Marc Jackson has recently been hired as a cost accountant by Offset Press Company, a privately held company that produces a line of offset printing presses and lithograph machines. During his first few months on the job, Jackson discovered that Offset has been underapplying factory overhead to the Work-in-Process Inventory account, while overstating expenses through the General and Administrative Expense account. This practice has been going on since the start of the company, which is in its sixth year of operation. The effect in each year has been favorable, having a material impact on the company’s tax position. No internal audit function exists at Offset, and the external auditors have not yet discovered the underapplied factory overhead.
Prior to the sixth-year audit, Jackson had pointed out the practice and its effect to Mary Brown, the corporate controller, and had asked her to let him make the necessary adjustments. Brown directed him not to make the adjustments, but to wait until the external auditors had completed their work and see what they uncovered.
The sixth-year audit has now been completed, and the external auditors have once again failed to discover the underapplication of factory overhead. Jackson again asked Brown if he could make the required adjustments and was again told not to make them. Jackson, however, believes that the adjustments should be made and that the external auditors should be informed of the situation.
Since there are no established policies at Offset Press Company for resolving ethical conflicts, Jackson is considering one of the following three alternative courses of action:
- Follow Brown’s directive and do nothing further.
- Attempt to convince Brown to make the proper adjustments and to advise the external auditors of her actions.
- Tell the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors about the problem and give them the appropriate accounting data.
Required:
- 1. For each of the three alternative courses of action that Jackson is considering, explain whether or not the action is appropriate.
- 2. Independent of your answer to requirement (1), assume that Jackson again approaches Brown to make the necessary adjustments and is unsuccessful. Describe the steps that Jackson should take in proceeding to resolve this situation.
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solutionChapter 3 Solutions
Managerial Accounting: Creating Value in a Dynamic Business Environment
- Mary Tan is the controller for Duck Associates, a property management company in Portland, Oregon. Each year, Tan and payroll clerk Toby Stock meet with the external auditors about payroll accounting. This year, the auditors suggest that Tan consider outsourcing Duck Associates’s payroll accounting to a company specializing in payroll processing services. This would allow Tan and her staff to focus on their primary responsibility: accounting for the properties under management. At present, payroll requires 1.5 employee positions—payroll clerk Toby Stock and a bookkeeper who spends half her time entering payroll data in the system. Tan considers this suggestion, and she lists the following items relating to outsourcing payroll accounting: The current payroll software that was purchased for $4,000 three years ago would not be needed if payroll processing were outsourced. Duck Associates’s bookkeeper would spend half her time preparing the weekly payroll input form that is given to the…arrow_forwardEmery Manufacturing Company produces component parts for the farm equipment industry and has recently undergone a major computer system conversion. Jake Murray, the controller, has established a troubleshooting team to alleviate accounting problems that have occurred since the conversion. Jake has chosen Gus Swanson, assistant controller, to head the team that will include Linda Wheeler, cost accountant; Cindy Madsen, financial analyst; Randy Lewis, general accounting supervisor; and Max Crandall, financial accountant. The team has been meeting weekly for the last month. Gus insists on being part of all the team conversations in order to gather information, to make the final decision on any ideas or actions that the team develops, and to prepare a weekly report for Jake. He has also used this team as a forum to discuss issues and disputes about him and other members of Emerys top management team. At last weeks meeting, Gus told the team that he thought a competitor might purchase the common stock of Emery, because he had overheard Jake talking about this on the telephone. As a result, most of Emerys employees now informally discuss the sale of Emerys common stock and how it will affect their jobs. Required: Is Gus Swansons discussion with the team about the prospective sale of Emery unethical? Discuss, citing specific standards from the code of ethical conduct to support your position. (CMA adapted)arrow_forwardJohn Biggs and Patty Jorgenson are both cost accounting managers for a manufacturing division. During lunch yesterday, Patty told John that she was planning on quitting her job in three months because she had accepted a position as controller of a small company in a neighboring state. The starting date was timed to coincide with the retirement of the current controller. Patty was excited because it allowed her to live near her family. Today, the divisional controller took John to lunch and informed him that he was taking a position at headquarters and that he had recommended that Patty be promoted to his position. He indicated to John that it was a close call between him and Patty and that he wanted to let John know personally about the decision before it was announced officially. Required: What should John do? Describe how you would deal with his ethical dilemma (considering the IMA code of ethics in your response).arrow_forward
- Lisa Ronsin had recently been transferred to the Home Security Systems Division of National Home Products. Shortly after taking over her new position as divisional controller, she was asked to develop the division’s predetermined overhead rate for the upcoming year. The accuracy of the rate is important because it is used throughout the year and any underapplied or overapplied overhead is closed out to Cost of Goods Sold at the end of the year. National Home Products uses direct labor-hours in all of its divisions as the allocation base for manufacturing overhead. To compute the predetermined overhead rate, Lisa divided her estimate of the total manufacturing overhead for the coming year by the production manager’s estimate of the total direct labor-hours for the coming year. She took her computations to the division’s general manager for approval but was quite surprised when he suggested a modification in the base. Her conversation with the general manager of the Home Security Systems…arrow_forwardAs an assistant cost accountant for Mississippi Industries, you have been assigned to review the activity base for the predetermined factory overhead rate. The president, Tony Favre, has expressed concern that the over- or underapplied overhead has fluctuated excessively over the years.An analysis of the company’s operations and use of the current overhead rate (direct labor cost) has narrowed the possible alternative overhead bases to direct labor cost and machine hours. For the past five years, the following data have been gathered: Attachment In teams:1. Calculate a predetermined factory overhead rate for each alternative base, assuming that rates would have been determined by relating