Job Order Costing System:

After studying this chapter you should be able to:

1. Distinguish between process costing and job order costing and identify companies that would use each costing method.
2. Identify the documents used in job order costing system.
3. Compute predetermined overhead rates and explain why estimated overhead costs (rather than actual overhead costs) are used in the costing process.
4. Understand the flow of costs in a job order costing system and prepare appropriate journal entries to record costs.
5. Apply overhead cost to work in process (WIP) using a predetermined overhead rate.
6. Prepare a schedule of cost of goods manufactured and cost of goods sold.
7. Prepare T-accounts to show the flow of costs in a job order costing system.
8. Explain the implications of basing the predetermined overhead rate on activity at capacity rather than on estimated activity for the period.

   Definition and Explanation of Job Order Costing System:

   A job order costing system is used in situations where many different products are produced each period. For example clothing factory would typically made many different types of jeans for both men and women during a month. In a job order costing system, costs are traced to the jobs and then the costs of the job are divided by the number of units in the job to arrive at an average cost per unit.
   Job order costing system is also extensively used in service industries. Hospitals, law firms, movie studios, accounting firms, advertising agencies and repair shops all use a variety of job order costing system to accumulate costs for accounting and billing purposes. The details here deal with a manufacturing firm, the same concept and procedures are used by many service organizations.
   The record keeping and cost assignment problems are more complex in a job order costing system when a company sells many different products and services than when it has only a single product or service. Since the products are different, the costs are typically different. Consequently, cost records must be maintained for each distinct product or job. For example an attorney in a large criminal law practice would ordinarily keep separate records of the costs of advising and defending each of her clients. And a clothing factory would keep separate track of the costs of filling orders for particular styles, sizes, and colors of jeans. A job order costing system requires more effort than a process costing system. Companies classify manufacturing costs into three broad categories:(1) direct materials, (2) direct labor, (3) manufacturing overhead. (See manufacturing and non-manufacturing costs page) As we study the operation of a job costing system, we will see how each of these three types of costs is recorded and accumulated.