need advice

[codesearcher]

I am confused as to what inventory costing method to use on a pharmacy type of business. Should it be FIFO or Average costing method?

I am not sure where to post question so I choose here instead for now.

[jmsrickland]

Since it has nothing to do with programming it should be posted in the General Discussion/Chit Chat Forum

[DataMiser]

I'm not sure what you mean by "inventory costing method"

Is this a case where the cost was changing over the course of time and you are trying to determine the cost of the remaining inventory? If that is the case FIFO would be the more accurate but may be much harder to keep track of.

[Doogle]

I would suggest FIFO as the products would be fast moving.

[codesearcher]

Datamiser, why did you say that FIFO may be much harder to keep track of?

[si_the_geek]

Thread moved to the 'General Developer' forum.

[FunkyDexter]

why did you say that FIFO may be much harder to keep track of?

Because Fifo requires you to inventory every item individually where as average costing only requires you to record the highest and lowest cost prices and the current quantity. If your system already inventories items individually then Fifo's not a big deal (you just sum all the individual item values) but if it doesn't (and most don't) then implementing Fifo costing might involve a root and branch rewrite of the whole stock management system.

[Doogle]

I would expect a Pharmacy would need to track and trace every item so the stock control system would be recording every movement of every individual item in any case. In that environment holding the price per item shouldn't be a hardship (IMHO)