When analyzing the costs of an enterprise for the production of products, they are divided depending on the nature of the connection with the object into direct and overhead costs. If the former are directly related to a unit of goods and affect pricing, the latter cannot be directly attributed to the object of production.
Overhead costs represent the additional costs of the enterprise to ensure the processes of production and circulation of products. They accompany the main activities of the company, but are not directly related to it, therefore, they cannot be included in the cost of goods, works or services. These costs include: maintenance and operation of fixed assets; organization and maintenance of production; employee training; business trips; social security contributions; administrative staff salaries; damage to material values; downtime and other non-production costs. The most popular example of overhead is Internet and telephone bills. If an enterprise is engaged in trade, then overhead costs will also be represented by the costs of storage, packaging, transportation and marketing of goods. Many enterprises seek to minimize overhead costs, since they cannot be fully repaid by including in the cost of the goods. However, they ensure the normal functioning of the company, so the issue of optimization must be approached quite carefully. They can be recorded indirectly in the cost of production using various methods. The most common methods of planning overhead costs are: 1) Direct account method for separate cost items. 2) Calculation of expenses as a percentage of the wages of workers employed in production. 3) Mixed method. In this case, part of the overhead costs (taxes, depreciation deductions, salaries of administrative personnel, etc.) is determined by the direct method, and the second part is determined by the percentage method. As a result, you can determine the amount of overhead costs per unit of production and plan them in relation to the economic activities of the enterprise.
