11-1 Introduction
Obsolete inventory is any inventory for which there is no longer any use, either through inclusion in viable manufactured goods or by direct sale to customers.
Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) state that obsolete inventory must be written off as soon as it is identified. Given the substantial level of inter- pretation that can be put on the “obsolete inventory” designation, it is evident that this subject area can have a large adverse impact on profitability. In this chapter, we review how to find obsolete inventory, how to dispose of it in the most profitable manner, how much expense to recognize, and how to prevent it from occurring.
11-2 Locating Obsolete Inventory
There are several techniques for locating obsolete inventory, as discussed in this section. However, be sure to gain the commitment of upper management to this search first; otherwise, the scope of the resulting expense (which can be substantial) may lead to multiple rounds of questions regarding how the company could have found itself saddled with so much obsolete inventory, all of which must be written off as soon as it is discovered. Conducting a search for obsolete inventory may meet with a particular level of resistance if the management team is being awarded sig- nificant profit-based bonuses. If so, consider addressing the prevention of incom- ing obsolete inventory instead, which may reduce inventory levels over the long term, although it will not address the existing obsolete inventory.
It is certainly encouraging to see a manager eliminate obsolete inventory, but a common problem is to see some items disposed of that were actually needed, possi- bly for short-term production requirements, but also for long-term service parts or substitutes for other items. In these cases, the person eliminating inventory will likely be castigated for causing problems that the logistics staff must fix. A good solution is to form a Materials Review Board (MRB). The MRB is composed of rep- resentatives from every department having any interaction with inventory issues—
accounting, engineering, logistics, and production. For example, the engineering staff may need to retain some items that they are planning to incorporate into a new design, while the logistics staff may know that it is impossible to obtain a rare part, and so prefer to hold onto the few items left in stock for service parts use.
It can be difficult to bring this disparate group together for obsolete inventory reviews, so one normally has to put a senior member of management in charge to force meetings to occur, while also scheduling a series of regular inventory review meetings well in advance. Meeting minutes should be written and disseminated to all group members, identifying which inventory items have been mutually declared obsolete. If this approach still results in accusations that items have been improp- erly disposed of, then the group can also resort to a sign-off form that must be completed by each MRB member before any disposition can occur. However, ob- taining a series of sign-offs can easily cause lengthy delays or the loss of the sign- off form, and is therefore not recommended. A simpler approach is to use a negative approval process whereby items will be dispositioned as of a certain date unless an MRB member objects. The MRB is not recommended for low-inventory situations, as can arise in a just-in-time (JIT) environment, because an MRB tends to act too slowly for employees who are used to a fast-moving JIT system.
The simplest long-term way to find obsolete inventory without the assistance of a computer system is to leave the physical inventory count tags on all inventory items following completion of the annual physical count. The tags taped to any items used during the subsequent year will be thrown away at the time of use, leav- ing only the oldest unused items still tagged by the end of the year. One can then tour the warehouse and discuss with the MRB each of these items to see if an obso- lescence reserve should be created for them. However, tags can fall off or be ripped off inventory items, especially if there is a high level of traffic in nearby bins. Extra taping will reduce this issue, but it is likely that some tag loss will occur over time.
Even a rudimentary computerized inventory tracking system is likely to record the last date on which a specific part number was removed from the warehouse for production or sale. If so, it is an easy matter to use a report writer to extract and sort this information, resulting in a report listing all inventory, starting with those products with the oldest “last used” date. By sorting the report with the oldest last- usage date listed first, one can readily arrive at a sort list of items requiring further investigation for potential obsolescence. However, this approach does not yield sufficient proof that an item will never be used again, because it may be an essen- tial component of an item that has not been scheduled for production in some time, or a service part for which demand is low.
