Có nhiều trường hợp một công ty sẽ hoạt động một quá trình sản xuất duy nhất mà kết quả trong hơn một sản phẩm, không ai trong số đó có thể được xác định rõ ràng thông qua các giai đoạn đầu của sản xuất. Ví dụ sản xuất sáp nhập như vậy là trong ngành công nghiệp sản phẩm gỗ, cây có thể được cắt thành nhiều loại sản phẩm cuối cùng, hoặc bao bì thịt, một con vật có thể được cắt thành nhiều hàng hoá khác nhau đã hoàn thành | 10 Joint and By-Product Costing1 10-1 Introduction There are many instances where a company will operate a single production process that results in more than one product none of which can be clearly identified through the early stages of production. Examples of such merged production are in the wood products industry where a tree can be cut into a wide variety of end products or meat packing where an animal can be cut into many different finished goods. Up to the point where individual products become clearly identifiable in the production process there is no clear-cut way to assign costs to products. This issue is of considerable importance to the inventory accountant who must have a consistent method for assigning costs to these items. We will discuss several cost allocation methods in this chapter that deal with this problem and also note the usefulness or lack thereof of these allocation methods. The key point emphasized by this chapter is that the allocation of costs through any method discussed in this chapter is essentially arbitrary in nature it results in some sort of cost being assigned to a joint product or by-product but these costs are only useful for financial or tax reporting purposes not for management decisions. 10-2 The Nature of Joint Costs To understand joint products and by-products one must have a firm understanding of the split-off point. This is the last point in a production process where it is impossible to determine the nature of the final products. All costs that have been incurred by the production process up until that point both direct and overhead must somehow be allocated to the products that result from the split-off point. Any costs incurred thereafter can be charged to specific products in the normal manner. Thus a product that comes out of such a process will be composed of allocated costs from Adapted with permission from Chapter 15 of Bragg Cost Accounting A Comprehensive Guide John Wiley Sons 2001. 141 142 I Inventory .
