When the foreman is ready to assign the work, he issues work orders to his men. As explained in the discussion of labor records, the usual form for work orders is a time-card. On completion of each job, the men deposit the time-cards in the rack provided for that purpose. These are later sent to the cost department.
In actual practice, it is usually best to have all requisitions and time-cards collected once during each day by a messenger from the cost department. Sometimes, the cards are also filled out in the cost department and delivered to the foreman with his shop order, leaving him to enter only the man's number. When this plan is followed, the cost clerk must be familiar with all of the operations required, and must keep the foreman supplied with work orders to keep the shop employed for at least a day ahead.
The receipt of the requisitions and time-cards supplies the cost department with the necessary data for material and direct labor charges to individual jobs. Data for similar charges on account of repairs is secured in the same way.
The character of the records compiled from this data determines the real value of the entire system of cost accounting. If, as is so often the case, the compiling extends no farther than a mere tabulation of costs of individual jobs, it does not reach its full value as a part of the accounting records. Like single-entry bookkeeping, such records are no more than mere memoranda. The full value is reached only when the records of the cost department are made a part of the general accounting system of the business; where controlling accounts absorb all individual items of cost.
41. Material Costs. The compilation of material costs from the requisitions should exhibit the total cost of all material used in the plant and the total cost of material used on each job.
The records intended to exhibit the cost of all material issued to the factory should be divided according to classes, following the same classifications as used for material purchase accounts in the general ledger. This is very important as the information secured from such classifications is needed to form the connecting link between the cost and general accounting systems.
The value of the accounting records is greatly enhanced if, in the general ledger, a purchase account is kept for each class of material and supplies. If but one kind of material is used, only one material purchase account is needed, but in a furniture business, for instance, separate accounts should be kept for purchases of lumber and hardware; in a harness manufacturing business, accounts should be kept for harness leather, patent leather, saddle leather, and hardware. The proper classification for any special business will readily suggest itself, but the material should be classified according to its most natural divisions.
The stores records also should be divided according to the same classifications, so that the records of material included in any one purchase account can be checked, without reference to the records of other classes. In the storeroom of a harness business, a card or sheet would be used for the record of each item in the hardware stock, while all of these individual records would be filed under the general classification, hardware.
This method provides three records, each closely related to the others. In the general ledger, there is a hardware purchase account; in the storeroom, a detailed record of the hardware stock; in the cost department, a record of all hardware issued to the factory. When the cost department record is brought into the hardware purchase account, by a credit through the journal, the balance of this account should show the value of the hardware stock and should agree with the records of the stores department.
The compilation of supplies costs should be made along similar lines, and the same care should be used in the classifications. Fuel purchases, for instance, should be kept in a separate account, while general factory supplies—as oil, belting, waste, etc.—may be kept in one account or subdivided, depending on the size and nature of the business.