Concept explainers
Activity-Based versus Traditional Costing
Maglie Company manufactures two video game consoles: handheld and home. The handheld consoles are smaller and less expensive than the home consoles. The company only recently began producing the home model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining. Management believes that the accounting system is not accurately allocating costs to products, particularly because sales of the new product have been increasing.
Management has asked you to investigate the cost allocation problem. You find that manufacturing
Management has determined that overhead costs are caused by three cost drivers. These drivers and their costs for last year are as follows:
Required
- a. How much overhead will be assigned to each product if these three cost drivers are used to allocate overhead? What is the total cost per unit produced for each product?
- b. How much overhead will be assigned to each product if direct labor cost is used to allocate overhead? What is the total cost per unit produced for each product?
- c. How might the results from using activity-based costing in requirement (a) help management understand Maglie’s declining profits?
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FUNDAMENTALS OF COST ACCOUNTING BUNDLE
- Kimball Company has developed the following cost formulas: Materialusage:Ym=80X;r=0.95Laborusage(direct):Yl=20X;r=0.96Overheadactivity:Yo=350,000+100X;r=0.75Sellingactivity:Ys=50,000+10X;r=0.93 where X=Directlaborhours The company has a policy of producing on demand and keeps very little, if any, finished goods inventory (thus, units produced equals units sold). Each unit uses one direct labor hour for production. The president of Kimball Company has recently implemented a policy that any special orders will be accepted if they cover the costs that the orders cause. This policy was implemented because Kimballs industry is in a recession and the company is producing well below capacity (and expects to continue doing so for the coming year). The president is willing to accept orders that minimally cover their variable costs so that the company can keep its employees and avoid layoffs. Also, any orders above variable costs will increase overall profitability of the company. Required: 1. Compute the total unit variable cost. Suppose that Kimball has an opportunity to accept an order for 20,000 units at 220 per unit. Should Kimball accept the order? (The order would not displace any of Kimballs regular orders.) 2. Explain the significance of the coefficient of correlation measures for the cost formulas. Did these measures have a bearing on your answer in Requirement 1? Should they have a bearing? Why or why not? 3. Suppose that a multiple regression equation is developed for overhead costs: Y = 100,000 + 100X1 + 5,000X2 + 300X3, where X1 = direct labor hours, X2 = number of setups, and X3 = engineering hours. The coefficient of determination for the equation is 0.94. Assume that the order of 20,000 units requires 12 setups and 600 engineering hours. Given this new information, should the company accept the special order referred to in Requirement 1? Is there any other information about cost behavior that you would like to have? Explain.arrow_forwardSalem Electronics currently produces two products: a programmable calculator and a tape recorder. A recent marketing study indicated that consumers would react favorably to a radio with the Salem brand name. Owner Kenneth Booth was interested in the possibility. Before any commitment was made, however, Kenneth wanted to know what the incremental fixed costs would be and how many radios must be sold to cover these costs. In response, Betty Johnson, the marketing manager, gathered data for the current products to help in projecting overhead costs for the new product. The overhead costs based on 30,000 direct labor hours follow. (The high-low method using direct labor hours as the independent variable was used to determine the fixed and variable costs.) All depreciation. The following activity data were also gathered: Betty was told that a plantwide overhead rate was used to assign overhead costs based on direct labor hours. She was also informed by engineering that if 20,000 radios were produced and sold (her projection based on her marketing study), they would have the same activity data as the recorders (use the same direct labor hours, machine hours, setups, and so on). Engineering also provided the following additional estimates for the proposed product line: Upon receiving these estimates, Betty did some quick calculations and became quite excited. With a selling price of 26 and just 18,000 of additional fixed costs, only 4,500 units had to be sold to break even. Since Betty was confident that 20,000 units could be sold, she was prepared to strongly recommend the new product line. Required: 1. Reproduce Bettys break-even calculation using conventional cost assignments. How much additional profit would be expected under this scenario, assuming that 20,000 radios are sold? 2. Use an activity-based costing approach, and calculate the break-even point and the incremental profit that would be earned on sales of 20,000 units. 