A more advanced version of the last used report is shown in Exhibit 11-1. It compares total inventory withdrawals to the amount on hand, which by itself may be sufficient information to conduct an obsolescence review. It also lists planned usage, which calls for information from a material requirements planning system and which informs one of any upcoming requirements that might keep the MRB from otherwise disposing of an inventory item. An extended cost for each item is also listed, in order to give report users some idea of the write-off that might occur if an item is declared obsolete. In the exhibit, the subwoofer, speaker bracket, and
wall bracket appear to be obsolete based on prior usage, but the planned use of more wall brackets would keep that item from being disposed of.
If a computer system includes a bill of materials, there is a strong likelihood that it also generates a “where used” report, listing all of the bills of material for which an inventory item is used. If there is no “where used” listed on the report for an item, it is likely that a part is no longer needed. This report is most effective if bills of material are removed from the computer system or deactivated as soon as products are withdrawn from the market; this approach more clearly reveals those inventory items that are no longer needed.
An additional approach for determining whether a part is obsolete is reviewing engineering change orders. These documents show those parts being replaced by different ones, as well as when the changeover is scheduled to take place. One can then search the inventory database to see how many of the parts being replaced are still in stock, which can then be totaled, yielding another variation on the amount of obsolete inventory on hand.
A final source of information is the preceding period’s obsolete inventory re- port. Even the best MRB will sometimes fail to dispose of acknowledged obsolete items. The accounting staff should keep track of these items and continue to no- tify management of those items for which there is no disposition activity.
In order to make any of these review systems work, it is necessary to create policies and procedures as well as ongoing scheduled review dates. By doing so, there is a strong likelihood that obsolescence reviews will become a regular part of a company’s activities. In particular, consider a Board-mandated policy to con- duct at least quarterly obsolescence reviews, which gives management an oppor- tunity to locate items before they become too old to be disposed of at a reasonable price. Another Board policy should state that management will actively seek out and dispose of work-in-process or finished goods with an unacceptable quality level.
By doing so, goods are kept from being stored in the warehouse in the first place, so the MRB never has to deal with it at a later date.
Exhibit 11-1 Inventory Obsolescence Review Report Last
Item Quantity Year Planned Extended
Description No. Location on Hand Usage Usage Cost
Subwoofer case 0421 A-04-C 872 520 180 $9,053
Speaker case 1098 A-06-D 148 240 120 1,020
Subwoofer 3421 D-12-A 293 14 0 24,724
Circuit board 3600 B-01-A 500 5,090 1,580 2,500
Speaker, bass 4280 C-10-C 621 2,480 578 49,200
Speaker bracket 5391 C-10-C 14 0 0 92
Wall bracket 5080 B-03-B 400 0 120 2,800
Gold connection 6233 C-04-A 3,025 8,042 5,900 9,725
Tweeter 7552 C-05-B 725 6,740 2,040 5,630
11-3 Disposing of Obsolete Inventory
As soon as obsolete inventory is identified, GAAP mandates that it be written off at once. However, this only applies to the unrecoverable portion of the inventory, so one should make a strong effort to earn some compensation from an inventory dis- position. This section outlines several disposition possibilities, beginning with full- price sales and moving down through options having progressively lower returns.
In some situations, one can recover nearly the entire cost of excess items by ask- ing the service department to sell them to existing customers as replacement parts.
This approach is especially useful when the excess items are for specialized parts that customers are unlikely to obtain elsewhere, because these sales can be pre- sented to customers as valuable replacements that may not be available for much longer. Conversely, this approach is least useful for commodity items or those sub- ject to rapid obsolescence or having a short shelf life.
It is possible that some parts should be kept on hand for a few years, to be sold or given away as warranty replacements. This will reduce the amount of obsoles- cence expense and also keeps the company from having to procure or remanufac- ture parts at a later date in order to meet service/repair obligations. The amount of inventory to be held in this service/repair category can be roughly calculated based on the company’s experience with similar products, or with the current product if it has been sold for a sufficiently long period. Any additional inventory on hand exceeding the total amount of anticipated service/repair parts can then be disposed of. Of particular interest is the time period over which management anticipates stor- ing parts in the service/repair category. There should be some period over which the company has historically found that parts are required, such as five or ten years.
