Software Associates

Use of the flexible budget shows the budgeted operating income given the actual sales. When you compare the flexible budget to the actual budget you are able to compare the total sales and cost incurred given the same units sold. The sales price variance, which is the actual sales less the flexible budgeted sales, was $14,700 favorable. This means that actual sales were higher than budgeted sales at that usage. This is attributable to the increase in service price from $25 to $26.40. Price variance for material usage was $2,100 over the flexible budget projection. This could be attributed to overuse or waste of materials. As expected, the direct labor price variance was $3,375 lower than the flexible budget amount. This is attributed to the manager’s effective use of labor. Operating expenses were also higher than the flexible budget

The management of a consulting project calls on a variety of skills. This is an actuality that has been stressed throughout the course lectures, seminars and cases as well as throughout the course literature. The fact that consultants must integrate their skills when conducting a consulting project is as clear-cut as it is evident.

11. Prepare a table that illustrates the percentage change in costs between the volume-based system and the strategic activity-based system.

You are in your third year as an accountant with McCarver-Lynn Industries, a multidivisional company involved manufacturing, marketing, and sales of surgical prosthetic devices. After the fiscal year-end, you are working with the controller of the firm to prepare supplemental business segment disclosures. Yesterday you presented her with the following summary information:

Question 5: Which type of variation was critical to resolving the realized revenue case study?

2. Considering your answer to item 1, the first three exhibits, and related introductory discussion, is it likely that the accounting system may distort product profit significantly? Why? (Ignore general, selling, and admin expense.)

Question 3: Identify all costs associated with this venture. Categorize these costs as fixed or variable.

What were the factors that caused actual quarterly income to be less than budgeted? What was the quantitative effect of each of these factors?

1.) "Revenue hours" represent the key activity that drives costs at Salem Data Services. Which expenses in Exhibit 2 are variable with respect to revenue hours? Which expenses are fixed with respect to revenue hours?

11. Prepare a table that illustrates the percentage change in costs between the volume-based system and the strategic activity-based system.

“Blake Romney became Chief Executive Officer of Peters Inc. two years ago. At the time, the company was reporting lagging profits, and Blake was brought in to "stir things up." The company has three divisions, electronics, fiber optics, and plumbing supplies. Blake has no interest in plumbing supplies, and one of the first things he did was to put pressure on his accountants to reallocate some of the company’s fixed costs away from the other two divisions to the plumbing division. This had the effect of causing the plumbing division to report losses during the last two years; in the past it had always reported low, but acceptable,

Problem Losing Money: Astor Lodge & Suites, Inc., a 250 property hotel chain, is about to post its fifth consecutive unprofitable fiscal year. Requirements: Prepare Presentation for new President and CEO, Joseph James, describing each VPs 1) his or her initiatives, expenditures, and outcomes for each of the past two fiscal years, and 2) planned initiatives and budgetary needs for fiscal 2006. 3) Show how their staffs prior and planned initiatives and expenditures contributed the company's EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) - the corporate performance metric recently

Victoria Company is a large, successful retail merchandising company located in Australia. Jill Perry, one of your classmates, has an interview with the company for a position in the company’s finance group. In preparing for her interview, Jill has spoken with several MBS alumni who work at Victoria Company. Each told her that one item the person who conducts the interviews likes to assess is whether the applicant has a strong grasp of financial statements. Three of the items that the interviewer bases this assessment on are the applicant’s ability to: (1) locate specific information in the company’s financial statements, (2) explain in everyday language what a particular line item in the

Two careers that I am interested in doing research on are the careers of a software developer and computer systems analyst. The purpose of a computer system analyst is to help organize computer systems.Computer systems analyst must also help assist organizations with information systems solution to help a company work more proficiently, computer systems analyst who are skilled in merging business information and technology. The purpose of a software developer is to develop software and computer programs. A majority of the things we use on computers were made possible because of software developers. The need for software developers has increased greatly. Software development is the freedom of innovation within the realm of computers. Software developers are the pioneers of software.

There is an old story of how several blind men set out to understand what an elephant was by examining a live specimen. Each of them explored a different part of the elephant's body. One blind man, falling against the elephant's side, proclaimed that an elephant must be very much like a wall. Another, grasping the elephant's ear, decided that an elephant must closely resemble a leaf. One grabbed the elephant's tail and determined that elephants must resemble ropes. Yet another felt the elephant's leg and came away convinced that elephants are very much like trees. Still another held the elephant's trunk and exclaimed that elephants had much in common with snakes.