the total amount of factory overhead for the past five years to the base.2. For each of the past five years, determine the over- or underapplied overhead based on the two predetermined overhead rates developed in part (1).3. Which predetermined overhead rate would you recommend? Discuss the basis for…arrow_forwardLisa Ronsin had recently been transferred to the Home Security Systems Division of National Home Products. Shortly after taking over her new position as divisional controller, she was asked to develop the division’s predetermined overhead rate for the upcoming year. The accuracy of the rate is important because it is used throughout the year and any underapplied or overapplied overhead is closed out to Cost of Goods Sold at the end of the year. National Home Products uses direct labor-hours in all of its divisions as the allocation base for manufacturing overhead. To compute the predetermined overhead rate, Lisa divided her estimate of the total manufacturing overhead for the coming year by the production manager’s estimate of the total direct labor-hours for the coming year. She took her computations to the division’s general manager for approval but was quite surprised when he suggested a modification in the base. Her conversation with the general manager of the Home Security Systems…arrow_forward
- Terri Ronsin had recently been transferred to the Home Security Systems Division of National Home Products. Shortly after taking over her new position as divisional controller, she was asked to develop the division’s predetermined overhead rate for the upcoming year. The accuracy of the rate is important because it is used throughout the year and any underapplied or overapplied overhead is closed out to Cost of Goods Sold at the end of the year. National Home Products uses direct labor-hours in all of its divisions as the allocation base for manufacturing overhead. To compute the predetermined overhead rate, Terri divided her estimate of the total manufacturing overhead for the coming year by the production manager’s estimate of the total direct labor-hours for the coming year. She took her computations to the division’s general manager for approval but was quite surprised when he suggested a modification in the allocation base. Her conversation with the general manager of the Home…arrow_forwardTerri Ronsin had recently been transferred to the Home Security Systems Division of National Home Products. Shortly after taking over her new position as divisional controller, she was asked to develop the division’s predetermined overhead rate for the upcoming year. The accuracy of the rate is important because it is used throughout the year and any overapplied or underapplied overhead is closed out to Cost of Goods Sold at the end of the year. National Home Products uses direct labor-hours in all of its divisions as the allocation base for manufacturing overhead. To compute the predetermined overhead rate, Terri divided her estimate of the total manufacturing overhead for the coming year by the production manager’s estimate of the total direct labor-hours for the coming year. She took her computations to the division’s general manager for approval but was quite surprised when he suggested a modification in the base. Her conversation with the general manager of the Home Security…arrow_forwardAnu Ghai was a new production analyst at RHI, Inc., a large furniture factory in North Carolina. One of her first jobs was to update the predetermined overhead allocation rates for factory production costs. This was normally done once a year, by analyzing the previous year’s actual data, factoring in projected changes, and calculating a new rate for the coming year. What Anu found was strange. The activity rate for “ maintenance” had more than doubled in one year, and she was puzzled how that could have happened. When she spoke with Larry McAfee, the factory manager, she was told to spread the increases out over the other activity costs to “smooth out” the trends. She was a bit intimidated by Larry, an imposing and aggressive man, but she knew something wasn’t quite right. Then one night she was at a restaurant and overheard a few employees who worked at RHI talking. They were joking about the work they had done fixing up Larry’s home at the lake last year. Suddenly everything made…arrow_forward
- Florenzo Corp. is a small manufacturing firm with 60 employees in seven departments. When the need arises for new workers in the plant, the departmental manager interviews applicants and hires on the basis of those interviews. The manager has each new employee complete a withholding form. The manager then writes the rate of pay on the W‐4 and forwards it to payroll. When workers arrive for their shift, they pull their time cards from a holder near the door and keep the time card with them during the day to complete the start and end times of their work day. On Friday, the time cards are removed from the holder and taken to payroll by any employee who is not busy that morning. If there were any pay rate changes for the payroll period due to raises or promotions, the manager calls the payroll department to inform payroll of these rate changes. Using the rate changes and the time cards, the payroll department prepares the checks from the regular bank account of Florenzo Corp. The manager…arrow_forwardRaymond Diaz was recently hired as assistant controller of RD Chem Inc., which processes chemicals for use in fertilizers. Diaz was selected for this position because of his past experience in chemical processing. During his first month on the job, Diaz made a point of getting to know the people responsible for the plant operations and learning how things are done at RD Chem. During a conversation with the plant supervisor, Diaz asked about the company procedures for handling toxic waste materials.The plant supervisor replied that he was not involved with the disposal of wastes and suggested that Diaz might be wise to ignore this issue. This response strengthened Diaz' determination to probe this area further to be sure that the company was not vulnerable to litigation. Upon further investigation, Diaz discovered evidence that RD Chem was using a nearby residential landfill to dump toxic wastes. It appeared that some members of RD Chem's management team were aware of this situation and…arrow_forwardSherman Company employs 400 production, maintenance, and janitorial workers in eight separate departments. In addition to supervising operations, the supervisors of the departments are responsible for recruiting, hiring, and firing workers within their areas of responsibility. The organization attracts casual labor and experiences a 20 to 30 percent turnover rate in employees per year.Employees clock on and off the job each day to record their attendance on time cards. Each department has its own clock machine located in an unattended room away from the main production area. Each week, the supervisors gather the time cards, review them for accuracy, and sign and submit them to the payroll department for processing. In addition, the supervisors submit personnel action forms to reflect newly hired and terminated employees. From these documents, the payroll clerk prepares payroll checks and updates the employee records. The supervisor of the payroll department signs the paychecks and…arrow_forward
- Cornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Ser...AccountingISBN:9781305970663Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. MowenPublisher:Cengage Learning