Such a document as a consolidated accounting of production costs is intended to summarize, classify and analyze information on production costs. In this account, information is grouped by type of expenses, sources of their formation, places of formation, object of calculation. When organizing such accounting, in addition, the sequence algorithm of this grouping is important, since this ensures the possibility of correlating the results obtained.
The aspects within which the consolidated accounting of production costs can be considered are as follows:
- firstly, this accounting can manifest itself as a kind of aggregate accounting of all expenses of an enterprise or company for the production of final commercial products, in other words, as a certain sequence of operations for summing up indicators of costs for manufacturing products;
- secondly, as a system, a methodology for summarizing data on production costs of an enterprise or company as a whole.
There are 2 leading methods for conducting the accounting in question: semi-finished and semi-finished. In accordance with the method used, the cost of goods issued by the enterprise is also determined in two ways. At the first, the cost is calculated on the final subject (product) of production, by sequentially adding up the costs from its raw form to the production stage. In the second case, accounting is carried out at each stage of production, while the real cost of each of the semi-finished products is separately calculated. The cost of the final product with this accounting method is determined by summing up the costs of the used semi-finished products produced by the enterprise itself, the costs of processing and assembly at future stages of production. This also includes management accounting for production costs.
Information is generalized on account 21, which reflects, for example, indicators such as the cost of crude rubber, pig iron, chemical raw materials, yarn, and so on, depending on the industry. Posting of semi-finished products, as provided by the consolidated accounting of production costs, occurs on the basis of the corresponding invoices, as well as other given primary documentation. The subsequent transfer of the semi-finished product to the next workshop or to the next production site is also documented. Reflection of movement occurs at cost. In some cases, in accordance with the profile of the enterprise and its industry affiliation, the movement of semi-finished products produced by the enterprise is recorded at price (calculated) price values. The resulting difference in costs is credited to the balance sheet of the reporting period.
The main feature of the semi-finished option, which implements the consolidated accounting of production costs, is the accounting of the costs of previous production stages by structural units of the enterprise or company. The advantages of this option are that:
- the ability to display costs by articles is formed, and this, in turn, allows you to quickly and accurately determine your own production costs for the production of semi-finished products. This is especially valuable if the company implements the results of work in progress (semi-finished products) during the production process;
- guaranteed effective control over the production process in the shops of the enterprise and on its production sites that produce these same semi-finished products. Accounting in this case, not only has information about the costs, but can also determine the gross volume of production for these departments of the enterprise. Comparison of sales proceeds with the cost of internal costs, gives accounting the opportunity to record the final results of these structural units;
- a systematic accounting of the costs of production, posting the movement of semi-finished products is carried out, which practically eliminates (at least significantly reduces) the risks of theft and misallocation;
- the accounting procedure itself is greatly simplified, because the values of the quantities are reduced.
The disadvantage of this methodology is that it is a rather routine work requiring element-by-element accounting, then classification and grouping of indicators by type of product. With this accounting, the total amount of costs is calculated in a non-systemic way, and the in-plant movement of work in progress items is not reflected in accounting.