Standard costing values its manufactured products with a predetermined materials cost, a predetermined direct labor cost, and a predetermined manufacturing overhead cost. These standard costs will be used for valuing the manufacturer’s cost of goods sold and inventories. If the actual costs vary only slightly from the standard costs, the resulting variances will be assigned to the cost of goods sold. If the variances are significant, they should be prorated to the cost of goods sold and to the inventories.

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Costs that are direct to a department could be variable or fixed. For example, a supervisor in the painting department would be a direct cost to the painting department. Since the supervisor’s salary is likely to be the same amount each month regardless of the quantity of products manufactured, it is a fixed cost to the department. The supplies furnished to the painting department will be a direct cost to the department, but will be a variable cost to the department if the total amount of supplies used in the department increases as the volume or activity in the department increases.

An indirect product cost is the electricity used to operate a production machine. The cost of the electricity is variable because the total electricity used is greater when more products are manufactured on the machine. Depreciation on the production machine is also an indirect product cost, except it is usually a fixed cost. That is, the machine’s total depreciation expense is the same each year regardless of volume produced on the machine.

As you can see, costs can be direct and indirect depending on the cost object: product, department, and others such as division, customer, geographic market. The cost is fixed if the total amount of the cost does not change as volume changes. If the total cost does change in proportion to the change in the activity or volume, it is a variable cost.

To be profitable, a company must have its selling prices large enough to cover both the product costs of the units sold and the period expenses.

The product cost is used for valuing the inventory and for determining the cost of goods sold. Since some of the manufacturing overhead costs are fixed in total (factory rent, factory depreciation, factory managers’ salaries), the per unit cost of a product will depend upon the number of units manufactured during a given year. In other words, the cost of a product is not know with precision, even though accountants will compute the per unit cost to the nearest penny.

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Let’s illustrate this by looking at the cost of property insurance. The cost of insuring the factory building is a fixed cost when the independent variable is the number of units produced within the factory. In other words, the factory’s property insurance might be $6,000 per year whether its output is 2 million units, 3 million units, or 5 million units. On the other hand, if the independent variable is the replacement cost of the factory buildings, the insurance cost will be a variable cost. The reason is the insurance cost on $12 million of factory buildings will be more than the insurance cost on $9 million of factory buildings, and less than the insurance premiums on $18 million of factory buildings.

In the case of worker compensation insurance, the cost will vary with the amount of payroll dollars (exluding overtime premium) in each class of workers. For example, if the worker comp premiums are $5 per $100 of factory labor cost, then the worker comp premiums will be variable with respect to the dollars of factory labor cost. If the units of output in the factory correlate with the direct labor costs, then the worker compensation cost will also be variable with respect to the number of units produced. On the other hand, the worker compensation cost for the office staff is usually a much smaller rate and that worker compensation cost will not be variable with respect to the number of units of output in the factory. However, the worker compensation cost of the office staff will be variable with respect to the amount of office staff salaries and wages.

As you have seen, determining which costs are fixed and which are variable can be a bit tricky.

A product’s manufacturing cost, consisting of direct materials, direct labor and manufacturing overhead, is used to report the cost of goods sold and also the cost of units in inventory. Therefore, if you look at the detail of a product’s inventory cost, you may see the manufacturing overhead being assigned or applied to the unit through a burden rate.

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Let’s assume that the net cost of worker comp insurance after discounts and dividends is 5% of the wages and salaries of  direct and indirect manufacturing employees. If for the month of January the direct labor is $40,000, then $2,000 of the worker comp cost should be included as direct labor. If indirect labor for January is $60,000 then $3,000 of worker comp cost should be included as the cost of the indirect labor.

If the general office worker comp rates are 0.2% of the general office wages and salaries, then 0.2% of January’s general office wages and salaries will be expensed as worker comp insurance expense.

If the employer remits each month’s worker comp cost to its insurance company each accounting period, there will be no prepaid insurance nor will there be a liability for accrued worker comp expense.

