High Universal Industries operates a division in Brazil, a country with very high inflation rates

Traditionally, the company has used the same costing techniques in all countries to facilitate reporting to corporate headquarters. However, the financial accounting reports from Brazil never seem to match the actual unit results of the division. Management has studied the problem and it appears that beginning inventories may be the cause of the unmatched information. The reason for this is that the inventories have a different financial base because of the severe inflation.

Required:
How can process costing assist in addressing the problem facing Universal Industries?

Answer: Probably the best way to address the problem of inflation is to use FIFO costing. This method keeps the cost of beginning inventories separate from production units started and completed in a given period. Therefore, the company may be able to track the cost of items that were actually produced in a given period, versus mixing the units and costs of multiple periods.