Hello, I'm hoping to start an online retail business and have been studying accounting, however most text books don't delve into real world situations deeply. I trying to figure out the best way to handle the situation where the price of inventory goods on my PO doesn't match the Invoice price we receive from the vendor. I know this is call a "purchase price variance" but my questions are:
1) Is it required to track this variance? I think it's wise to do so since I can then determine if this particular vendor is always charging me more (or less) and if I should continue to use this vendor.2) From the above I would imagine the ppv needs to be tracked by vendor and not just a generic account or assessing a vendor would be hard to do correct?
3) I know a PO does not impact the financials since it's only a "request" for goods and no money has changed hands at this point so how does this non-impact document relate to the actual invoice which does effect the financials since it's a payable ?4) Most accounting text books I'm looking at teat this variance in the environment of manufacturing and standard costing and not retail so how to handle this in retail. Also, I'm planning on using the FIFO perpetual costing method, does this make a difference?
Any guidance on how to handle the PPV and accounts I should be setting up will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
J