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Inventory Accounting & Valuation Methods

Inventory Accounting & Valuation Methods

If you keep inventory in stock, it’s important to ensure that it’s accounted for properly. Inventory can affect your company in many ways, impacting cash flow, cost of goods sold, and your profit. Today, we’re diving into two popular inventory accounting methods and the ways you can value your inventory or assets.   What is Inventory Accounting Inventory accounting values and accounts for changes in the inventory a company holds during a given period. It determines the value of assets during the three stages of production: raw goods, in-progress goods, and finished goods ready for sale.  Each item in stock has a value recorded separately.  In manufacturing processes, the value of an item can change depending on the stage of production. The sum total of all inventory item values is recorded as a company asset.  The accounting method you choose has a direct impact on the cost of goods sold calculation for the accounting period, and on net income earned. Companies use cost of goods sold (COGS) to determine the direct cost of producing the goods sold without taking overhead costs into account, and generally includes only direct materials and labor costs.  To calculate the cost of goods sold, add the beginning inventory and purchases, then deduct the ending inventory from that number in the following way:  Cost of goods sold = beginning inventory + purchases – ending inventory.  Accounting Methods The method businesses use to cost their inventory directly guides the income and inventory value they report on their financial statements. Two popular methods to compute the cost of goods sold and ending inventory for a period are First...