BACKFLUSH COSTING

A product costing system generally used in a just-in-time inventory environment. Backflush costing delays the costing process until the production of goods is completed. Costs are then “flushed” back at the end of the production run and assigned to the goods. This eliminates the detailed tracking of costs throughout the production process, which is a feature of traditional costing systems.

By eliminating work-in-process accounts, backflush costing simplifies the accounting process. However, this simplification and other deviations from traditional costing systems mean that backflush costing may not always conform to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Another drawback of this system is the lack of a sequential audit trail.