Once this predetermined period has ended, a flag in the product master file should trigger a message indicating that the remaining parts can be eliminated. Before doing so, management should review recent transactional experience to see if the service/repair period should be extended or if it is now safe to eliminate the re- maining stock.
Another possibility is to return the goods to the original supplier. Doing so will likely result in a restocking fee of 15% to 20%, which is still a bargain for otherwise useless goods. Rather than buying back parts for cash, many suppliers will only issue a credit against future purchases. This option becomes less likely if the company has owned the goods for a long time, because the supplier may no longer have a need for them stock them at all. Of course, this approach fails if the supplier will only issue a credit and the company has no need for other parts sold by the supplier.
It may be possible to sell goods online through an auction service. The best- known site is eBay, although there are other sites designed exclusively for the disposition of excess goods, such as www.salvagesale.com. These sites are more proactive in maintaining contact with potential buyers within specific commodity categories, and so can sometimes generate higher resale prices.
A poor way to sell off excess inventory to salvage contractors is to allow them to pick over the items for sale, only selecting those items they are certain to make
a profit on. By doing so, the bulk of the excess inventory will still be parked in the warehouse when the contractors are gone. Instead, divide the inventory into batches, each one containing some items of value, which a salvage contractor must purchase in total in order to obtain that subset of items desired. Then have the con- tractors bid on each batch. Although the total amount of funds realized may not be much higher than would have been the case if the contractors had cherry-picked the inventory, they will take on the burden of removing the inventory from the ware- house, thereby allowing the company to avoid disposal expenses.
There are some instances where a company can donate excess inventory to a charity. By doing so, it can claim a tax deduction for the book value of the donated items. This will not generate any cash flow if the company has no reportable in- come, but the deduction can contribute to a net operating loss carry-forward that can be carried into a different tax reporting year. If this approach looks viable, re- quest a copy of nonprofit status from the receiving entity, proving that it has been granted nonprofit status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service tax code.
Finally, even if there is no hope of obtaining any form of compensation for ob- solete goods, strongly consider throwing them in the dumpster. By doing so, there will be more storage space in the warehouse, the space to be allocated to other uses.
Furthermore, the amount of inventory insurance coverage will be less, resulting in a smaller annual insurance premium. Depending on the local tax jurisdiction, one can also avoid paying a property tax on the inventory that has been disposed of. In addition, the number of inventory items to track in the warehouse database can be reduced, which can lead to a reduction in the number of cycle counting hours re- quired per day to review the entire inventory on a recurring basis.
11-4 Expense Recognition for Obsolete Inventory
In brief, the proper expense recognition procedure for obsolete inventory is to de- termine the most likely disposition value for the targeted items, subtract this value from the book value of the obsolete inventory, and set aside the difference as a re- serve. As the obsolete inventory is actually disposed of or estimates in the dispo- sition values change, adjust the reserve account to reflect these alterations.
For example, a review of the Presto Computer Company’s inventory reveals that it has $100,000 of laptop computer hard drives that it cannot sell. However, it believes there is a market for the drives through a reseller in Africa, but only at a sale price of $20,000. Accordingly, the Presto controller recognizes a reserve of $80,000 with the following journal entry:
Debit Credit
Cost of goods sold $80,000
Reserve for obsolete inventory $80,000
After finalizing arrangements with the African reseller, the actual sale price is only
$19,000, so the controller completes the transaction with the following entry, rec- ognizing an additional $1,000 of expense:
Debit Credit
Reserve for obsolete inventory $80,000
Cost of goods sold $1,000
Inventory $81,000
Sounds like a simple, mechanical process, doesn’t it? It is not. The first problem is that one can improperly alter a company’s reported financial results just by alter- ing the timing of actual dispositions. For example, if a manager knows he can re- ceive a higher-than-estimated price when selling old inventory, he can accelerate or delay the sale in order to drop some gains into a reporting period where the extra re- sults are needed. This is unlikely to be a significant problem if the reserve is small, but it is a substantial risk if the reverse is the case. For example, the Presto Computer Company has set aside an obsolescence reserve of $25,000 for laptop computer fans. However, in January, the purchasing manager knows that the resale price for fans has plummeted, so the real reserve should be closer to $35,000, which would call for the immediate recognition of an additional $10,000 of expense. However, because this would result in an overall loss in Presto’s financial results in January, he waits until April, when Presto has a profitable month, and completes the sale at that time, thereby delaying the additional obsolescence loss until the point of sale.