If the employer remits worker comp premiums to the insurance company in advance of the cost associated with wages and salaries, the amount that is prepaid as of the balance sheet date should be reported as Prepaid Insurance, a current asset. If the employer has remitted less than the worker comp cost associated with the wages and salaries, the amount owed to the insurance company as of the balance sheet date is reported as a current liability such as Accrued Worker Comp Payable.

Learn more about accruals and deferrals under the topic Adjusting Entries.

The overhead rate is normally a predetermined rate—meaning that it was calculated prior to the start of the accounting year by using 1) the expected amount of overhead costs, and 2) the expected volume of production. Because of these two estimates, it is unlikely that the amount of overhead allocated, applied, assigned, or absorbed will be equal to the actual overhead costs incurred.

If the actual products manufactured are assigned or absorb more overhead through the overhead rate than the actual amount of overhead costs incurred, the products have overabsorbed the overhead costs.

At the end of the accounting year, the amount of the overapplied, overassigned, or overabsorbed overhead is often credited to the cost of goods sold. The reasons are 1) the overabsorbed amount is not significant, and 2) most of the products absorbing too much overhead costs have been sold. If the overabsorbed amount is significant, then the amount overabsorbed must be prorated or allocated as a reduction to the cost of the inventories and to the cost of goods sold based on where the overabsorbed overhead costs are residing at the end of the accounting year.

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Here’s an illustration. A company manufactures products in its 100,000 square foot plant. The company’s depreciation on the plant is $1,000,000 per year. The capacity of the plant is 500,000 units of output and its normal output is 400,000 units per year. When the company is manufacturing between 300,000 and 500,000 units, it needs salaried managers earning $400,000 per year. Below 300,000 units of output, some of the salaried manager positions would be eliminated. Above 500,000 units, the company will need to add plant space and managers.

For this example, the relevant range is between 300,000 units and 500,000 units of output per year. In that range the total of the two fixed costs is $1,400,000 per year. Below 300,000 units, the fixed costs will drop to less than $1,400,000 because some salaries will be eliminated and some of the space might be rented. When the volume exceeds 500,000 units per year, the company will need to add fixed costs because of the additional space and the additional managers.  Perhaps the total fixed costs will be $2,000,000 for output between 500,000 units and 700,000 units.

Product costs cling to the units of products purchased or manufactured. If a unit is unsold, the product costs will be reported as inventory, a current asset on the balance sheet. The product costs for a retailer will be the amount paid to the supplier plus any freight-in. Product costs for a manufacturer will be the direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead. Product costs will be reported on the income statement as the cost of goods sold expense in the period that the units of product are sold.

Period costs do not cling or attach to the units of product and will not be included in the cost of inventory. For example, the interest incurred by a retailer to finance its operations will be expensed in the period in which the interest occurs. Interest is not deferred by adding it to the cost of the units in inventory. Similarly, selling expenses and general administrative salaries are expensed in the period that the employees earn those salaries, the same period in which the company incurs the salaries expense. The insurance premiums that a company pays for nonmanufacturing protection will be expensed in the period in which the insurance premiums expire.  (Insurance premiums for the factory building will be included in the manufacturing overhead which will be part of the products’ cost.)

On the other hand, the materials usage variance, the labor efficiency variance, and the variable manufacturing efficiency variance are indicators of operating efficiency. However, it is possible that some of these variances could result from standards that were not realistic. For example, if it realistically takes 2.4 hours to produce a unit of output, but the standard is set for 2.5 hours, there should be a favorable variance of 0.1 hour. This 0.1 hour variance results from the unrealistic standard, rather than operational efficiency.

Learn more about Standard Costing and work our free puzzles on standard costing.

