Browse Accounting

Inventory Period Flows and Work in Progress

Inventory flow terms used to distinguish opening stock, ending inventory, and unfinished production.

Inventory Period Flows and Work in Progress covers inventory flow terms used to distinguish opening stock, ending inventory, and unfinished production.

Use these pages when inventory accounting changes gross margin, working capital, taxable income, obsolescence risk, or cash-conversion analysis. It sits inside Inventory Valuation, Write-Offs, and Work in Progress, so readers can move up when the broader accounting context matters.

Use the table below to choose the narrower accounting branch before applying a term to a statement line, model input, audit trail, tax schedule, covenant test, or management report.

What This Branch Covers

AreaUse it for
Ending InventoryInventory still on hand at the end of a reporting period after cost of goods sold has been recognized.
Opening StockOpening stock is the inventory balance at the start of an accounting period.
Work in ProgressPartially completed inventory or production costs that have not yet become finished goods or cost of goods sold.

What to Check

  • Inventory class, cost flow assumption, unit cost, production stage, WIP balance, lower-of-cost-or-market test, and write-down trigger.
  • Purchase record, production report, count sheet, costing system, COGS reconciliation, and note disclosure.
  • Effect on gross profit, working capital, cash conversion, taxes, obsolescence, and valuation multiples.
  • Whether the issue is raw materials, WIP, finished goods, consignment, spare parts, or inventory reserves.
  • Comparability across FIFO, LIFO, weighted average, standard cost, and reporting periods.

Common Mistakes

  • Treating inventory value as guaranteed sale value.
  • Ignoring obsolete, slow-moving, consigned, or written-down inventory.
  • Comparing gross margins without checking cost-flow assumptions.
  • Mixing production cost, period cost, and inventory reserve concepts.

Inventory-accounting content is educational and does not provide accounting, tax, audit, legal, inventory-management, investment, or valuation advice.

In this section

Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.

Ending Inventory

Inventory still on hand at the end of a reporting period after cost of goods sold has been recognized.

Opening Stock

Opening stock is the inventory balance at the start of an accounting period.

Work in Progress

Partially completed inventory or production costs that have not yet become finished goods or cost of goods sold.

Revised on Sunday, June 21, 2026
Inventory Valuation and Write-Offs