Several years ago, Westmont Corporation developed a comprehensive budgeting system for planning and control purposes. While departmental supervisors have been happy with the system, the factory manager has expressed considerable dissatisfaction with th information being generated by the system. A report for the company's Assembly Department for the month of March follows: Assembly Department Cost Report For the Month Ended March 31 Machine-hours Variable costs: Supplies Scrap Indirect materials Fixed costs: Wages and salaries Equipment depreciation Actual Planning Results 15,000 Budget 20,000 Variances 11,400 42,000 119,000 $ 12,000 45,000 142,500 $ 600 F 3,000 F 23,500 F 85,900 110,000 $368,300 80,000 110,000 $389,500 $21,200 F 5,900 U 0 Total cost After receiving a copy of this cost report, the supervisor of the Assembly Department stated. "These reports are super. It makes me feel really good to see how well things are going in my department. I can't understand why those people upstairs complain so much about the reports." For the last several years, the company's marketing department has chronically failed to meet the sales goals expressed in the company's monthly budgets I Show Transcribed Text ก ง с Westmont Corporation Assembly Department Flexible Budget Performance Report Actual Results Machine-hours (q) 15,000 Supplies $ 11,400 Scrap 42,000 Indirect materials 119,000 Wages and salaries 85,900 Equipment depreciation 110,000 Total $ 368,300 For the Month Ended March 31 Flexible Budget Planning Budget 20,000 $ 12,000 45,000 142,500 80,000 110,000 $ 389,500,

The controller for Muir Companys Salem plant is analyzing overhead in order to determine appropriate drivers for use in flexible budgeting. She decided to concentrate on the past 12 months since that time period was one in which there was little important change in technology, product lines, and so on. Data on overhead costs, number of machine hours, number of setups, and number of purchase orders are in the following table. Required: 1. Calculate an overhead rate based on machine hours using the total overhead cost and total machine hours. (Round the overhead rate to the nearest cent and predicted overhead to the nearest dollar.) Use this rate to predict overhead for each of the 12 months. 2. Run a regression equation using only machine hours as the independent variable. Prepare a flexible budget for overhead for the 12 months using the results of this regression equation. (Round the intercept and x-coefficient to the nearest cent and predicted overhead to the nearest dollar.) Is this flexible budget better than the budget in Requirement 1? Why or why not?

GHT Tech Inc. sells electronics over the Internet. The Consumer Products Division is organized as a cost center. The budget for the Consumer Products Division for the month ended January 31 is as follows: During January, the costs incurred in the Consumer Products Division were as follows: Instructions 1. Prepare a budget performance report for the director of the Consumer Products Division for the month of January. 2. For which costs might the director be expected to request supplemental reports?

Douglas Davis, controller for Marston, Inc., prepared the following budget for manufacturing costs at two different levels of activity for 20X1: During 20X1, Marston worked a total of 80,000 direct labor hours, used 250,000 machine hours, made 32,000 moves, and performed 120 batch inspections. The following actual costs were incurred: Marston applies overhead using rates based on direct labor hours, machine hours, number of moves, and number of batches. The second level of activity (the right column in the preceding table) is the practical level of activity (the available activity for resources acquired in advance of usage) and is used to compute predetermined overhead pool rates. Required: 1. Prepare a performance report for Marstons manufacturing costs in the current year. 2. Assume that one of the products produced by Marston is budgeted to use 10,000 direct labor hours, 15,000 machine hours, and 500 moves and will be produced in five batches. A total of 10,000 units will be produced during the year. Calculate the budgeted unit manufacturing cost. 3. One of Marstons managers said the following: Budgeting at the activity level makes a lot of sense. It really helps us manage costs better. But the previous budget really needs to provide more detailed information. For example, I know that the moving materials activity involves the use of forklifts and operators, and this information is lost when only the total cost of the activity for various levels of output is reported. We have four forklifts, each capable of providing 10,000 moves per year. We lease these forklifts for five years, at 10,000 per year. Furthermore, for our two shifts, we need up to eight operators if we run all four forklifts. Each operator is paid a salary of 30,000 per year. Also, I know that fuel costs about 0.25 per move. Assuming that these are the only three items, expand the detail of the flexible budget for moving materials to reveal the cost of these three resource items for 20,000 moves and 40,000 moves, respectively. Based on these comments, explain how this additional information can help Marston better manage its costs. (Especially consider how activity-based budgeting may provide useful information for non-value-added activities.)