Skip to content
ACCA exam results — Are you ready?Chat about it >>

Ask the Tutor ACCA FA

Incomplete records

Iij5y ago
A sole trader fixes her prices by adding 50 per cent to the cost of all goods purchased. On 31 October 20X3, a fire destroyed a considerable part of the inventory and all inventory records. Her trading account for the year ended 31 October 20X3 included the following figures: Sales $281250 cost of sales opening inventories $183600 purchases $249200 closing inventories $204600 cost of sales $228200 gross profit $53050 Using this information, what inventory loss has occurred? $61,050 $87,575 $40,700 $110,850 I wasn't sure how to tackle this question because it didn't look like any inventory loss had occurred at all. I wasn't sure how to find a different cost of sales figure to compare to the one given so the difference would be the inventory loss
John MoffatJohn MoffatTutor5y ago#1
They add 50% to the cost in order to get the selling price. Given that the sales were $281,250, the cost of these sales must therefore have been 100/150 x 281,250 = $187,500. That means that the closing inventory should have been 183,600 + 249,200 - 187,500 = $245,300. Given that the actual inventory was only $204,600, they must have lost the difference of 245,300 - 204,600 = $40,700. Do watch my free lectures on mark-ups and margins where I work through several examples like this. The lectures are a complete free course for Paper FA and cover everything needed to be able to pass the exam well.
Sign in to reply to this topic.