Expenditures for materials that go directly into the creation of a product or service are called

In business and accounting, cost is the monetary value that a company has spent in order to produce something

Track your company’s costs and easily stay on top of your business accounts with Debitoor. Try it free for 7 days.

Cost denotes the amount of money that a company spends on the creation or production of goods or services. It does not include the markup for profit.

From a seller’s point of view, cost is the amount of money that is spent to produce a good or product. If a producer were to sell his products at the production price, his costs and income would break even, meaning that he would not lose money on the sales. However, he would not make a profit.

From a buyer’s point of view the cost of a product is also known as the price. This is the amount that the seller charges for a product, and it includes both the production cost and the mark-up, which is added by the seller in order to make a profit.

Cost in accounting

In accounting, the term cost refers to the monetary value of expenditures for raw materials, equipment, supplies, services, labor, products, etc. It is an amount that is recorded as an expense in bookkeeping records.

Types of cost

There are a number of different types of costs for a business. In this context, variable costs and direct costs are arguably the most relevant.

Variable costs have the most financial impact for a company when it comes to producing and delivering products or services. These costs come about as a result of the ordering, shipping, and handling of raw materials. Because these can sometimes require special terms, variable costs are included in the final amount.

Direct costs are also an important aspect to consider in the final mark-up stages of the product or service. Direct costs include the amount of time and effort put into creating the product. In other words, the hours of work that go into the production. Direct costs are another element to consider in final mark-up.

Planning for costs

When a new company’s business plan is developed, organisers will often create cost estimates. These are used to assess whether the benefits and revenues of a proposed business will more than cover the costs. This is called a cost-benefit analysis.

Underestimating the costs of a business may result in a cost overrun once operations begin. This means that costs are higher than the income, and consequently, the company will lose money.

Cost Plus model

Most companies use the Cost Plus model in order to determine a sales price for a product. Cost Plus is when the Price = Cost +/- X %, where X is the percentage of built in overhead or the profit margin that is to be added to the cost.

Cost and Debitoor

Debitoor allows you to record your expenses and upload documents to keep track of costs to your business. Use your smartphone to snap a photo of a receipt while you’re out and about and fill in the details later - it goes directly to your Debitoor account!

Save contact details for your suppliers to quickly enter and auto-fill your expenses and stay on top of the accounting for your business.

Procurement can be divided into direct and indirect material categories.

Direct procurement, or direct spend management, is the company's process of purchasing or obtaining materials, resources, goods, and services that are used in the core operations of its business and eventually make up its product.

Direct items are sourced and used in the production of goods and services for the end customer or client.

Indirect and direct procurement vary from each other by their category characteristics and nature. In this article, we will cover what direct material procurement is all about.

What are direct materials?

In cost accounting, direct materials are any physical items built into a product. Simple examples of direct materials in manufacturing are ingredients for a cake, parts for a car, and fabric for clothing.

In manufacturing organizations, direct material spend represents the largest percentage of total spend, even up to 80%.

This would equal to 80% of your pricing structure, competitive advantage, quality, customer satisfaction, and innovation potential. Direct materials are easy to identify, and measure, and are directly linked to the cost of production.

To bake a cake, you need flour, eggs, dried fruit, sugar, etc. These are the direct materials needed to make the cake.

What is a BOM?

BOM stands for a bill of materials. It is a commonly used term in the production landscape. A Bill of materials is a list of all items needed to make a product. The cake ingredients list is a BOM.

In manufacturing, a BOM includes a comprehensive list of raw materials, components, assemblies, and instructions required to construct or manufacture a product or service.

BOM is usually expressed in a hierarchical table format; the finished product is at the top and items are listed in descending order of importance or complexity.

Each line item in BOM is likely to include the product code, item name, item number, item revision, description, quantity, unit of measure, size, length, weight, and specification or description of the item.

Direct materials vs Indirect materials

Indirect materials are those materials that are used in production but do not form a part of the finished goods.

Indirect purchases, both goods, and services are needed to support day-to-day operations. In the cake example, we use protective items such as gloves and other utensils as well as kitchen electricity and work clothes.

While indirect materials enable the production process, it is not possible to accurately allocate their costs to a specific product. The cost of direct materials on the other hand includes any expense directly associated with those raw materials. This may include transportation, insurance, and import-related costs.  

The categorization of direct materials is industry and organization specific. Direct category groups vary between companies and industry fields based on the nature of their end products.

Automotive direct materials could look very different from those in the pharmaceutical or food industries. Indirect procurement categories on the other hand tend to be relatively similar across industries. Indirect categories include marketing, business travel, IT, facilities, and professional services.

Learn how category analysis can drive your procurement analytics in this comprehensive guide!

What is direct procurement?

Direct procurement is the spend on raw materials, goods, and services in order to produce goods or services. Direct procurement includes direct material categories of spend but can also include the indirect materials and services directly linked to the manufacturing process.

Direct materials and direct procurement are often used interchangeably but there are important differences.

In the cake example, the bakery could have outsourced some of its bakers (direct services procurement). On the other hand, indirect procurement should include all the categories of spend that enable a company to maintain and develop its operations.

Direct materials have a direct impact on the end product and profitability of a company. Direct material procurement may be a complex and labor-intensive process. It is a business-critical task to master that will have a direct impact on end products and customers.

Direct material sourcing

Direct procurement is dependent on the continuity of supply while market volatility and price fluctuations bring their own challenges to the equation. It can entail global suppliers, lengthy lead times, and heavy reliance on forecasting and logistics performance.

Sourcing direct materials involves expertise, time, consideration, and attention. Direct material procurement also requires extensive collaboration—there are numerous parties involved, internal and external, and multiple activities to plan, track, coordinate, and control.

Direct materials quality defines the quality of your product and therefore impacts your competitive advantage and customer satisfaction. Therefore, quality management is an important part of direct procurement. Quality management practices vary based on material type and category.

For instance, food quality management could include food safety audits and automotive component quality management could include durability tests.

Spend and material forecasting

Direct procurement relies heavily on its supplier network and material availability and quality. Direct procurement connects multiple items purchased from various suppliers with varying delivery and production schedules.

See how Kellogg's turned from backward-looking number crunching to value-added analysis

Complications on both sides of an order require sharing forecasts and visibility into large volumes of data in an accurate format and timely manner.

Direct procurement needs to understand its spend, bill of materials, and aspects that may have an impact on its future demand for those materials. Analyzing the spend patterns of direct materials will help identify the following improvements:

  1. cost savings

  2. process improvements

  3. effective production scheduling and demand planning

  4. inventory reduction

  5. efficient transportation and warehousing

  6. increased customer satisfaction.

Best performing companies recognize the need to analyze levers impacting bottom line performance – while also looking ahead to drive profitability. 

There are multiple tools for spend and material forecasting from spreadsheets to sophisticated solutions fit for large companies. Best-of-breed solutions can provide insights not accessible using ERP systems or Excel spreadsheets that may be clumsy and prone to error.

Photo by: @caities_cakes_amsterdam

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