4 Back-flush accounting 4.1 The basic concepts of back-flush accounting
§ In traditional accounting systems inventory is a key item. Traditional manufacturing firms hold high levels of inventory for raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP) and finished goods.
§ Much of the work of the management (or cost) accountant would be to place a value on this inventory, e.g. using process cost accounting.
§ Back-flush accounting is an alternative approach to cost and management accounting that can be applied where:
- the speed of throughput (or ‘velocity’ of throughput) is high, and
- inventories of raw materials, WIP and unsold finished goods are very low.
§ Instead of building up product costs sequentially from start to finish of production, back-flush accounting calculates product costs retrospectively, at the end of each accounting period.
Illustration 7 – Targeting costs
A key performance target for many banks is to reduce staff costs as a percentage of total bank costs.
The launch of first telephone banking and then internet banking for personal customers (both services enabling bank customers to access their bank accounts, transfer funds and pay bills on a 24-hour basis) has enabled the banks to vary the level of bank staff involvement in the provision of these services and to provide a relatively cost-effective service.
4.2 The accounting aspects of back-flush accounting
§ Back-flush accounting offers an abbreviated and simplified approach to costing by getting rid of ‘unnecessary’ costing records.
§ In the examination you will not be required to perform the double entry for back-flush accounting.
A traditional system
§ A traditional costing system will include the following Τ accounts:
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发表于 2012-2-23 17:09:42
