Summary
When customer orders or other segments of output are not all alike, job order costing is used to trace some costs directly to each segment of output. Each identified segment of output is called a job. Details of jobs’ costs are collected on job cost sheets, which also serve as subsidiary records for Work in Process. Indirect costs are also charged to jobs, usually by means of predetermined overhead rates. A predetermined rate is calculated by dividing an estimate of total indirect costs by an estimate of the total of a selected allocation base. Job order costing is used in both manufacturing and service businesses.