how is work in progress calculated 
in accounting inventory that is work in progress is calculated in a number of different ways typically to calculate the amount of partially completed products in wip they are calculated as the percentage of the total overhead labor and material costs incurred by the company a construction company for example may bill a company based on various stages of the project where it may bill when it is 25 or 50 completed and so forth the bottom linea work in progress on a company s balance sheet represents the labor raw materials and overhead costs of unfinished goods unfinished is defined as goods still being manufactured and not ready to be sold to consumers they are considered to be current assets companies often try to limit what is reported as unfinished because it is difficult to estimate the percentage of completion for works in progress work in progress sometimes is used interchangeably with work in process but work in progress typically refers to more time consuming projects such as construction work in process typically refers to goods that are manufactured relatively quickly 