Introduction:
Process costing is a form of operations costing which is used where standardized homogeneous goods are produced. This costing method is used in industries like chemicals, textiles, steel, rubber, sugar, shoes, petrol etc. Process costing is also used in the assembly type of industries also. It is assumed in process costing that the average cost presents the cost per unit. Cost of production during a particular period is divided by the number of units produced during that period to arrive at the cost per unit.
Meaning of Process Costing:
Process costing is a method of costing under which all costs are accumulated for each stage of production or process, and the cost per unit of product is ascertained at each stage of production by dividing the cost of each process by the normal output of that process.
Definition:
CIMA London defines process costing as “that form of operation costing which applies where standardize goods are produced”
Definition:
A method of assigning costs to production processes where products must of necessity be produced in one continuous process, with unit cost arrived at by averaging units produced to the total cost of the process. Cf. job-order costing.
According to Business Dictionary, process costing is defined as the "method for determining the total unit cost of the output of a continuous production run (such as in food processing, petroleum, and textile industries) in which a product passes through several processes."
Process costing is a method of costing used mainly in manufacturing where units are continuously mass produced through one or more processes.
Examples of this include the manufacture of erasers, chemicals or processed food.
In process costing it is the process that is calculated (unlike job costing where each job is costed separately). The method used is to take the total cost of the