3. Explain why the CVP analysis done in Requirement 2 is more accurate than the analysis done in Requirement 1. What recommendation would you make?arrow_forwardSouthward Company has implemented a JIT flexible manufacturing system. John Richins, controller of the company, has decided to reduce the accounting requirements given the expectation of lower inventories. For one thing, he has decided to treat direct labor cost as a part of overhead and to discontinue the detailed direct labor accounting of the past. The company has created two manufacturing cells, each capable of producing a family of products: the radiator cell and the water pump cell. The output of both cells is sold to a sister division and to customers who use the radiators and water pumps for repair activity. Product-level overhead costs outside the cells are assigned to each cell using appropriate drivers. Facility-level costs are allocated to each cell on the basis of square footage. The budgeted direct labor and overhead costs are as follows: The predetermined conversion cost rate is based on available production hours in each cell. The radiator cell has 45,000 hours available for production, and the water pump cell has 27,000 hours. Conversion costs are applied to the units produced by multiplying the conversion rate by the actual time required to produce the units. The radiator cell produced 81,000 units, taking 0.5 hour to produce one unit of product (on average). The water pump cell produced 90,000 units, taking 0.25 hour to produce one unit of product (on average). Other actual results for the year are as follows: All units produced were sold. Any conversion cost variance is closed to Cost of Goods Sold. Required: 1. Calculate the predetermined conversion cost rates for each cell. 2. Prepare journal entries using backflush accounting. Assume two trigger points, with completion of goods as the second trigger point. 3. Repeat Requirement 2, assuming that the second trigger point is the sale of the goods. 4. Explain why there is no need to have a work-in-process inventory account. 5. Two variants of backflush costing were presented in which each used two trigger points, with the second trigger point differing. Suppose that the only trigger point for recognizing manufacturing costs occurs when the goods are sold. How would the entries be listed here? When would this backflush variant be considered appropriate?arrow_forward
- The management of Hartman Company is trying to determine the amount of each of two products to produce over the coming planning period. The following information concerns labor availability, labor utilization, and product profitability: a. Develop a linear programming model of the Hartman Company problem. Solve the model to determine the optimal production quantities of products 1 and 2. b. In computing the profit contribution per unit, management does not deduct labor costs because they are considered fixed for the upcoming planning period. However, suppose that overtime can be scheduled in some of the departments. Which departments would you recommend scheduling for overtime? How much would you be willing to pay per hour of overtime in each department? c. Suppose that 10, 6, and 8 hours of overtime may be scheduled in departments A, B, and C, respectively. The cost per hour of overtime is 18 in department A, 22.50 in department B, and 12 in department C. Formulate a linear programming model that can be used to determine the optimal production quantities if overtime is made available. What are the optimal production quantities, and what is the revised total contribution to profit? How much overtime do you recommend using in each department? What is the increase in the total contribution to profit if overtime is used?arrow_forwardMaglie Company manufactures two video game consoles: handheld and home. The handheld consoles are smaller and less expensive than the home consoles. The company only recently began producing the home model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining. Management believes that the accounting system is not accurately allocating costs to products, particularly because sales of the new product have been increasing. Management has asked you to investigate the cost allocation problem. You find that manufacturing overhead is currently assigned to products based on their direct labor costs. For your investigation, you have data from last year. Manufacturing overhead was $1,334,000 based on production of 320,000 handheld consoles and 113,000 home consoles. Direct labor and direct materials costs were as follows. Handheld Home Total Direct labor $ 1,285,500 $ 382,000 $ 1,667,500 Materials 800,000…arrow_forwardMaglie Company manufactures two video game consoles: handheld and home. The handheld consoles are smaller and less expensive than the home consoles. The company only recently began producing the home model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining. Management believes that the accounting system is not accurately allocating costs to products, particularly because sales of the new product have been increasing. Management has asked you to Investigate the cost allocation problem. You find that manufacturing overhead is currently assigned to products based on their direct labor costs. For your investigation, you have data from last year. Manufacturing overhead was $1.337,000 based on production of 310,.000 handheld consoles and 95,000 home consoles. Direct labor and direct materials costs were as follows. Handheld Home $409,000 696,000 Total $1,671,250 1,476,000 Direct labor $1,262,250 780,000 Materials Management has determined that overhead costs are…arrow_forward
