CAS 411 - Accounting for Acquisition Costs of Material
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9904.411-20 Purpose
(a) The purpose of this Cost Accounting Standard is to provide criteria for the accounting for acquisition costs of material. The Standard includes provisions on the use of inventory costing methods. Consistent application of this Standard will improve the measurement and assignment of costs to cost objectives.
(b) This Cost Accounting Standard does not cover accounting for the acquisition costs of tangible capital assets nor accountability for Government-furnished materials.
9904.411-30 Definitions
(a) The following are definitions of terms which are prominent in this Standard.
(1) Allocate means to assign an item of cost, or a group of items of cost, to one or more cost objectives. This term includes both direct assignment of cost and the reassignment of a share from an indirect cost pool.
(2) Business Unit means any segment of an organization, or an entire business organization which is not divided into segments.
(3) Category of Material means a particular kind of goods, comprised of identical or interchangeable units, acquired or produced by a contractor, which are intended to be sold, or consumed or used in the performance of either direct or indirect functions.
(4) Cost Objective means a function, organizational subdivision, contract or other work unit for which cost data are desired and for which provision is made to accumulate and measure the cost of processes, products, jobs, capitalized projects, etc.
(5) Material Inventory record means any record used for the accumulation of actual or standard costs of a category of material recorded as an asset for subsequent cost allocation to one or more cost objectives.
(6) Moving Average Cost means an inventory costing method under which an average unit cost is computed after each acquisition by adding the cost of the newly acquired units to the cost of the units of inventory on hand and dividing this figure by the new total number of units.
(7) Weighted Average Cost means an inventory costing method under which an average unit cost is computed periodically by dividing the sum of the cost of beginning inventory plus the cost of acquisitions by the total number of units included in these two categories.
9904.411-40 Fundamental requirement
(a) The contractor shall have, and consistently apply, written statements of accounting policies and practices for accumulating the costs of material and for allocating costs of material to cost objectives.
(b) The cost of units of a category of material may be allocated directly to a cost objective provided the cost objective was specifically identified at the time of purchase or production of the units.
(c) The cost of material which is used solely in performing indirect functions, or is not a significant element of production cost, whether or not incorporated in an end product, may be allocated to an indirect cost pool. When significant, the cost of such indirect material not consumed in a cost accounting period shall be established as an asset at the end of the period.
(d) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subsection, the cost of a category of materials shall be accounted for in material inventory records.
(e) In allocating to cost objectives the costs of a category of material issued from company-owned material inventory, the costing method used shall be selected in accordance with the provisions of 9904.411-50, and shall be used in a manner which results in systematic and rational costing of issues of material to cost objectives. The same costing method shall, within the same business unit, be used for similar categories of materials.
9904.411-50 Techniques for application
(a) Material cost shall be the acquisition cost of a category of material, whether or not a material inventory record is used. The purchase price of material shall be adjusted by extra charges incurred or discounts and credits earned. Such adjustments shall be charged or credited to the same cost objective as the purchase price of the material, except that where it is not practical to do so, the contractor's policy may provide for the consistent inclusion of such charges or credits in an appropriate indirect cost pool.
(b) One of the following inventory costing methods shall be used when issuing material from a company-owned inventory:
- (1) The first-in, first-out (FIFO) method.
- (2) The moving average cost method.
- (3) The weighted average cost method.
- (4) The standard cost method.
- (5) The last-in, first-out (LIFO) method.
(c) The method of computation used for any inventory costing method selected pursuant to the provisions of this Standard shall be consistently followed.
(d) Where the excess of the ending inventory over the beginning inventory of material of the type described in 9904.411-40(c) is estimated to be significant in relation to the total cost included in the indirect cost pool, the cost of such unconsumed material shall be established as an asset at the end of the period by reducing the indirect cost pool by a corresponding amount.
