A Guide to Uniform Cost and Financial Accounting for Poultry Processors

The immediate purpose of this Guide is to furnish a means of measuring plant costs and efficiencies. These ends may be attained by providing simple procedures and records which will furnish poultry plant managers a continuing flow of essential information. The systems are suitable for most commercial poultry processing plants and are sufficiently flexible to meet specific needs of individual plants. Other objectives are of equal or greater importance. Operating reports for the use of management personnel must reflect plant occurrences in a meaningful manner. For example, a report showing an increase in cost per pound is not sufficient; the report must be accompanied by some indication of the causes and propriety of the increase. Reports must therefore enable the reader to locate problem areas with a minimum of analysis and should, when possible, suggest corrective action. Reports must be accurate to the degree that commands management's confidence. The accounting systems and the internal reports illustrated will provide accurate unit costs for all operations - hauling birds from farms to plants; in-plant operations such as dressing, eviscerating, and packing; distribution of the finished product, etc. Unit costs can be determined accurately and in the detail desired. With adequate and uniform records of the type described, plant managers can determine their strong and weak areas of costs and efficiencies and can, consequently, make better and more timely decisions leading to operating improvements. Finally, the recommended procedures provide bases for uniform industry-wide information, which will facilitate research by the United States Department of Agriculture and other interested research agencies.