The estimate will not typically equal actual. The difference in the estimate and the actual is stated in terms of

Underapplied: Applied manufacturing overhead costs (estimated) is less than actual

Overapplied: Applied manufacturing overhead costs (estimated) is more than actual

 

All actual manufacturing overhead costs must be allocated to a product, so if your estimate is wrong, you must adjust the cost that is put into the product to equal the actual amount of overhead costs.

Make a journal entry to the manufacturing overhead account. You must get the manufacturing overhead account to –0-. When it is at –0- the actual amount is equal to the costs that were put as product costs.

Manufacturing Overhead
                  |
Actual       |           Applied
                  |

 

Balance the account and then put the difference on the opposite side so that the account is now = 0.

 

The overhead costs are put into work in process which are then put into finished goods, which when sold is put into cost of goods sold. So, the difference in overhead should be added or subtracted from the accounts of WIP, Finished Goods, or Cost of Goods Sold.

You have two options for getting the estimated (applied) cost to equal the actual cost.

Put in Cost of Goods Sold: If the difference is not material

Debit or credit the manufacturing overhead account first, do whatever will get
the manufacturing overhead account to 0. The CGS account is for the opposite way.

Cost of Goods Sold
Manufacturing Overhead
(either account can be a debit or a credit)

 

Put into all 3 accounts: WIP/FG/CGS (based on %): If the difference is material

Debit or credit the manufacturing overhead account first, do whatever will get
the manufacturing overhead account to 0. The other 3 accounts go the opposite way.

 

Cost of goods sold
Finished Goods
WIP
Manufacturing Overhead