What are Period Costs?
When the product is sold, its cost is removed from inventory and will be included on the income statement as the cost of goods sold. Other examples of period costs include marketing expenses, rent (not directly tied to a production facility), office depreciation, and indirect labor. Also, interest expense on a company’s debt would be classified as a period cost.
These can include rent or mortgage payments, depreciation of assets, salaries and payroll, membership and subscription dues, legal fees and accounting costs. Fixed expense amounts stay the same regardless if a business earns more — or loses more — in revenue that month.
Common overhead costs include the salaries of personnel assigned to a manufacturing unit but not directly assigned to production, such as managers and janitorial workers. Other overhead expenses are utilities, building depreciation or lease payments, quality control and indirect supplies, such as cleaning materials and waste containers. If your small business is producing multiple products in the same factory, these expenses need to be properly allocated to your different product lines. In business, overhead or overhead expense refers to an ongoing expense of operating a business. Overheads are the expenditure which cannot be conveniently traced to or identified with any particular cost unit, unlike operating expenses such as raw material and labor.
Examples of Industries That Cannot Claim Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
The period costs are usually associated with the selling function of the business or its general administration. The period costs are reported as expenses in the accounting period in which they 1) best match with revenues, 2) when they expire, or 3) in the current accounting period. In addition to the selling and general administrative expenses, most interest expense is a period expense. The cost of goods sold (COGS), also referred to as the cost of sales or cost of services, is how much it costs to produce your products or services. COGS include direct material and direct labor expenses that go into the production of each good or service that is sold.
Examples of period costs include sales costs and administrative costs. Period costs are always expensed on the income statement during the period in which they are incurred.
Product Costs
Should this spent money be expensed on the income statement immediately? This collection of costs constitutes an asset on the balance sheet (“inventory”). This inventory remains as an asset until the goods are sold, at which point the inventory is gone, and the cost of the inventory is transferred to cost of goods sold on the income statement. Cost of goods sold (COGS) refers to the direct costs of producing the goods sold by a company.
For example, the COGS for an automaker would include the material costs for the parts that go into making the car plus the labor costs used to put the car together. The cost of sending the cars to dealerships and the cost of the labor used to sell the car would be excluded. Period costs stand in contrast to product costs, which are directly related to manufacturing.
Costs of revenueexist for ongoing contract services that can include raw materials, direct labor, shipping costs, and commissions paid to sales employees. These items cannot be claimed as COGS without a physically produced product to sell, however. The IRS website even lists some examples of “personal service businesses” that do not calculate COGS on their income statements.
Therefore, overheads cannot be immediately associated with the products or services being offered, thus do not directly generate profits. However, overheads are still vital to business operations as they provide critical support for the business to carry out profit making activities. For example, overhead costs such as the rent for a factory allows workers to manufacture products which can then be sold for a profit.
Some materials used in making a product have a minimal cost, such as screws, nails, and glue, or do not become part of the final product, such as lubricants for machines and tape used when painting. Such materials are called indirect materials and are accounted for as manufacturing overhead. Manufacturing overhead costs include indirect materials, indirect labor, and all other manufacturing costs. Depreciation on factory equipment, factory rent, factory insurance, factory property taxes, and factory utilities are all examples of manufacturing overhead costs. Together, the direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead are referred to as manufacturing costs.
Product costs include direct labor — such as the work of an assembly worker — along with the materials directly used to create a product, and manufacturing overhead costs. Product costs are recorded in an inventory account and weighed against the revenue of sales to provide an estimate of profits from the sales. Product costs are applied to the products the company produces and sells. Product costs refer to all costs incurred to obtain or produce the end-products. Examples of product costs include the cost of raw materials, direct labor, and overhead.
- For example, the COGS for an automaker would include the material costs for the parts that go into making the car plus the labor costs used to put the car together.
AccountingTools
Using the actual costing method, you can determine your small business’s overall product costs and product costs per unit based on the actual costs you incurred during a period. Knowing your product costs can help you price your products and budget your small business’s money. Period costs are the costs that cannot be directly linked to the production of end-products.
This amount includes the cost of the materials and labor directly used to create the good. It excludes indirect expenses, such as distribution costs and sales force costs.
What is the difference between product cost and period cost?
A period cost is any cost that cannot be capitalized into prepaid expenses, inventory, or fixed assets. A period cost is more closely associated with the passage of time than with a transactional event. Instead, it is typically included within the selling and administrative expenses section of the income statement.
Why is the distinction between product costs and period costs important?
Direct costs of production are recorded by factoring them into product costs, while period costs are recorded as expenses. By analogy, a manufacturer pours money into direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead.
Accounting Principles II
Before the products are sold, these costs are recorded in inventory accounts on the balance sheet. Product costs are sometimes referred to as “inventoriable costs.” When the products are sold, these costs are expensed as costs of goods sold on the income statement. Inventory that is sold appears in the income statement under the COGS account. The beginning inventory for the year is the inventory left over from the previous year—that is, the merchandise that was not sold in the previous year.
Overheads are also very important cost element along with direct materials and direct labor. Period costs are expenses that will be reported on the income statement without ever attaching to products. Since they are not product costs, period costs will not be included in the cost of inventory. Instead, period costs will be referred to as period expenses since they will be reported on the income statement as selling, general and administrative (SG&A) or interest expenses.
Associated payroll costs, including outsourcing payroll services, are included in the fixed expense category. Labor costs, such as employee time, that are not chargeable to a direct manufacturing or production activity also fall under fixed expenses. Product costs in managerial accounting are those that are necessary to manufacture a product. Product costs equal the sum of your direct materials costs, direct labor costs and manufacturing overhead costs.
The costs of selling the product are operating expenses (period cost) and not part of manufacturing overhead costs because they are not incurred to make a product. Examples of product costs are direct materials, direct labor, and allocated factory overhead. Examples of period costs are general and administrative expenses, such as rent, office depreciation, office supplies, and utilities. As shown in the income statement above, salaries and benefits, rent and overhead, depreciation and amortization, and interest are all period costs that are expensed in the period incurred. On the other hand, costs of goods sold related to product costs are expensed on the income statement when the inventory is sold.
Overhead or sales, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs are considered period costs. SG&A includes costs of the corporate office, selling, marketing, and the overall administration of company business. Direct materials are those materials (including purchased parts) that are used to make a product and can be directly associated with the product.
Any additional productions or purchases made by a manufacturing or retail company are added to the beginning inventory. At the end of the year, the products that were not sold are subtracted from the sum of beginning inventory and additional purchases. The final number derived from the calculation is the cost of goods sold for the year. As a result, period costs cannot be assigned to the products or to the cost of inventory.
Product costs include the costs to manufacture products or to purchase products. If a product is unsold, the product costs will be reported as inventory on the balance sheet.
Costs that become part of the cost of goods manufactured are called product costs. Such costs are incurred on manufacturing process either directly as material and labor costs or indirectly as overheads. This is achieved by debiting product costs to the cost of goods manufactured and thus expensed only at the time of sale of such goods. Period costs, also termed period expenses, are the costs incurred in business that are not directly related to manufacturing products. Because of the indirect relationship between period costs and inventory, period costs cannot be factored into the cost of production.