A second problem is the reluctance of management to suddenly drop a large expense reserve into the financial statements, which may disturb outside investors and creditors. Managers have a tendency instead to recognize small incremental amounts, thereby making it look as though obsolescence is a minor problem.
There is no ready solution to this problem, because GAAP clearly mandates that all obsolete inventory be written off at once. It is a rare accountant who does not enter into a battle with management over this issue at some point during his or her career.
A third problem is the shear size of an expense recognition if there has been a long time period between obsolescence reviews. A review usually occurs at the end of the fiscal year, when this type of inventory is supposed to be investigated and written off, usually in conjunction with the auditor’s review or the physical inven- tory count (or both). If this write-off has not occurred in previous years, the cumu- lative amount can be startling, which can result in the departure of the materials manager and/or the controller on the grounds that they should have known about the problem. There are three ways to keep a large write-off from occurring. First, conduct frequent obsolescence reviews to keep large write-offs from building up.
Second, create an obsolescence expense reserve as part of the annual budget, and encourage the MRB to use it all. Under this approach, one can usually count on the warehouse manager to throw out the maximum possible amount of stock on the first
day when the new budget takes effect. Third, implement some of the approaches described in the next section to prevent inventory from becoming obsolete.
A final expense recognition issue is that senior management simply may not be- lieve the MRB when they arrive at an extremely high obsolescence reserve, and management may reject the recommended expense recognition. Their presumed knowledge of the business will not allow them to consider that a large part of the inventory is no longer usable. If this is the case, consider bringing in consultants to conduct an independent evaluation of the inventory. Senior managers may need this second opinion before they will authorize a large obsolescence reserve.
11-5 Preventing Obsolete Inventory
Thus far, we have only reviewed a variety of ways to locate, dispose of, and account for obsolete inventory. The real trick is to avoid all of those topics by ensuring that there is no obsolete inventory to begin with. This section addresses several ways to achieve this goal.
A major source of obsolete inventory is excessive purchasing volumes. The purchasing department may be purchasing in large quantities in order to save itself the trouble of issuing a multitude of purchase orders for smaller quantities, or be- cause it can obtain lower prices by purchasing in large volumes. This problem can be avoided through the use of just-in-time purchasing practices, purchasing only those items authorized by a material requirements planning system, or by setting high inventory turnover goals for the materials management department.
A well run purchasing department will use bills of material to determine the parts needed to build a product and then order them in the quantities specified in the bills. However, if a bill of material is incorrect, then the items purchased will either be the wrong ones or the correct ones but in the wrong quantities. To avoid this problem, the bill of materials should be audited regularly for accuracy. An addi- tional way to repair bills of material is to investigate why some kitted items are re- turned unused to the warehouse or additional items are requested by the production staff. These added transactions usually indicate incorrect bills of material.
It is easy for a part to become obsolete if no one knows where it is. If it is buried in an odd corner of the warehouse, there is not much chance that it will be used up.
To avoid this problem, there should be location codes in the inventory database for every part, along with continual cycle counting to ensure that locations are correct.
A periodic audit of location codes will give management a clear view of the accu- racy of this information.
When the marketing department investigates the possibility of withdrawing a product from sale, it often does so without determining how much inventory of both the finished product and its component parts remain on hand. At most, the market- ing staff only concerns itself with clearing out excess finished goods, because this can be readily identified. Those unique parts that are only used in the manufacture of a withdrawn product will then be left to gather dust in the warehouse and will eventually be sold off as scrap only after a substantial amount of time has passed.