Prime costs and conversion costs are two methods that businesses use to measure the efficiency of their production operations. Prime costs also mark an item’s rock-bottom selling price; if you sell a product below its prime cost, you’re losing money on each unit. To generate a positive gross profit margin, products should sell for more than their total manufacturing cost, including overhead. During June, Excite Company’s prime cost was $325,000 and conversion cost was $300,000. A periodical review of the firm’s prime cost is crucial to ensure the efficiency of its manufacturing process.
Direct labor, as mentioned above, refers to the salaries of production workers. Factory overhead refers to costs incurred in production other than direct materials and direct labor. Conversion costs are also used as a measure to gauge the efficiencies in production processes but take into account the overhead expenses left out of prime cost calculations. Operations managers also use conversion costs to determine where there may be waste within the manufacturing process. Conversion costs include the direct labor and overhead expenses incurred as raw materials are transformed into finished products.
Defining Labor
Examples of direct labor workers include welders, machine operators, assemblers and painters etc. In manufacturing sector, the basic production costs can be categorized differently depending on the purpose and use of categorization. For example, they are often categorized as prime cost and conversion cost.
- During the month of April, Company A has a total cost of $50,000 in direct labor and related expenses, as well as $86,000 in factory overhead costs.
- The calculation for prime costs includes the total amount spent on direct materials in addition to direct labor.
- Calculating a product’s prime cost is important because it can be used to determine a product’s minimum sales price.
- The conversion cost takes labor and overhead expenses into account, but not the cost of materials.
- In a typical manufacturing process, direct manufacturing costs include direct materials and direct labor.
Businesses use both cost formulas to assess profitability and labor efficiency. Direct labor costs include the salaries, wages, and benefits paid to employees who work on the finished products. Compensation paid to machinists, painters, or welders is common in calculating prime costs. Prime costs are reviewed by operations managers to ensure the company has an efficient production process. The calculation of prime costs also helps organizations set prices at a level that produce an acceptable amount of profit. Indirect materials, electricity charges and salaries of engineer and supervisor are all indirect costs and have, therefore, been added together to obtain total manufacturing overhead cost.
Direct Labor
Direct labor costs are the same as those used in prime cost calculations. The difference between the two cost classifications is that prime costs only relate to direct material and direct labor costs, while conversion costs only include direct labor costs and factory overhead costs. Conversion costs can be considered to layer on top of prime costs, where they are needed to convert raw materials into finished goods. Prime costs and conversion costs are relied upon heavily in the manufacturing sector as a metric to determine efficiency in the production of a specific product.
Prime costs are defined as the expenditures directly related to creating finished products, while conversion costs are the expenses incurred when turning raw materials into a product. Prime costs and conversion costs include some of the same factors of production expenses, but each provides a different perspective into production efficiency. The calculation for prime costs includes the amounts spent on direct materials and direct labor.
Direct labor examples might include assembly line workers, welders, carpenters, glass workers, painters, and cooks. Assume that direct materials cost $700, direct labor is $500, and factory overhead is $300 for cabinets that have been manufactured. This information helps managers know where to focus their attention when planning, directing and controlling costs. Direct materials is the basic physical ingredient, matter or substance which the company processes to make a salable product. Plastic, rubber, steel, iron, timber and many agricultural outputs like sugarcane, sugar beets, jute and cotton etc. are examples of direct materials that are processed to produce salable finished products. As you can see, the direct labor costs are considered to be both a prime cost and a conversion cost.
Sum direct materials and direct labor
However, the definition of a labor expense used in the prime cost formula includes wages paid only to those employees who directly participate in the building, formation, or assembly of an item for sale. Direct labor includes what is the difference between purchase order and invoice only wages paid to workers who directly contribute to the formation, assembly, or creation of the product. Direct labor would not include, for example, salaries for factory managers or fees paid to engineers or designers.
Conversion costs are the expenses to turn, or convert, your raw materials into finished goods. The primary difference between the two is that the formula for conversion costs takes overhead into account. For this reason, it’s a more relevant number for operations managers, who may be looking at ways to reduce the indirect expenses of production. The manufacturing sector analyses both prime costs and conversion costs to measure efficiency in the production of a product. Prime costs and conversion costs include some of the same factors of production expenses, but each provides a different perspective when it comes to evaluating production efficiency. Labor is sometimes a little more complicated to define because, for many companies, the contributions of several different types of employees are crucial to the creation of the end product.
In manufacturing, raw materials might include metals, plastics, hardware, fabric, and paint. For a furniture manufacturer, the raw materials might be lumber, hardware, paint, and varnish. Snack Shack used $400,000 in direct materials last year ($15,000 beginning inventory + $395,000 purchased inventory – $10,000 ending inventory). A seasoned business owner, James knows investors will ask about prime costs, a metric restaurateurs often use as a proxy for financial health when compared to sales.
Direct materials pertain to cost of items that form an integral or major part of the finished product. Examples are steel in automobiles, rubber in tires, fabric in clothing, etc. Direct labor refers to the salaries and wages of workers who transform the materials into finished goods. A garment manufacturing company, for example, would include the wages paid to the workers who cut, stitch, and dye the clothing, but not to the employee who designs them. In a restaurant, the cooks, servers, busboys, and other staff are included in labor because the end product consists of the dining experience as well as the prepared meal. Prime cost accounting can help you decide on a product’s selling price or whether to drop a product line in favor of a lower-cost alternative.
However, looking at your prime costs is just one way to analyze your business’s financial performance. Check out a host of other financial accounting ratios you can use https://www.kelleysbookkeeping.com/how-to-deduct-personal-appearance-expenses/ to take your financial analysis to the next level. Snack Shack’s direct labor cost is $70,000 ($15,000 Rhonda’s wages + $15,000 Jose’s wages + $40,000 Amelia’s wages).
