Dropping a customer, activity-based costing, ethics. Justin Anders is the management ac- countant for Carey Restaurant Supply (CRS). Sara Brinkley, the CRS sales manager, and Justin are meeting to discuss the profitability of one of the customers, Donnelly's Pizza. Justin hands Sara the following analysis of Donnelly's activity during the last quarter, taken from CRS's activity-based costing system: Sales $43,680 Cost of goods sold (all variable) 26,180 14,000 Order processing (50 orders processed at $280 per order) Delivery (5,000 miles driven at $0.70 per mile) 3,500 Rush orders (6 rush orders at $154 per rush order) Customer sales visits (6 sales calls at $140 per call) 924 840 Total costs 45,444 Profits $ (1,764) Sara looks at the report and remarks, "I'm glad to see all my hard work is paying off with Donnelly's. Sales have gone up 10% over the previous quarter!" Justin replies, "Increased sales are great, but I'm worried about Donnelly's margin, Sara. We were showing a profit with Donnelly's at the lower sales level, but now we're showing a loss. Gross margin per- centage this quarter was 40%, down five percentage points from the prior quarter. I'm afraid that corporate will push hard to drop them as a customer if things don't turn around." "That's crazy," Sara responds. "A lot of that overhead for things like order processing, deliveries, and sales calls would just be allocated to other customers if we dropped Donnelly's. This report makes it look like we're losing money on Donnelly's when we're not. In any case, I am sure you can do something to make its profitability look closer to what we think it is. No one doubts that Donnelly's is a very good customer."

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Should Justin rework the numbers? How should he respond to Sara’s comments about making Donnelly’s look more profitable?

Dropping a customer, activity-based costing, ethics. Justin Anders is the management ac-
countant for Carey Restaurant Supply (CRS). Sara Brinkley, the CRS sales manager, and Justin are
meeting to discuss the profitability of one of the customers, Donnelly's Pizza. Justin hands Sara the
following analysis of Donnelly's activity during the last quarter, taken from CRS's activity-based costing
system:
Sales
$43,680
Cost of goods sold (all variable)
26,180
14,000
Order processing (50 orders processed at $280 per order)
Delivery (5,000 miles driven at $0.70 per mile)
3,500
Rush orders (6 rush orders at $154 per rush order)
Customer sales visits (6 sales calls at $140 per call)
924
840
Total costs
45,444
Profits
$ (1,764)
Sara looks at the report and remarks, "I'm glad to see all my hard work is paying off with Donnelly's. Sales
have gone up 10% over the previous quarter!"
Justin replies, "Increased sales are great, but I'm worried about Donnelly's margin, Sara. We were
showing a profit with Donnelly's at the lower sales level, but now we're showing a loss. Gross margin per-
centage this quarter was 40%, down five percentage points from the prior quarter. I'm afraid that corporate
will push hard to drop them as a customer if things don't turn around."
"That's crazy," Sara responds. "A lot of that overhead for things like order processing, deliveries,
and sales calls would just be allocated to other customers if we dropped Donnelly's. This report makes it
look like we're losing money on Donnelly's when we're not. In any case, I am sure you can do something
to make its profitability look closer to what we think it is. No one doubts that Donnelly's is a very good
customer."
Transcribed Image Text:Dropping a customer, activity-based costing, ethics. Justin Anders is the management ac- countant for Carey Restaurant Supply (CRS). Sara Brinkley, the CRS sales manager, and Justin are meeting to discuss the profitability of one of the customers, Donnelly's Pizza. Justin hands Sara the following analysis of Donnelly's activity during the last quarter, taken from CRS's activity-based costing system: Sales $43,680 Cost of goods sold (all variable) 26,180 14,000 Order processing (50 orders processed at $280 per order) Delivery (5,000 miles driven at $0.70 per mile) 3,500 Rush orders (6 rush orders at $154 per rush order) Customer sales visits (6 sales calls at $140 per call) 924 840 Total costs 45,444 Profits $ (1,764) Sara looks at the report and remarks, "I'm glad to see all my hard work is paying off with Donnelly's. Sales have gone up 10% over the previous quarter!" Justin replies, "Increased sales are great, but I'm worried about Donnelly's margin, Sara. We were showing a profit with Donnelly's at the lower sales level, but now we're showing a loss. Gross margin per- centage this quarter was 40%, down five percentage points from the prior quarter. I'm afraid that corporate will push hard to drop them as a customer if things don't turn around." "That's crazy," Sara responds. "A lot of that overhead for things like order processing, deliveries, and sales calls would just be allocated to other customers if we dropped Donnelly's. This report makes it look like we're losing money on Donnelly's when we're not. In any case, I am sure you can do something to make its profitability look closer to what we think it is. No one doubts that Donnelly's is a very good customer."
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