Ethics in Action
TAC Industries Inc. sells heavy equipment to large corporations and federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to the government, however, are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined by adding a fixed markup percentage to the total
Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve operating income. As Tandy reviewed the division’s job cost sheets, she realized that she could increase the division’s operating income by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order costs sheets of government customers. She believed that this would create a “win–win” for the division by (1) reducing the cost of corporate jobs, and (2) increasing the cost of government jobs whose profit is based on a percentage of job cost. Tandy submitted this idea to her division manager, who was impressed by her creative solution for improving the division’s profitability.
Is Tandy’s plan ethical?
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solutionChapter 2 Solutions
Managerial Accounting
- Tonya Martin, CMA and controller or the Parts Division of Gunderson Inc., was meeting with Doug Adams, manager of the division. The topic of discussion was the assignment of overhead costs to jobs and their impact on the divisions pricing decisions. Their conversation was as follows: Tonya: Doug, as you know, about 25% of our business is based on government contracts, with the other 75% based on jobs from private sources won through bidding. During the last several years, our private business has declined. We have been losing more bids than usual. After some careful investigation, I have concluded that we are overpricing some jobs because of improper assignment of overhead costs. Some jobs are also being underpriced. Unfortunately, the jobs being overpriced are coming from our higher-volume, labor-intensive products, so we are losing business. Dong: I think I understand. Jobs associated with our high-volume products are being assigned more overhead than they should be receiving. Then when we add our standard 40% markup, we end up with a higher price than our competitors, who assign costs more accurately. Tonya: Exactly. We have two producing departments, one labor-intensive and the other machine-intensive. The labor-intensive department generates much less overhead than the machine-intensive department. Furthermore, virtually all of our high-volume jobs are labor-intensive. We have been using a plantwide rate based on direct labor hours to assign overhead to all jobs. As a result, the high-volume, labor-intensive jobs receive a greater share of the machine-intensive departments overhead than they deserve. This problem can be greatly alleviated by switching to departmental overhead rates. For example, an average high-volume job would be assigned 100,000 of overhead using a plantwide rate and only 70,000 using departmental rates. The change would lower our bidding price on high-volume jobs by an average of 42,000 per job. By increasing the accuracy of our product costing, we can make better pricing decisions and win back much of our private-sector business. Doug: Sounds good. When can you implement the change in overhead rates? Tonya: It wont take long. I can have the new system working within four to six weekscertainly by the start of the new fiscal year. Doug: Hold it. I just thought of a possible complication. As I recall, most of our government contract work is done in the labor-intensive department. This new overhead assignment scheme will push down the cost on the government jobs, and we will lose revenues. They pay us full cost plus our standard markup. This business is not threatened by our current costing procedures, but we cant switch our rates for only the private business. Government auditors would question the lack of consistency in our costing procedures. Tonya: You do have a point. I thought of this issue also. According to my estimates, we will gain more revenues from the private sector than we will lose from our government contracts. Besides, the costs of our government jobs are distorted. In effect, we are overcharging the government. Doug: They dont know that and never would unless we switch our overhead assignment procedures. I think I have the solution. Officially, lets keep our plantwide overhead rate. All of the official records will reflect this overhead costing approach for both our private and government business. Unofficially. I want you to develop a separate set of books that can be used to generate the information we need to prepare competitive bids for our private-sector business. Required: 1. Do you believe that the solution proposed by Doug is ethical? Explain. 2. Suppose that Tonya decides that Dougs solution is not right and objects strongly. Further suppose that, despite Tonyas objections, Doug insists strongly on implementing the action. What should Tonya do?arrow_forwardTAC Industries Inc. sells heavy equipment to large corporations and federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to the government, however, are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined by adding a fixed markup percentage to the total job cost. Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve income from operations. As Tandy reviewed the division's job cost sheets, she realized that she could increase the division's income from operations by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job order cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order costs sheets of government customers. She believed that this would create a “win–win” for the division by (1) reducing the cost of corporate jobs, and (2)…arrow_forwardTAC Industries, Inc. sells heavy equipment to large corporations and federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to government, however, are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined by adding a fixed markup percentage to the total job cost. Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries, Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve income from operations. As Tandy reviewed the division's job cost sheets, she realized that she could increase the division's income from operations by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job order cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order cost sheets of government customers. She believed this would create a "win-win" situation for the division by (1) reducing the cost of corporate jobs, and…arrow_forward
