The Life Starter
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Course Library · Lesson 5 of 6
Money · Guided lesson

Record a supported loss adjustment

About 14 minutes · 4 reading + 10 practice and checks
Time includes reading, practice, and questions. Extra videos or further study are optional.
See this course’s project requirements

A fictional inventory-cost ledger with FIFO and weighted-average comparison, returns, write-down case and reconciled gross profit.

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • A unit roll-forward and available-cost identity.
  • A FIFO layer worksheet and gross-profit bridge.
  • A periodic weighted-average comparison with FIFO and rounding notes.
  • A returned-purchase and landed-cost valuation ledger.
  • A supported damaged-inventory value adjustment and quantity/value bridge.
  • A final inventory-cost and gross-profit reconciliation packet.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • Units: acquisitions, returns, sales and count reconcile.
  • Valuation: FIFO and average use correct layers/pool.
  • Loss: supported affected-unit adjustment is explicit.
  • Profit: cost destinations and classification reconcile.
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Before you begin

The idea in everyday life

Original fictional practice. All money is USD. No account, payment, personal record or outside participation is required. Fictional periodic inventory of identical notebooks: beginning 10 units at 4=40; buy 20 at 5=100; sell 18 at 10=180 revenue. Initial count 12 remain. Later variation: return 4 purchase units before any sales and pay 16 inbound freight allocated only to the 16 retained purchased units. Adjusted goods available 26 units/cost 136; sell 18, ending count 8. For the loss case use FIFO, of the eight unsold units two are damaged, cost 6 each and supported net realizable value 1 each. Exercise policy records the 10 loss within COGS; no tax policy or real standard election is implied. Original changed-case support labels: RET-04 documents the four-unit supplier return before sales; FRT-16 allocates freight 16 to the retained purchase lot; LOSS-02 documents two ending units at cost 6 each and recoverable value 1 each. These are supplied fictional source labels for your audit index.

The idea

A loss changes value even when the physical count remains unchanged.

Follow along

Record a supported loss adjustment — complete worked case

A loss changes value even when the physical count remains unchanged.

Fictional periodic inventory of identical notebooks: beginning 10 units at 4=40; buy 20 at 5=100; sell 18 at 10=180 revenue. Initial count 12 remain. Later variation: return 4 purchase units before any sales and pay 16 inbound freight allocated only to the 16 retained purchased units. Adjusted goods available 26 units/cost 136; sell 18, ending count 8. For the loss case use FIFO, of the eight unsold units two are damaged, cost 6 each and supported net realizable value 1 each. Exercise policy records the 10 loss within COGS; no tax policy or real standard election is implied. Original changed-case support labels: RET-04 documents the four-unit supplier return before sales; FRT-16 allocates freight 16 to the retained purchase lot; LOSS-02 documents two ending units at cost 6 each and recoverable value 1 each. These are supplied fictional source labels for your audit index.

Initial original ledger

Paste at A1.

ARecordBUnitsCUnit costDCost or revenue
Beginning10440
Purchase205100
Sale18Selling 10180
Initial closing count12UnassignedTo calculate

Copy as plain text
  1. 1. 5.1 Record

    Identify damaged unit count, carried cost and the supplied expected recovery less disposal/selling costs.

    You should see: 2 units,6 cost,1 NRV.

  2. 2. 5.2 Record

    Apply only the downward case adjustment to affected units.

    You should see: Loss 10.

  3. 3. 5.3 Record

    Preserve physical eight-unit count while splitting sound and damaged values.

    You should see: 6×6+2×1=38 ending.

  4. 4. 5.4 Record

    Change NRV to 2 and recompute loss 8, ending 40 and COGS 96 under the same policy.

    You should see: The value adjustment changes; unit count remains 8.

Now change one thing

Two ending units each cost 6; their new net realizable value is 3 each. Enter the total write-down under the supplied lower-of-cost policy.

Your work

What to finish

A supported damaged-inventory value adjustment and quantity/value bridge.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Deleting damaged units from count when they remain held, or making an unsupported value increase.

How can I tell I understand it?

Verify that your completed supported damaged-inventory value adjustment and quantity/value bridge meets the three lesson-specific checks and retains the supporting original records.

Try 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.

Not yet passed

You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.

1Two held damaged units cost 6 and NRV1. What loss is assigned?
2Why can quantity remain 8 while ending value falls to 38?
3Which additional information would be needed for a real write-down?
0 of 3 answeredApply the lesson to a short question, then review the explanation.
5
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Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.

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Sources and further reading

Explore the references behind this lesson.

Open Stax: Inventory errors and statement effects
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Read dynamic inventory/COGS relationship and available-for-sale boundary. Distinct loss classification is stated as a fictional exercise policy.

Access: Public primary page body opened and relevant sections read through the web reader on 2026-10-01; no account required for reading.

Reuse: Original Life Starter cases, datasets and questions; no source exercise or worked dataset reproduced. Links support further reading.

Open Stax: Inventory cost-flow assumptions
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Read FIFO, weighted average, historical cost and lower-of-cost discussion; original quantities/costs/NRV policy supplied here.

Access: Public primary page body opened and relevant sections read through the web reader on 2026-10-01; no account required for reading.

Reuse: Original Life Starter cases, datasets and questions; no source exercise or worked dataset reproduced. Links support further reading.

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