To illustrate, let’s assume that a company has no beginning inventory and it has production plans for 100,000 units. Let’s also assume that its annual fixed manufacturing overhead is $600,000. If 100,000 units are produced, the fixed manufacturing cost per unit will be $6 ($600,000 divided by 100,000 units). If the 100,000 units are sold for $20 each, the income statement will report sales revenues of $2,000,000 and its cost of goods sold will include $600,000 of fixed manufacturing overhead.

Now let’s assume that the company decides to produce 120,000 units even though sales are expected to remain at 100,000 units. Because the fixed manufacturing overhead remains at $600,000 the cost per unit for fixed manufacturing overhead will be $5 ($600,000 divided by 120,000 units produced). In this case the company will report the same sales revenues of $2,000,000 (100,000 units sold times $20) but its cost of goods sold will include only $500,000 of fixed manufacturing overhead (100,000 units sold times $5). The company’s balance sheet account Inventory will include $100,000 (20,000 units times $5) of the company’s fixed manufacturing overhead.

As was illustrated above, the income statement will report a lower cost of goods sold when production and inventory increased. A smaller cost of goods sold will mean more gross profit and more net income.

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While a simple cost system using just one cost driver (machine hours) may result in accurate financial statements, it often fails to provide the true cost of individual products that vary in complexity. For example, one product might require very few machine hours but will require many hours of special handling. The costs assigned on the basis of machine hours alone will be too low in relationship to the true cost of manufacturing this product. Another product might require many machine hours but no other activities. This product’s cost will be overstated because the rate assigned via the machine hours will include an amount for other activities that generally occur for the other products manufactured.

A cost system developed for inventory valuation is limited to the cost of direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead. The total cost of providing products to a customer will also include nonmanufacturing expenses. One customer might require a company to incur additional selling, delivering, storing, and administrative expenses. Another customer might not require any of those activities and their related expenses.

Activity based costing attempts to calculate the true cost of a product and customer by assigning costs and expenses based on their root causes. Because there are many root causes, the company will assign costs based on many cost drivers. This results in more accuracy for the cost and expense of a specific product for a specific customer than simply spreading the manufacturing costs on the basis of one cost driver such as machine hours.

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The rental cost of a building that is not used for manufacturing (e.g. rent for a sales office, rent for the general administrative office) is not part of the manufacturing overhead. This rent does not cling to the products and will not be part of the cost of an item in inventory. The rent for nonmanufacturing facilities is immediately expensed in the accounting period when the building is rented.

If a rented building is used for both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing activities, the rent should be allocated to each (perhaps on the basis of square footage).

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A manufacturer’s utility bill is more complicated. The utility bill for its selling and general administration will be an expense for the period indicated by the meter reading dates. However, the utility bill for the direct and indirect manufacturing operations is part of its manufacturing overhead. As such, the utility bill will be assigned or allocated to the units produced. In other words, the utility bill will be clinging to the units produced. Some of the utility cost will be clinging to the units in inventory and therefore will be part of the cost of the asset inventory. Some of the utility cost will be clinging to the units that have been sold and will be part of the expense known as the cost of goods sold.

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To illustrate the units of production method, let’s assume that a production machine has a cost of $500,000 and its useful life is expected to end after producing 240,000 units of a component part. The salvage value at that point is expected to be $20,000. Under the units of production method, the machine’s depreciable cost of $480,000 ($500,000 minus $20,000) is divided by 240,000 units, resulting in depreciation of $2 per unit. If the machine produces 10,000 parts in the year 2007, the depreciation for the year will be $20,000 ($2 x 10,000 units). If the machine produces 50,000 parts in the next year, its depreciation for 2008 will be $100,000 ($2 x 50,000 units). The depreciation will be calculated similarly each year until the asset’s Accumulated Depreciation reaches $480,000.

The units of production method is also referred to as the units of activity method, since the method can be used for depreciating airplanes based on air miles, cars on miles driven, photocopiers on copies made, DVDs on number of times rented, and so on.

