Applying Accounting Tools To Inventory Course

Introduction

Inventory can be the largest asset that a company owns, and is one of the most complexes to track and value. This presents a risk to the accountant, since an inventory misstatement could be large enough to seriously alter the financial statements. In accounting for Inventory, this course present every issue that the accountant might need in dealing with all situations.

Course Objectives

On completion of this course you should be able to:

• Gain a wide knowledge of counting systems, cost layering, standard costing, overhead allocation, the lower of cost or market rule, disclosures, transfer pricing, budgeting, and measurements.
• Understand how to improve inventory record accuracy, assign costs to inventory, and set up a complete system of Inventory controls.  
• Apply methods and techniques to create and maintain a comprehensive system of inventory accounting.
• List the various types of accounting activities that relate to it.
• Decide which of the accounting activities are actually needed.

Course Outline

Overview of Inventory

• The Definition of Inventory
• Accounting for Inventory
• Inventory Transactions
• Inventory in a Push Environment
• Inventory in a Pull Environment
• Periodic and Perpetual Inventory Systems

Inventory Record Accuracy

• Inventory record errors
• Environmental and employee factors impacting record accuracy
• Inventory data collection methods
• The data entry blocklog problem
• Back flushing
• Controls over record accuracy
• Inventory review reports
• Inventory Auditing
• The corrective action system

Inventory Counting and Reconciliation

• How to set up inventory record keeping
• The physical inventory count
• Concerns about the physical inventory count
• Physical Count improvements
• Cycle Counting
• Control Group Analysis
• 100% Count Analysis
• Inventory Reconciliation

Estimating Ending Inventory

• The Gross Profit method
• The Retail Inventory method
• The Effect of Overstated ending inventory

Standard Costing of Inventory

• How to create a standard cost
• Historical, Attainable, and Theoretical Standards
• How to account for standard costs
• Overview of variances
• Types of variances
• Problems with variance analysis
• Which variances to report and how to report them.

Process Costing

• Overview of process costing
• The weighted average method
• The standard costing method
• The First In, First Out method
• The Hybrid Costing system
• Process costing journal entries
• Problems with process costing

Inventory Spoilage, Rework, and Scrap

• Definition of Spoilage
• Accounting for Normal, Abnormal Spoilage
• Cost allocation of Spoilage
• Definition of Rework
• Reporting and accounting for Rework
• Definition and accounting for scrap

Inventory Transactions

• Types of inventory transactions
• Lower of cost or market adjustments
• Obsolete inventory adjustments
• Overhead allocation transactions
• Physical count adjustments
• Receiving transactions
• Sale transactions
• Scrap and spoilage adjustments

Inventory Transfer Pricing

• Market price basis for transfer pricing
• Adjusted market price basis
• Negotiated basis
• Cost plus basis
• Cost Anomalies
• Pricing problems caused by transfer pricing
• The tax impact

Inventory Policies

• Types of inventory policies
• Lower of cost or market updates
• Obsolete inventory updates
• Bill and Hold Policy
• Collection Take-Back Policy

Inventory Budgeting

• The production budget
• Other production budget issues
• Budgeting for multiple products
• Ending inventory concepts