Serial Cost Method
Costs can be tracked at the unit (serial-tracked item) level. You can view the
costs on the Costs tab of the
Units form. The Serial Cost Method mimics the logic
of Actual/Specific costing but stores the values at the unit level.
These types of serial cost tracking are available:
- Cost Tracking by Serial
Number for Issues and Returns: As serial-tracked items that have the Cost
Method assigned to Serial are moved in and out of inventory, the costs
reflected in the journal entries come from the cost fields on the associated
serial number.
Note: When a Customer Return or Inventory Return is done, the cost that is associated with the unit that is being returned is replaced by the costs entered into the return transaction.
- Cost Tracking for Rework on
Serial Numbers: As rework is done to either repair or enhance a serial-tracked
item, the cost of the associated unit is incremented by the costs for the
rework performed.
Note: To apply this cost, the user must post a Line Return to Inventory transaction.
- Unit Cost Reporting: Inventory Cost Reports take into account the new cost fields at the unit level for any item using the Serial Cost Method.
Additional Information
- Conversions: For items converted to this costing method, the system assigns unit costs by averaging the total cost of all serial numbers that are currently in stock. If the user later changes cost methods to something other than Serial, the unit level cost fields are then ignored.
- Item Unit Cost Values: The Cost field on the Items form, Item Stockroom Locations form, and Item Lot Locations form are updated based on the last transaction that was processed.
- Multi-site: Transfers of serial-costed items across sites are treated like a sale, calculating an average cost per quantity, keeping in line with the way other costing methods function.
- G/L Accounts: Inventory account numbers for serial-based journal entries come from the item location.
- Journal Entries: Journal entries are created for the total cost for each bucket when transactions of multiple serials are posted. Individual journal entries for each serial are not created.