Silver Company uses one raw material, silver ore, for all of its products. It spends considerable time getting the silver from the ore before it starts the actual processing of the finished products, rings, lockets, etc. Traditionally, the company made one product at a time and charged the product with all costs of production, from ore to final inspection. However, in recent months, the cost accounting reports have been somewhat disturbing to management. It seems that some of the finished products are costing more than they should, even to the point of approaching their retail value. It has been noted by the accounting manager that this problem began when the company started buying ore from different parts of the world, some of which require difficult extraction methods.

Can you explain how the company might change its accounting system to reflect the reporting problems better? Are there other problems with the purchasing area?