- Asbury Coffee Enterprises (ACE) manufactures two models of coffee grinders. Personal and Commercial. The Personal grinders have a smaller capacity and are less durable than the Commercial grinders. ACE only recently began producing the Commercial model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining, although sales have been increasing. The management at ACE believes that the problem might be in how the accounting system allocates costs to products. The current system at ACE allocates manufacturing overhead to products based on direct labor costs. For the most recent year, which is representative, manufacturing overhead totaled $1,929,000 based on production of 30,000 Personal grinders and 10,000 Commercial grinders. Direct costs were as follows: Direct materials Direct labor Cost Driver Number of production runs Quality tests performed Shipping orders processed Total overhead Management has determined that overhead costs are caused by three cost…arrow_forwardMaglie Company manufactures two video game consoles: handheld and home. The handheld consoles are smaller and less expensive than the home consoles. The company only recently began producing the home model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining. Management believes that the accounting system is not accurately allocating costs to products, particularly because sales of the new product have been increasing. Management has asked you to investigate the cost allocation problem. You find that manufacturing overhead is currently assigned to products based on their direct labor costs. For your investigation, you have data from last year. Manufacturing overhead was $1,125,000 based on production of 310,000 handheld consoles and 110,000 home consoles. Direct labor and direct materials costs were as follows. Handheld Home Total Direct labor $ 1,022,250 $ 384,000 $ 1,406,250 Materials 700,000 712,000 1,412,000…arrow_forwardAsbury Coffee Enterprises (ACE) manufactures two models of coffee grinders: Personal and Commercial. The Personal grinders have a smaller capacity and are less durable than the Commercial grinders. ACE only recently began producing the Commercial model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining, although sales have been increasing. The management at ACE believes that the problem might be in how the accounting system allocates costs to products. The current system at ACE allocates manufacturing overhead to products based on direct labor costs. For the most recent year, which is representative, manufacturing overhead totaled $2,037,000 based on production of 30,000 Personal grinders and 10,000 Commercial grinders. Direct costs were as follows: Personal Commercial Total Direct materials $ 1,445,000 $ 620,000 $ 2,065,000 Direct labor 1,030,000 667,500 1,697,500 Management has determined that overhead costs are caused by three cost…arrow_forward
- Asbury Coffee Enterprises (ACE) manufactures two models of coffee grinders: Personal and Commercial. The Personal grinders have a smaller capacity and are less durable than the Commercial grinders. ACE only recently began producing the Commercial model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining, although sales have been increasing. The management at ACE believes that the problem might be in how the accounting system allocates costs to products. The current system at ACE allocates manufacturing overhead to products based on direct labor costs. For the most recent year, which is representative, manufacturing overhead totaled $2,023,500 based on production of 30,000 Personal grinders and 10,000 Commercial grinders. Direct costs were as follows: Personal Commercial Total Direct materials $ 1,444,200 $ 609,750 $ 2,053,950 Direct labor 1,029,000 657,250 1,686,250 Management has determined that overhead costs are caused by three cost…arrow_forwardAsbury Coffee Enterprises (ACE) manufactures two models of coffee grinders: Personal and Commercial. The Personal grinders have a smaller capacity and are less durable than the Commercial grinders. ACE only recently began producing the Commercial model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining, although sales have been increasing. The management at ACE believes that the problem might be in how the accounting system allocates costs to products. The current system at ACE allocates manufacturing overhead to products based on direct labor costs. For the most recent year, which is representative, manufacturing overhead totaled $1,902,000 based on production of 30,000 Personal grinders and 10,000 Commercial grinders. Direct costs were as follows: Direct materials Direct labor Personal $ 1,437,000 1,020,000 Commercial $ 517,500 565,000 Total $ 1,954,500 1,585,000 Management has determined that overhead costs are caused by three cost drivers. These…arrow_forwardAsbury Coffee Enterprises (ACE) manufactures two models of coffee grinders: Personal and Commercial. The Personal grinders have a smaller capacity and are less durable than the Commercial grinders. ACE only recently began producing the Commercial model. Since the Introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining, although sales have been increasing. The management at ACE belleves that the problem might be in how the accounting system allocates costs to products. The current system at ACE allocates manufacturing overhead to products based on direct labor costs. For the most recent year, which Is representative, manufacturing overhead totaled $2,091,000 based on production of 30,000 Personal grinders and 10,000 Commercial grinders. Direct costs were as follows: Direct materials Direct labor Personal $ 1,448,200 1,034,000 Commercial $ 661,000 708,500 Total $ 2,109,200 1,742,500 Management has determined that overhead costs are caused by three cost drivers. These…arrow_forward
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