You are asked to travel to Milwaukee to observe and verify the inventory of the Milwaukee branch of one of your clients. You arrive on Thursday, December 30, and find that the inventory procedures have justbeen started. You spot a railway car on the sidetrack at the unloading door and ask the warehouse superintendent, Buck Rogers,how he plans to inventory the contents of the car. He responds, “We are not going to include the contents in the inventory.”

Later in the day, you ask the bookkeeper for the invoice on the carload and the related freight bill. The invoice lists the variousitems, prices, and extensions of the goods in the car. You note that the carload was shipped December 24 from Albuquerque,f.o.b. Albuquerque, and that the total invoice price of the goods in the car was \(35,300. The freight bill called for a payment of\)1,500. Terms were net 30 days. The bookkeeper affirms the fact that this invoice is to be held for recording in January.

Instructions

(a) Does your client have a liability that should be recorded at December 31? Discuss.

(b) Prepare a journal entry(ies), if required, to reflect any accounting adjustment required. Assume a perpetual inventory

system is used by your client.

(c) For what possible reason(s) might your client wish to postpone recording the transaction?

Short Answer

Expert verified

The liability for the clients amounts to $36,800 that must be recorded against the inventory account. The inventory account is debited, and accounts payable is credited by $36,800 to record the adjustment. The possible reason for postponing the transaction may be due to the inventory system or postponing liability.

Step by step solution

01

Liability for the client

Yes, there I liability for the client. The client has received the invoice for $35,300 and the freight bill for $1500. So there is a liability for the client for $36,800 which must be paid within the next 30 days.

02

Journal entry

As the goods have been received based on f.o.b. destination, the title of the goods has been gained on Dec 30. Thus there would be a recording of the receiving of goods.

The journal entry would be as follow –

Date

Description

Debit

Credit

Dec 30

Inventory A/c

$36,800

Accounts Payable

$36,800

Being the goods has been received on f.o.b. destination

Valueofinventory=Invoiceprice+Freightbill=$35,300+$1,500=$36,800

03

Reasons for postponing transaction recording

One of the possible reasons to postpone the inventory recording may be the inventory system adopted. Under the perpetual system, the inventory is recorded immediately as soon as the title is transferred to the buyer. But under a periodic system, it is not necessary to record the transaction immediately. So under a periodic system company may postpone the transaction recording.

The other possible reason may be postponing the liability. Suppose the books of accounts have been closed, and the company does not want to reflect any more liability. In that case, it may postpone the recording of the transaction in the next accounting period to avoid any liability for the current year.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Hull Company’s record of transactions concerning part X for the month of April was as follows.

Purchases Sales

April 1 (balance on hand) 100 @ $5.00 April 5 300

4 400 @ 5.10 12 200

11 300 @ 5.30 27 800

18 200 @ 5.35 28 150

26 600 @ 5.60

30 200 @ 5.80

Instructions

(a) Compute the inventory at April 30 on each of the following bases. Assume that perpetual inventory records are kept inunits only. Carry unit costs to the nearest cent.

(1) First-in, first-out (FIFO).

(2) Last-in, first-out (LIFO).

(3) Average cost.

(b) If the perpetual inventory record is kept in dollars, and costs are computed at the time of each withdrawal, what amountwould be shown as ending inventory in (1), (2), and (3) above? (Carry average unit costs to four decimal places.)

The board of directors of Ichiro Corporation is considering whether or not it should instruct the accounting department to shift from a first-in, first out (FIFO) basis of pricing inventories to a last-in, first-out (LIFO) basis. The following information is available.

Sales 21,000 units @ \(50

Inventory, January 1 6,000 units @ 20

Purchases 6,000 units @ 22

10,000 units @ 25

7,000 units @ 30

Inventory, December 31 8,000 units @ ?

Operating expenses \)200,000

Instructions

Prepare a condensed income statement for the year on both bases for comparative purposes.

Clay Mattews, an inventory control specialist, is interested in better understanding the accounting for inventories. Although Clay understands the more sophisticated computer inventory control systems, he has littleknowledge of how inventory cost is determined. In studying the records of Strider Enterprises, which sells normal brand-namegoods from its own store and on consignment through Chavez Inc., he asks you to answer the following questions.

Instructions

(a) Should Strider Enterprises include in its inventory normal brand-name goods purchased from its suppliers but not yetreceived if the terms of purchase are f.o.b. shipping point (manufacturer’s plant)? Why?

(b) Should Strider Enterprises include freight-in expenditures as an inventory cost? Why?

(c) If Strider Enterprises purchases its goods on terms 2/10, net 30, should the purchases be recorded gross or net? Why?

(d) What are products on consignment? How should they be reported in the financial statements?

Geddes Corporation is a medium-sized manufacturing company with two divisions and three subsidiaries, all located in the United States. The Metallic Division manufactures metal castings for the automotive industry, and the Plastic Division produces small plastic items for electrical products and other uses. The three subsidiaries manufacture various products for other industrial users.

Geddes Corporation plans to change from the lower of first-in, first-out (FIFO)-cost-or market method of inventory valuation to the last-in, first-out (LIFO) method of inventory valuation to obtain tax benefits. To make the method acceptable for tax purposes, the change also will be made for its annual financial statements.

Instructions

(a) Describe the establishment of and subsequent pricing procedures for each of the following LIFO inventory methods.

(1) LIFO applied to units of product when the periodic inventory system is

used.

(2) Application of the dollar-value method to LIFO units of product.

(b) Discuss the specific advantages and disadvantages of using the dollar-value LIFO application as compared to specific goods LIFO (unit LIFO). (Ignore income tax considerations.)

(c) Discuss the general advantages and disadvantages claimed for LIFO methods.

In an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the phrases “phantom (paper) profits” and “high LIFO profits” through involuntary liquidation were used. Explain the sephrases.

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