Cost Accounting question

[ebarker]

Let's look at this another way. As a practical matter, it is unlikely that a team is going to get any where near their regulated cost limits from buying aluminum.

You can go to a site like
http://www.metalsdepot.com/
and figure out the cost of metal. Then calculate the amount that you actually used on the robot on a per item basis. That is from rule <R51>

So if you go buy some titanium off of ebay for 10 bucks and the material is worth 250, but you only used a fifth of the material, then your cost basis it 50 bucks, even though it cost you only 10 bucks.

If you manage to use 3,500 bucks worth of titanium on a robot I'd like to see a picture of that.

My $ 0.0001

Ed

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by ebarker

You can go to a site like
http://www.metalsdepot.com/
and figure out the cost of metal. Then calculate the amount that you actually used on the robot on a per item basis. That is from rule <R51>

So if you go buy some titanium off of ebay for 10 bucks and the material is worth 250, but you only used a fifth of the material, then your cost basis it 50 bucks, even though it cost you only 10 bucks.

Ed,
I think you're right on about the cost accounting for buying off ebay. If the ebayer doesn't qualify as a VENDOR (and I don't think any do) then the correct thing to do is cost your part based on a price from McMaster or another VENDOR.

Please be careful about your advice about pro-rating. There was a discussion prior to last season about this and (I believe) the consensus was that you could prorate down to the smallest commercially available amount. This is opposed to your example of only using 1/5th of the price if you use 1/5th of the material. The appropriate example is that if you use 6" of a 3 foot length of titanium that usually costs $250, then you could prorate to the cost of a 1' length (assuming a 1' length is the smallest amount you could find).

This makes more sense when you're talking about things that really don't come in arbitrary amounts like, say, tubs of exotic resin for carbon fiber. If the smallest commercially available amount is a 50 gallon drum, it doesn't matter if you only use 2 ounces.

[ebarker]

I went and read the thread that you referred to.

I would have to agree with the comments made there that the cost is higher of the following:

a) the minimum unit cost
b) the material actually used.

so if you used a half a square foot of material, but the minimum buy is a foot, then the cost is for the foot.
if you used 3 square foot then that will be the cost because it is greater than the minimum buy of one foot

So I agree with your comments on pro-rating after thinking about it.

It would be good if they clarified the rules on pro-rating as I'm not sure that it is clear enough.

The one cool thing about metalsdepot is they have some fairly small sized materials, so that helps with the minimum buy.

Ed

[AdamHeard]

Well... there is a metal supply nearby called M&K metal, they are rather large and definitely meet the definition of a vendor. They also happen to be the place with a scrap bin I was talking about; So, a vendor is selling it now, does that make a difference? Or should I just leave it be?

[Kevin Sevcik]

... The whole point is that another team should be able to get the same thing for the same price. Not almost the same thing, etc. You can always bring it up at the beginning of next year, of course, but the GDC usually insists that salvage and donated materials still have to be accounted for at retail price.

[kawelch]

The guideline I use for accounting is...what would it cost for the GDC to build an exact replica of my robot. This assumes that the have no donated materials and have to pay retail for everything. They also only by the bare minimum of materials regardless of long term savings. This may not be a perfect interpretaion but I think it honors the intend and spirit of the rule.

So when in doubt... what would they have to pay for it in NH...or CA..or KS? (Whereever you aren't)