inventory costing weighted average
The weighted average method is an inventory costing method that assigns average costs to each piece of inventory when it is sold during the year.Retailers and other businesses that keep and sell inventory must keep track of the cost of inventory on hand as well as the cost of inventory that was sold.hen unit of inventory is sold, the weighted average method of costing inventory takes the average cost of all inventories currently available. This average price is then assigned to the item sold. Since inventory prices fluctuate, the weighted average cost will also change. Think about it this way.
When using the weighted average method, divide the cost of goods available for sale by the number of units available for sale, which yields the weighted-average cost per unit. In this calculation, the cost of goods available for sale is the sum of beginning inventory and net purchases.You then use this weighted-average figure to assign a cost to both ending inventory and the cost of goods sold.The net result of using weighted average costing is that the recorded amount of inventory on hand represents a value somewhere between the oldest and newest units purchased into stock.eighted average costing is commonly used in situations where: 1  Inventory items are so intermingled that it is impossible to assign a specific cost to an individual unit. 2  The accounting system is not sufficiently sophisticated to track FIFO or LIFO inventory layers.