Depreciation is an allocation technique and the units of production method might do a better job of allocating/matching an asset’s cost to the proper period than the straight-line method, which is based solely on the passage of time.

Learn more on Depreciation.

Variance analysis helps management to understand the present costs and then to control future costs.

Variance analysis is also used to explain the difference between the actual sales dollars and the budgeted sales dollars. Examples include sales price variance, sales quantity (or volume) variance, and sales mix variance. A difference in the relative proportion of sales can account for some of the difference in a company’s profits.

Learn more about standard costs and variances at Standard Costing.

Absorption costing is often contrasted with variable costing or direct costing. Under variable or direct costing, the fixed manufacturing overhead costs are not allocated or assigned to (not absorbed by) the products manufactured. Variable costing is often useful for management’s decision-making. However, absorption costing is required for external financial reporting and for income tax reporting.

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In reality there are many drivers of the factory overhead: machine setups, unique inspections, special handling, special storage, and so on. The more diversity in products and/or in customer demands, the bigger the problem of allocating all the costs of these various activities via only one activity such as the production machine’s hours.

Under the traditional method, the costs of performing all of the diverse activities will be contained in one cost pool and will be divided by the number of production machine hours. This results is one average rate that is applied to all products regardless of the number of activities and the complexity of those activities. Since the cost of many of the diverse activities do not correlate at all with the number of production machine hours, the resulting allocations are misleading.

Activity-based costing is intended to overcome the weakness of the traditional method by having various pools of costs and then allocating each pool’s costs on the basis of its root cause.

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Period costs are not a necessary part of the manufacturing process. As a result, period costs cannot be assigned to the products or to the cost of inventory. The period costs are usually associated with the selling function of the business or its general administration. The period costs are reported as expenses in the accounting period in which they 1) best match with revenues, 2) when they expire, or 3) in the current accounting period. In addition to the selling and general administrative expenses, most interest expense is a period expense.

Learn more about Manufacturing Overhead and Nonmanufacturing Overhead.

Assume that a manufacturer determines that its cost of electricity and supplies for the factory are approximately $10 per machine hour (MH). It also knows that the factory supervision, depreciation, and other fixed costs are approximately $40,000 per month. Typically, the production equipment operates between 4,000 and 7,000 hours per month. Based on this information, the flexible budget for each month would be $40,000 + $10 per MH.

Now let’s illustrate the flexible budget by using some data. If the production equipment is required to operate for 5,000 hours during January, the flexible budget for January will be $90,000 ($40,000 fixed + $10 x 5,000 MH). If the equipment is required to operate in February for 6,300 hours, then the flexible budget for February will be $103,000 ($40,000 fixed + $10 x 6,300 MH). If March requires only 4,100 machine hours, the flexible budget for March will be $81,000 ($40,000 fixed + $10 x 4,100 MH).

If the plant manager is required to use more machine hours, it is logical to increase the plant manager’s budget for the additional cost of electricity and supplies. The manager’s budget should also decrease when the need to operate the equipment is reduced. In short, the flexible budget provides a better opportunity for planning and controlling than does a static budget.

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The volume variance is also referred to as the production volume variance, the capacity variance, or the idle capacity variance.

In November 2004, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued its Statement No. 151, which discusses the reporting of the fixed production overhead when less than normal capacity is utilized. The FASB’s Statements of Financial Accounting Standards are available at no cost at www.FASB.org/st.

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Fixed overhead costs are the indirect manufacturing costs that are not expected to change when the volume of activity changes. Some examples of fixed manufacturing overhead include the depreciation, property tax and insurance of the factory buildings and equipment, and the salaries of the manufacturing supervisors and managers.

Since the fixed manufacturing overhead costs should remain the same within reasonable ranges of activity, the amount of the fixed overhead budget variance should be relatively small.

