Logistics costs - what is it? Classification, types and methods for calculating enterprise costs

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The production activity of enterprises and firms is a complex process. It consists of different stages. This, for example, the creation, storage, distribution, transportation of goods. Each of these links in the commodity-production chain is associated with a number of difficulties, risks and costs. As a rule, they need to be expressed in monetary terms. The resulting figures are called logistics costs. This shows all the financial aspects of the functioning of the company, and they determine the profitability of the organization. Let's take a closer look at the topic.

Logistics costs

This topic is best started by understanding what the term implies. Logistics is full of professional terms, the understanding of which will make it easier to navigate the topic. So, logistics costs are the monetary expression of the used labor force, objects of labor, consumables and related tools, as well asfinancial costs, including a variety of undesirable consequences due to force majeure situations. Such costs also include funds that are spent to maintain the required amount of inventory in the warehouse.

Cost characteristics

For a more detailed analysis of the logistics costs of an enterprise, you need to understand how they are expressed:

• distribution into categories of costs, which are classified according to specific and quantitative aspects;
• variability of indicators of values in different seasons of the year;
• distribution of responsibilities for the control of their occurrence between the links of the enterprise and work positions;
• labor-intensive activities related to determining their total volume and involving the performance of a large number of accounting and settlement operations.

As a result, all costs are distributed in three target areas:

• to calculate the cost, evaluate stocks of tools and material resources, as well as intermediate products, including their components, finished products to determine profit;
• managerial decision-making: planning, forecasting, risk calculation;
• supervision and regulation.

Enterprise cost groups

The first group of costs of the logistics system includes, of course, direct costs. They are reflected when accounting for production costs, but analytical work is needed to identify them, since their role is very important.

All production costs that form the cost of production are divided into the following categories: material costs; depreciation costs; finance allocated for wages; social Security contributions. It may also include other costs that the company incurs in the process of manufacturing, delivering and selling goods and services.

Financial costs for wages of employees take into account all types of wages, which are calculated on the basis of tariff rates, piecework or other principles of remuneration adopted at the plant. All processing surcharges are also added here; bonuses and bonuses; work on weekends and / or holidays, which is charged at a double and even triple rate; northern, southern and other allowances; combination.

Cost structure by economic content

First of all, you need to clarify what is included in the cost structure. For contributions to social needs, mandatory contributions are accepted according to established legislative norms. As well as force majeure costs, which are included in the structure of the calculation of logistics costs related to positions related to the financial performance of the enterprise.

Also takes into account all lost profits, which are not reflected in the company's balance sheet, but are important for the formation of trade policy, the calculation of potential risks and possible benefits.

Distribution costs

In addition to production costs that arise in the process of reproduction of a service or product, it is importanttake into account the handling costs. This is a kind of financial costs that accompany the movement of goods from the place of production to the place of sale or final consumption. These costs include:

• expenses for performing operations related to transportation, storage, refinement, packaging, packaging of goods and their merchandising;
• wage costs of trade workers, including deductions to state non-budgetary funds and social funds;
• depreciation of funds and intangible assets.

Variable logistics costs are those costs that increase or decrease in proportion to the increase or decrease in turnover. This category includes the costs of transporting goods, storing, sorting, packing, packing, repacking, and so on. If the impact of changes in the volume of trade is minimal, then such costs are called conditionally constant. These include, for example, depreciation charges; expenses for the maintenance and repair of buildings and structures; to pay salaries to the administrative and managerial apparatus and staff.

Relationship between logistics costs and the cost of goods/services

The term "cost" indicates the monetary value of the costs of production factors necessary for the enterprise to carry out commercial and production activities that are related to the production and sale of products and / or the provision of services.

The place of logistics costs in the cost of goods is already clear from the above definition. Since such costs will directly affect first the base production cost of the product, and then its final price. So, for example, the process of moving a product from a supplier's warehouse or the enterprise itself (factory, farmland, etc.) will be associated with certain risks that are automatically included in the price of the product.

How is the cost formed?

For the Russian Federation, the main factors in the formation of the cost of a product are the following categories:

• costs associated with the production and further sale of goods and services;
• costs for personnel, wages, training, advanced training;
• expenses for the maintenance, management and maintenance of the organization itself and its subsidiaries;
• payments to organizations that provide services related to the creation of products;
• expenses for the development and preparation of mock-ups of new products, samplers and the development of new niches and markets.

Cost types

Depending on the categories of costs included in the cost of production, it can be of the following types:

1. Shop, which includes all basic costs and general production costs (shows the cost of manufacturing finished products in the right amount).
2. Production, which is formed from the workshop cost and general business expenses, but already indicates the costs of the enterprise itself for the productionproducts.
3. Full, which, in fact, is the same production cost, with the only difference that it is increased by the amount of selling and marketing costs. This indicator combines the total costs of the enterprise associated with both the creation and all other costs that cannot be dispensed with in the process of delivering goods to the point of further sale or final consumption.

All this adds up to the concept of the cost of a product or service, which, in turn, depends on the overall logistics costs. This will be the key factor for the formation of the financial and commodity policy of the enterprise.