Reporting and Interpreting Cost of Goods Sold and Inventory
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
1. Inventory often is one of the largest amounts listed under assets on the balance sheet which means that it represents a significant amount of the resources available to the business. The inventory may be excessive in amount, which is a needless waste of resources; alternatively it may be too low, which may result in lost sales. Therefore, for internal users inventory control is very important. On the income statement, inventory exerts a direct impact on the amount of income. Therefore, statement users are interested particularly in the amount of this effect and the way in which inventory is measured. Because of its impact on both the balance sheet and the income statement, it is of particular interest to all statement users.
2. Fundamentally, inventory should include those items, and only those items, legally owned by the business. That is, inventory should include all goods that the company owns, regardless of their particular location at the time.
3. The cost principle governs the measurement of the ending inventory amount. The ending inventory is determined in units and the cost of each unit is applied to that number. Under the cost principle, the unit cost is the sum of all costs incurred in obtaining one unit of the inventory item in its present state.
4. Goods available for sale is the sum of the beginning inventory and the amount of goods purchased during the period. Cost of goods sold is the amount of goods available for sale less the ending inventory.
5. Beginning inventory is the stock of goods on hand (in inventory) at the start of the accounting period. Ending inventory is the stock of goods on hand (in inventory) at the end of the accounting period. The ending inventory of one period automatically becomes the beginning inventory of the next period.
6. (a) Average cost–This inventory costing method in a periodic inventory