An order-specific costing technique, used in situations where each job is different and is performed to the customer's specifications. 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.
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(according to wikipedia)
Job Costing involves the calculation of costs involved in a construction "job" or the manufacturing of goods done in discrete batches. These costs are recorded in ledger accounts throughout the life of the job or batch and are then summarized in the final trial balance before the preparing of the job cost or batch manufacturing statement.
[edit] Using job costing
In a job costing system, costs may be accumulated either by job or by batch. For a typical job, direct material, labor, subcontract costs, equipment, and other direct costs are tracked at their actual values. These are accrued until the job or batch is completed. Overhead or "burden" may be applied either by using a rate based on direct labor hours or by using some other Activity Based Costing (ABC) cost driver. In either case, once overhead/burden is added, the total cost for the job can be determined. If the accountant is using a general ledger accounting system, which lacks true job costing functionality, the costs must be manually transferred out of Work in Process to Finished Goods (Cost of Goods Sold for service industries). Of