- TAC Industries sells heavy equipment to large corporations and to federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to the government, however, are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined byadding a fixed markup percentage to the total job cost. Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve income from operations. As Tandy reviewed the division’s job cost sheets, she realized that she couldincrease the division’s income from operations by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job order cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order costs sheets of governmentcustomers. She believed that this would create a win–win for the division by (1) reducing the cost of corporate jobs and (2)…arrow_forwardTAC Industries, Inc. sells heavy equipment to large corporations and federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to the government are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined by adding a fixed markup percentage to the total job cost. Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve operating income. As Tandy reviewed the division's job cost sheets, she realized that she could increase the division's operating income by moving a portion of direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order cost sheets of government customers. She believed that this would create a "win-win" for the division by (1) reducing the cost of corporate jobs, and (2) increasing the cost of…arrow_forwardAssigning Direct Labor Costs to Jobs TAC Industries Inc. sells heavy equipment to large corporations and federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to the government, however, are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined by adding a fixed markup percentage to the total job cost. Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve operating income. As Tandy reviewed the division’s job cost sheets, she realized that she could increase the division’s operating income by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order costs sheets of government customers. She believed that this would create a “win–win” for the division by (1) reducing the cost of…arrow_forward
- Assume you are the department B manager for Marley's Manufacturing. Marley's operates under a cost-based transfer structure. Assume you receive the majority of your raw materials from department A, which sells only to department B (they have no outside sales). After calculating the operating income in dollars and operating income in percentage, analyze the following financial information to determine costs that may need further investigation. The cost that needs further investigation is cost allocated from corporate. In Department A the percentage of cost allocated based on sales is 10% where as in Department B this is 29.41% based on sales. This needs further investigation beacuse of this cost there is operating loss in Department B. Income Statement Month ending August 31, 2019 Dept. A % Dept. B % Sales $22,000 100 $51,000 100 Cost of Goods Sold 10,560 48 26,520 52 Gross profit $11,440 52 $24,480 48 Utility expenses 1,000 4.55…arrow_forwardAssume you are the department B manager for Marley's Manufacturing. Marley's operates under a cost-based transfer structure. Assume you receive the majority of your raw materials from department A, which sells only to department B (they have no outside sales). After calculating the operating income in dollars and operating income in percentage, analyze the following financial information to determine costs that may need further investigation. The cost that needs further investigation is cost allocated from corporate. In Department A the percentage of cost allocated based on sales is 10% where as in Department B this is 29.41% based on sales. This needs further investigation beacuse of this cost there is operating loss in Department B. Marley's Manufacturing Income Statement Month ending August 31, 2018 Dept. A % Dept. B % Sales…arrow_forwardTed Lozano is a cost accountant for Company C. Fred Lopez, Vice President of Marketing, has asked Ted to meet with representatives of Company C’s major competitor to discuss product cost data. Fred indicates that the sharing of these data will enable Company C to determine a fair and equitable price for its products. Instructions: Would it be ethical for Ted to attend the meeting and share the relevant cost data? Explain your answer.arrow_forward
- KLP provides consulting services and uses a job-order system to accumulate the cost of client projects. Traceable costs are charged directly to individual clients; in contrast, other costs incurred by KLP, but not identifiable with specific clients, are charged to jobs by using a predetermined overhead application rate. Clients are billed for directly chargeable costs, overhead, and a markup. KLP anticipates the following costs for the upcoming year: KLP's partners desire to make a $480,000 profit for the firm and plan to add a percentage markup on total cost to achieve that figure.On May 14, KLP completed work on a project for Lawson Manufacturing. The following costs were incurred: professional staff salaries, $68,000; administrative support staff, $8,900; travel, $10,500; and other operating costs, $2,600.REQUIRED:(a) Determine KLP's total traceable costs for the upcoming year and the firm's total anticipated overhead.(b) Calculate the predetermined overhead rate. The…arrow_forwardorganization. 47. Which of the following is an example of a direct cost an organization might incur in producing a product? a. The cost of the raw materials that go into the product b. The rent paid the facility where the product is produced The utility bills, such as the cost of electricity and water d. The wages paid to employees c. futuror opened an automotive assembly plant in Sanarrow_forwardAaron McKinney is a cost accountant for Majik Systems Inc. Martin Dodd, Vice President of Marketing, has asked Aaron to meet with representatives of Majik Systems major competitor to discuss product cost data. Martin indicates that the sharing of these data will enable Majik Systems to determine a fair and equitable price for its products. Would it be ethical for Aaron to attend the meeting and share the relevant cost data? Explain your answer.arrow_forward
- Managerial AccountingAccountingISBN:9781337912020Author:Carl Warren, Ph.d. Cma William B. TaylerPublisher:South-Western College PubCornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Ser...AccountingISBN:9781305970663Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. MowenPublisher:Cengage Learning
- Financial Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis...FinanceISBN:9781285190907Author:James M. Wahlen, Stephen P. Baginski, Mark BradshawPublisher:Cengage LearningManagerial Accounting: The Cornerstone of Busines...AccountingISBN:9781337115773Author:Maryanne M. Mowen, Don R. Hansen, Dan L. HeitgerPublisher:Cengage Learning