3-2 Assignment Costing Methods

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Apr 3, 2024

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3-2 Assignment: Costing Methods Southern New Hampshire University Managerial Accounting Mark Macknight January26, 2024
Company Overview : The company I know and have worked with for the past 11 years as a team lead is Walmart/Sam's Club. I worked for Walmart for three years and then transferred to Sam's Club as a team lead. A division of Walmart Inc., we are the membership warehouse club solution for everyday living. Our President and CEO is Chris Nicholas, and our headquarters is in Bentonville, AR. For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2023, Sam's Club's total revenue was  $84.3 billion . Almost 600 U.S. and Puerto Rico clubs, each averaging approximately 136,000 square feet. Our first Club opened in Midwest City, Oklahoma, in 1983. Many clubs include sustainable features such as daylighting with skylights, night dimming, central energy management, water-conserving fixtures, natural concrete floors, and recycling. Costing Methods:  Walmart could apply job order and process costing methods. Job order costing could be used in its online personal shopping service, where each order is unique, and costs can be traced directly to each job. On the other hand, process costing could be applied in its grocery department, where large quantities of similar items are processed and sold. The costs could differ significantly if one method is chosen over the other. For instance, using job order costing for the grocery department would be inefficient and costly due to the high volume and similarity of the products. Sam's Club, a membership-only retail warehouse owned by Walmart Inc., uses job order costing and process costing methods. Job order costing is a method that calculates the cost of specific orders, jobs, or batches. This method is typically used in businesses with unique or customized products or services. At Sam's Club, job order costing might be applied to special orders for customers, customized cakes in the bakery department, or personalized items in the photo department. For example, if a customer
orders a customized cake, the cost of ingredients, labor, and overheads related to that specific order would be tracked and allocated to determine the total cost and price of the cake. On the other hand, process costing is a method that calculates the average cost of producing identical or similar products in a continuous process. This method is typically used in businesses producing large quantities of identical products. At Sam's Club, process costing might be applied in areas such as the grocery department, where large amounts of similar products are stocked and sold. For example, the cost of purchasing, storing, and selling a particular cereal brand would be averaged over the number of cereal boxes to determine the price per unit. In summary, Sam's Club uses job order costing for customized or unique products or services and process costing for large quantities of identical products. Both methods help the company to accurately track and control costs, price products competitively, and make informed business decisions. Factory Overhead:  Walmart may not have traditional factory overhead costs as a merchandising company. However, it does have significant indirect expenses related to its operations, such as utilities, store maintenance, and warehousing costs. For these costs, Walmart might use a departmental overhead rate method, where each department is charged with the overhead costs it incurs. If Walmart decides to use activity-based costing (ABC), it might use cost drivers such as the number of units sold, square footage of retail space, or hours of labor to allocate these costs. Recommendation:  Given Walmart's business nature, an activity-based costing (ABC) method would be the most suitable. ABC allows for more accurate cost allocation based on the actual activities that drive costs. This method would enable Walmart to understand the cost of each
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activity better and make more informed decisions about pricing, budgeting, and operational efficiency.