Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
Moving-average (unit) cost is a method of calculating ending inventory cost. Assume that both beginning inventory and beginning inventory cost are known. From them the cost per unit of beginning inventory can be calculated. During the year, multiple purchases are made.
With FIFO, the cost of inventory reported on the balance sheet represents the cost of the inventory purchased earliest. FIFO most closely mimics the flow of inventory, as businesses are far more likely to sell the oldest inventory first. Consider this example: Foo Co. had the following inventory at hand, in order of acquisition in November:
When this information is found, the amount of goods is multiplied by their purchase cost at their purchase date to get a number for the ending inventory cost. In theory, this method is considered the most accurate since it directly relates the ending inventory goods to the specific price they were bought for.
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.
In accounting, the inventory turnover is a measure of the number of times inventory is sold or used in a time period such as a year. It is calculated to see if a business has an excessive inventory in comparison to its sales level. The equation for inventory turnover equals the cost of goods sold divided by the average inventory.
The second formula then creates the new start point for the next period and gives a figure to be subtracted from the sales price to determine some form of sales-margin figure. Manufacturing management is more interested in inventory turnover ratio or average days to sell inventory since it tells them something about relative inventory levels.
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.