Categories: Accounting

Average Cost Method

&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad1" id&equals;"quads-ad1" style&equals;"float&colon;left&semi;margin&colon;0px 0px 0px 0&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Average a simple but important tool for decision making which is used by almost every individual&comma; businessman&comma; and even institutions on daily basis&period; It would be hard to find a person on this planet who ever have not been used averages to know daily&comma; monthly&comma; or yearly income and expenses or to analyze any information involving values&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Average cost is the weighted average cost of different periods&comma; products&comma; departments&comma; divisions&comma; or so many objects as per the requirements or specifications&period; In finance the use of average cost is almost a routine matter and often used in approximations&comma; feasibility studies&comma; comparisons&comma; and analysis&period; Simply the cost or expenses on individual periods or objects are added and the sum is divided on the number of items used in the analysis&period; For a layman the concept of average cost can be best understood by the following example&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">A person’s weekly expenses are as follows&colon; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify"><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;mba-tutorials&period;com&sol;&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2010&sol;06&sol;image3&period;png"><img title&equals;"image" style&equals;"border-top-width&colon; 0px&semi; display&colon; inline&semi; border-left-width&colon; 0px&semi; border-bottom-width&colon; 0px&semi; border-right-width&colon; 0px" height&equals;"166" alt&equals;"image" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;mba-tutorials&period;com&sol;&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2010&sol;06&sol;image&lowbar;thumb3&period;png" width&equals;"150" border&equals;"0" &sol;><&sol;a> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify"><strong>Average weekly expenses &equals; &dollar;704 &sol; 7 &equals; &dollar;100&period;57<&sol;strong> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">It can be described that person’s average weekly cost of living is &dollar;100&period;57 <&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad2" id&equals;"quads-ad2" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px 0 0px 0&semi;text-align&colon;center&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">In statistical terms the average cost is called the mean value of costs over a certain period or mean value of the cost of production of different products&period; The concept of average is basically the derivation of statisticians who used it for the analysis of vide spread data&period; From statistics the concept of average penetrated into finance and economics due to ease of understanding and its trait of a quite reliable analysis tool&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Though limited in finance and statistics the average cost concept is used to a great extent in economics&period; In economics&comma; the similar concept of average cost is used and is calculated in the like way i&period;e&period; dividing total cost by number of units produced&period; It can also be derived by totaling average variable cost and average fixed cost&period; In supply and demand theory the role of average cost is quite significant&period; In a situation of stiff competition due to impact of marginal cost the price is often lower than the average cost&period; But it can not be mixed up with pricing theory because the average cost is actually a different concept from pricing and depends on the relationship of demand and supply&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">Many decisions in the real finance world are made through extensive use of average cost analysis&period; Further analyses in management accounting and finance such as standard deviations&comma; expected values&comma; correlation and&comma; regression techniques depend upon average costs to a great extent&period; The raw data about costs of different periods&comma; goods&comma; services&comma; and industry competitors may not give meaningful information until it is converted in to average costs of the same&period; It would be undoubtedly true that average cost is the fundamental component in financial analysis and planning&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"justify">On the other hand one can not argue that average cost is the only reliable tool for any kind of financial analysis&period; In some cases where cost objects are different in nature and vary according to the occurrence&comma; size&comma; and industry the use of average cost concept to get a single useful figure for analysis purpose would give deceiving results and will completely be unreliable and inappropriate&period; So a financial manager must know that how and when to use average cost concept&period; &NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad3" id&equals;"quads-ad3" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;

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