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By using only machine hours to allocate the manufacturing overhead to products, it is implying that the machine hours are the underlying cause of the factory overhead. Traditionally, that may have been reasonable or at least sufficient for the company’s external financial statements. However, in recent decades the manufacturing overhead has been driven or caused by many other factors. For example, some customers are likely to demand additional manufacturing operations for their diverse products. Other customers simply want great quantities of uniform products.

If a manufacturer wants to know the true cost to produce specific products for specific customers, the traditional method of cost accounting is inadequate. Activity based costing (ABC) was developed to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional method. Instead of just one cost driver such as machine hours, ABC will use many cost drivers to allocate a manufacturer’s indirect costs. A few of the cost drivers that would be used under ABC include the number of machine setups, the pounds of material purchased or used, the number of engineering change orders, the number of machine hours, and so on.

For example, if a company produces artisan furniture, the cost of the wood and the cost of the craftsperson are direct costs—they are clearly traceable to the production department and to each item produced—no allocation was needed. On the other hand, the rent of the building that houses the production area, warehouse, and office is not a direct cost of either the production department or the items produced. The rent is an indirect cost—an indirect cost of operating the production department and an indirect cost of crafting the product.

To calculate the total cost of the production department or to calculate each product’s total cost, it is necessary to allocate some of the rent (and other indirect costs) to the department and to the product.

I associate indirect with allocation and arbitrary.

The head of each service department is held responsible for the costs incurred in his or her service department. In traditional cost accounting each service department’s costs are then allocated to the production departments. The service departments’ costs become a production department’s indirect factory overhead which is then allocated to the output of each production department.

The various methods of allocating service departments’ costs are covered in cost accounting textbooks.

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If the rent is for items involved in the selling function (rent for office space, equipment, autos, etc.) or if the rent is for items in the administrative function of the company, the rent is a period cost and will be expensed in the period when the expense is incurred. These rents will not be allocated to the products for external financial statements.

Three examples of fixed manufacturing overhead costs include 1) depreciation of the manufacturing equipment, 2) the property tax on the factory building, and 3) the salaries of the factory supervisors. Each of these costs comes in large dollar amounts (they do not occur at a rate of say $1.00 per unit) and none is directly traceable to the products manufactured. The dollar amount of each of these costs will probably not change if the company produces 10% more units or 10% fewer units.

Because the fixed manufacturing overhead costs are indirect product costs (not directly traceable to the products) the accountant allocates (or assigns or applies) these costs to the products on some basis—perhaps on the basis of machine hours or through activity-based costing. While the accountant assigns or allocates these costs, the products are said to be absorbing these fixed manufacturing costs. (Absorption costing, which is required for external financial statements, means that each product’s cost includes direct materials, direct labor, variable manufacturing overhead, and fixed manufacturing overhead.)

Fixed manufacturing overhead cost is usually applied to the products (and is absorbed by the products) through the use of a predetermined annual overhead rate that is based on some planned volume of production. If the actual product volume is less than the planned volume (and the costs are as planned) the fixed manufacturing overhead will be “under-absorbed.” When the actual volume exceeds the planned volume and the costs are as planned, the fixed manufacturing overhead will be “over-absorbed.”

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Generally accepted accounting principles require that cost of direct material cost, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead be considered as the cost of products for valuing inventory and for determining the cost of goods sold. (Expenses that are outside of the factory, such as selling, general and administrative expenses, are not product costs and are not inventoriable. They are reported as expenses on the income statement in the accounting period in which they occur.)

Examples of manufacturing overhead include the depreciation or the rent on the factory building, depreciation on the factory equipment, supervisors in the factory, the factory quality control department, factory maintenance employees, electricity and gas for the factory, indirect factory supplies, etc.

Because manufacturing overhead is an indirect cost, accountants are faced with the task of assigning or allocating overhead costs to each of the units produced. This is a challenging task because there may be no direct relationship. (For example, the property tax on the factory building is based on its assessed value and not on the number of units produced. Yet the property tax must be assigned to the units manufactured.)

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