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Ending inventory is the amount of inventory a company has in stock at the end of its fiscal year. It is closely related with ending inventory cost, which is the amount of money spent to get these goods in stock. It should be calculated at the lower of cost or market.
Two very popular methods are 1)- retail inventory method, and 2)- gross profit (or gross margin) method. The retail inventory method uses a cost to retail price ratio. The physical inventory is valued at retail, and it is multiplied by the cost ratio (or percentage) to determine the estimated cost of the ending inventory.
The difference between the cost of an inventory calculated under the FIFO and LIFO methods is called the LIFO reserve (in the example above, it is $750, i.e. $5250 - $4500). This reserve, a form of contra account , is essentially the amount by which an entity's taxable income has been deferred by using the LIFO method.
Normally, ending inventory is stated at historical cost. However, there are times when the original cost of the ending inventory is greater than the net realizable value, and thus the inventory has lost value. If the inventory has decreased in value below historical cost, then its carrying value is reduced and reported on the balance sheet.
A periodic inventory system does not require day-to-day tracking of physical inventory. Purchases, cost of goods sold, and inventory on hand cannot be tracked until the end of the accounting time period when a physical inventory is performed and ending inventory is compared against the sum of beginning inventory and purchases.
Specific identification is a method of finding out ending inventory cost.. It requires a detailed physical count so that the company knows exactly how many of each good bought on specific dates comprise the year-end inventory.
An item whose inventory is sold (turns over) once a year has higher holding cost than one that turns over twice, or three times, or more in that time. Stock turnover also indicates the briskness of the business. The purpose of increasing inventory turns is to reduce inventory for three reasons. Increasing inventory turns reduces holding cost ...
Inventory may also cause significant tax expenses, depending on particular countries' laws regarding depreciation of inventory, as in Thor Power Tool Company v. Commissioner. Inventory appears as a current asset on an organization's balance sheet because the organization can, in principle, turn it into cash by selling it. Some organizations ...