Advantages Of Job Costing

Job Order Costing

“Costing is an accounting technique used to determine the exact expenses for materials, labor and overhead incurred in operations” (D. Ingram). Job order cost method is a method of costing used when the products are made based on specific customer orders. Job order costing records the actual materials and labor expenses for specific jobs, and assigns overhead to jobs at a pre-determined rate. Different costing methods have each their own strength and weaknesses that make them best suited for a vast array of situations. In the Job Order Costing method every product manufactured is considered it’s own unique job. In this method costs are tracked separately by job. For the purpose of this method services provided can also be

Job costing involves keeping an account of direct and indirect costs. Since both types of costs are usually closely related (a job requiring high input of labor and material is likely to consume more power, machine time, supervision time, inspection time, etc.) indirect costs may be applied as an estimated fraction of direct costs. Job costing methods are similar to contract costing and batch costing methods, and are used in construction, motion picture, and shipping industries, in fabrication, repair, and maintenance works, and in services such as auditing.” (BusinessDictionary.com)

Organizations incur a variety of costs in their operation. These costs are very different from one another and need to be treated differently to give an accurate picture of the

This form is usually filled as materials are taken from the raw materials inventory and utilized as part of the job; this is tracked by adding them to work‐in‐process. This is done in order to ensure that materials costs are correctly allocated to jobs in process.

And important concept in Job Order Costing is Predetermined Overhead Rate. In order to save time and allocate cost as they are incurred, overhead costs are allocated to jobs in process using a predetermined overhead rate. The predetermined overhead rate is identified as part of the budget and planning process by estimating total factory overhead costs and dividing these total costs by the estimated total cost driver or activity base chosen by the organization, typically this can be something like Direct Labor Hours or Direct Labor