Palmer Co. is evaluating the appropriate accounting for the following items.
1. Management has decided to switch from the FIFO inventory valuation method to the average cost inventory valuation method for all inventories.
2. When the year-end physical inventory adjustment was made for the current year, the controller discovered that the prior year’s physical inventory sheets for an entire warehouse were mislaid and excluded from last year’s count.
3. Palmer’s Custom Division manufactures large-scale, custom-designed machinery on a contract basis. Management decided to switch from the cost-recovery method to the percentage-of-completion method of accounting for long-term contracts. Identify and explain whether each of the above items is a change in accounting policy, a change in estimate, or an error.