Four methods of assigning costs to inventory and cost of goods sold are: |
1. Specific identification—when each item in inventory can be identified with a specific purchase and invoice, we can use this method to assign actual cost of units sold to cost of goods sold and leave actual cost of units on hand in the inventory account.
2. First-in, first-out (FIFO)—when sales occur, the costs of the earliest units acquired are charged to cost of goods sold, leaving costs of most recent purchases in inventory.
3. Last-in, first-out (LIFO)—when sales occur, costs of the most recent purchases are charged to cost of goods sold, leaving costs of earliest purchases in inventory. (Note: LIFO comes closest to matching current costs against revenues.)
4. Weighted average (also called average cost)—requires we compute the weighted average cost per unit of inventory at the time of each sale (cost of goods available divided by units available). We charge this weighted average cost per unit times units sold to cost of goods sold. |

