Mulligan Imports decides to use the FIFO method for the month of January. During that month, it records the following transactions:

Quantity Change

Actual Unit Cost

Actual Total Cost

Beginning inventory (Layer 1)

+100

$210

$21,000

Sale

-75

Purchase (Layer 2)

+150

280

42,000

Sale

-100

Purchase (Layer 3)

+50

300

15,000

Ending inventory

=125

The cost of goods sold in units is calculated as:

100 Beginning inventory + 200 Purchased – 125 Ending inventory = 175 Units

Mulligan’s cost accountant uses the information in the preceding table to calculate the cost of goods sold for January, as well as the cost of the inventory balance as of the end of January.

Units

Units Cost

Total Cost

Cost of goods sold

FIFO layer 1

100

$210

$21,000

FIFO layer 2

75

280

21,000

Total cost of goods sold

175

$42,000

Ending inventory

FIFO layer 2

75

280

$21,000

FIFO layer 3

50

300

15,000

Total ending inventory

125

$36,000

Thus, the first FIFO layer, which was the beginning inventory layer, is completely used up during the month, as well as half of Layer 2, leaving half of Layer 2 and all of Layer 3 to be the sole components of the ending inventory.

Note that the $42,000 cost of goods sold and $36,000 ending inventory equals the $78,000 combined total of beginning inventory and purchases during the month.