What Is Applied Overhead?
Applied overhead is a type of direct overhead expense that is recorded under the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:cost-accounting method. Applied overhead is a fixed raඣte charged to a specific production job, g✤ood produced, or department within a company. Companies use cost accounting to identify the expenses associated with manufacturing.
It is a category of overhead that is traceable. Applied overhead stands in contrast to general overhead, which is an 🐼indirect overhead, such as utilities, salaries, or rent.
Key Takeaways
- Applied overhead is a type of overhead that is a direct cost related to a specific production job, good produced, or department within a company.
- There are different overhead categories, such as administrative overhead, which includes costs related to managing a business.
- General overhead, or actual overhead, instead comprises indirect costs such as salaries, advertising expenses, and rent.
Understanding Applied Overhead
Overhead refers to the ongoing 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:business expenses not directly attributed to creating a product or service. It is important for budgeting purposes and determining how much a company must charge for its products or services to make a profit. In short, overhead is any expense incurred to support the business while not being direc🌳tly related to a specific product or service.
Applied overhead is usually allocated out to various 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:departments according to a specific formula. Hence, a certain amount of overhead is therefore applied to a given department, such as 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:marketing. T💝he percentage of overhead that is applied to a given department may or may not correlate to the actua🧔l amount of overhead incurred by that department.
Applied overhead costs include any cost that cannot be directly assigned to a cost object, such as rent, administrative staff compensation, and insurance. A cost object is an item for which a cost is compiled, such as a product, product line, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:distribution channel, subsid🌟iary, process, geographic region, or customer.
Overhead is generally ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚallocated (or applied) to cost items based on a standard methodology that is used 💛consistently from one period to the next. For example:
- Factory overhead is applied to products based on their use of machine processing time.
- Corporate overhead is applied to subsidiaries based on the revenue, profit, or asset levels of the subsidiaries.
Example of Applied Overhead
For instance, a business may apply overhead to its products based on a standard overhead application rate of $35.75 per hour of machine & equipment time used. Since the total amount of machine-hours used in the accounting period w🍌as 7,200 hours, the company would apply $257,400 of overhead to the units produced in that period.
From a management perspective, the analysis of applied overhead (and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:underapplied overhead) is an integral part of financial planning & analysis (FP&A) methods. By analyzing how costs are assigned to certain products or projects, management teams can make better-informed capital budgeting and financial-related operations decisions. In turn, with better analytics, management can achieve better capital use efficiency and retu🅰rn on invested capital, thereby increasing business valuation.