Inventories are asset items held for sale in the ordinary course of business or good that will be used or consumed in the production of goods to be sold. That sounds very interesting doesn't it? Well let's think about that for a second. Companies like Wal-Mart have billions of dollars put into inventories and they need to make sure that it is properly accounted for so they do not become the next ENRON of the world. Wal-Mart gets their inventory in a ready to sell state. That means no extra cost goes into getting it ready to put on the shelf. So when a Wal-Mart accountant takes in invoices of merchandise purchased the price Wal-Mart paid was the amount that goes into their inventory account. However for companies that are manufacturing business, like Boeing, they will have three inventory accounts called, raw materials, work in process, and finished goods. Assigning cost into the inventory account is a little different for manufacturing companies. The cost assigned to good and materials on hand but not yet placed into production is reported as raw materials inventory. Raw materials include things like plastics for sex toys or steel for skyscrapers, did I say sex in an accounting paper? These materials can be followed directly to the end product;
Inventories are asset items held for sale in the ordinary course of business or good that will be used or consumed in the production of goods to be sold. That sounds very interesting doesn't it? Well let's think about that for a second. Companies like Wal-Mart have billions of dollars put into inventories and they need to make sure that it is properly accounted for so they do not become the next ENRON of the world. Wal-Mart gets their inventory in a ready to sell state. That means no extra cost goes into getting it ready to put on the shelf. So when a Wal-Mart accountant takes in invoices of merchandise purchased the price Wal-Mart paid was the amount that goes into their inventory account. However for companies that are manufacturing business, like Boeing, they will have three inventory accounts called, raw materials, work in process, and finished goods. Assigning cost into the inventory account is a little different for manufacturing companies. The cost assigned to good and materials on hand but not yet placed into production is reported as raw materials inventory. Raw materials include things like plastics for sex toys or steel for skyscrapers, did I say sex in an accounting paper? These materials can be followed directly to the end product;