ACC550 Final Milestone

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Jun 3, 2024

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1 Quantitative Analysis Southern New Hampshire University ACC550: Cost Accounting Gina Smith March 6, 2022
2 Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP) Analysis is a beneficial tool for management and can assist in solving problems in regards to the economic situation of a company. The techniques used by this method help managers to understand relationships within the company between sales incomes, profits, costs, production volume and break-even points. (Busan & Dina, 2009) These details can help to forecast the business and make informed decisions. One of the most helpful parts of CVP analysis is its ability to provide situation specific details ahead of time by using different variables. This allows for more effective short-term planning. For example, the Hampshire Company wanted to look at a specific offer from a local tour company to purchase umbrellas at a lower rate. By using CVP analysis (see spreadsheet), we can look at all of the variables and make an educated decision about whether or not the offer is a good business choice. In this particular case we took the offer of $11.00 per umbrella to make 5,000 units and compared that to the original production and costs. Even with some minor additional fixed costs, the reduction per unit of $1.50, and the decreased contribution margin, the company would ultimately increase their operating income by $9,000.00 by producing the umbrellas for the tour company. At first glance, this may not have appeared to be a good business offer, but by using the CVP analysis, the Hampshire Company could make a good business decision to move forward with the offer and increase their profit for the period. Implications Businesses also need to have a way to determine if their product is profitable and where the break-even point is. The CVP analysis is a tool that can assist with this. By using the fixed costs and contribution margin, a company can determine how many units need to be sold in order
3 to just break-even without a loss. (Datar & Rajan, 2022) For the Hampshire Company, the CVP analysis took the fixed costs amount of $295,525.00 and divided that by the contribution margin of $6.50, which determined that they would need to sell 45,465 units in order to break-even. Since they sold 60,000 units, they can see easily that they have a profitable business. By learning the break-even point, they can set appropriate goals for the short-term to ensure that the company remains profitable and assist with unexpected sales changes that may arise. The Cost-Volume-Profit analysis is a great tool for companies to have a more upper-level overview of the business situation. Since the economy is always changing, having a tool available to see where changes can influence the overall business is pertinent. The CVP analysis is something that offers this information in a simple way and allows for necessary business decisions to made quickly when necessary. Inventory Management Inventory management is an important tool for the Hampshire Company. Inventory management is a process used to manage a company’s inventory, including the ordering, use, storage and sales of product and supplies. Its purpose is to create efficiency in the inventory and prevent shortages or over-purchasing. The two main types of inventory management are JIT (just-in-time), and MRP (materials requirement planning). (Hayes, 2022) For the Hampshire company, implementing the JIT inventory system has pros and cons. This type of inventory system keeps just enough inventory on hand to keep up with the current demand. While this can keep the costs lower over time, it can cause issues. The benefits of this system are that it keeps the costs lower by reducing waste, warehouse space, and time. The downside to that is that if demand changes or supply costs increase, it can prevent the company from being able to keep up with the
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4 demand. They could become unable to provide the product to those that need or want it, or the costs could increase so much that the profit margin would be reduced without drastically increasing the sale price of the items being sold. (Teeboom, 2019) Given the two inventory system options, the pros do outweigh the cons for the JIT system. Utilizing the JIT inventory system would benefit the Hampshire Company because it reduces the overhead costs, including the warehouse space needed to store them and the labor needed to produce the umbrellas. This is because umbrellas are not typically needed all year round, and therefore there will be slow seasons of the year. By using the JIT inventory system, they can reduce the amount of work needed for production in the slower time, as well as reduce the need to store large amounts of product, or monitor the stored product, in those slower periods of time. (Teeboom, 2019) While the JIT inventory system has its benefits, the MRP inventory system is the system that I would recommend for the Hampshire Company. This system manufactures goods for inventory based upon the expected demand in the future. (Datar & Rajan, 2022) The need for umbrellas is easy trackable, and therefore would be easy to plan for demand. This would then allow the company to produce the inventory they anticipate needing for a larger period, which would potentially reduce the cost of supplies and labor. They would have the ability to buy the supplies needed in higher quantities which would reduce the cost greatly, which would then potentially increase the profit margin and overall operating income. It would also offer protection from the issues with supply and demand that could affect production and production costs. Along with the inventory management, choosing the best cost allocation method is also very important. The two types of cost allocation are variable costing and absorption costing.
5 The main difference between the two costing methods is that variable costing includes all of the variable costs, but excludes the fixed costs, whereas absorption costing includes all direct costs that are a part of producing the product, including overhead. (The Investopedia Team, 2021) As seen in the spreadsheet (Part II), by allocating the fixed costs across the product, it actually increases the operating income. By using the absorption costing method, their operating income for the period was $148,475, compared to $94,475 when using the variable costing method. The ending inventory was also higher at $152,000 using the absorption method, compared to $98,000 using the variable costing method. This means that the absorption costing method is the best choice for the Hampshire Company. The decision makers of the company should be aware of the costing method and use it when making informed decisions about the company. They should also know that the absorption method is the preferred method of costing to maintain GAAP compliance. This costing method should be used to provide financial reporting to both internal and external stakeholders and auditors, as well as for tax reporting purposes. An example of this is if the company plans to report to their investors on a regular schedule, these reports should be done using the absorption costing method, and therefore should also be used when completing annual taxes for the IRS in order to maintain compliance and consistency. (The Investopedia Team, 2021) Benchmarking Benchmarking is a process in which companies set up a process to compare their own performance against other similar companies. (Datar & Rajan, 2022) It can also be used to compare departments internally, as well as compare specific performance in many capacities. It can benefit a company to implement this process in order to determine areas that can be
6 improved, and to note areas of success. (Datar & Rajan, 2022) An example would be in a rival umbrella manufacturing company is producing a similar inventory, but their operating costs are 50% less, the Hampshire Company could make adjustments to align closer to their rival to improve their overhead income. In order to utilize benchmarking, the company first needs to determine what benchmarking can be used to help with. This includes determining what areas your company has problems in, what areas need to improve, and determine what makes your company what it is. Once those details are determined, a process can be drafted regarding what specific pieces of the benchmarking report will be used for comparison. (Daniels, 1996) The Hampshire Company could adopt benchmarking to allow comparisons on materials and fixed manufacturing costs as these are the greatest costs associated with the production of the umbrellas. They could also compare inventory numbers based on sales in comparison to other companies since they did have an ending inventory of 25% the produced product. By using benchmark reports for these areas, they could potentially find areas that they could reduce costs and prevent excess inventory. They could also determine better ways of handling the business with technology or design. All of which could put the Hampshire Company in a better position both financially and reputation wise. Alternative Costing Method The Hampshire Company could potentially benefit from an alternative method of costing. The activity-based costing (ABC) method would be a good alternative to traditional costing. ABC is a method of costing that groups overhead costs more specifically to the activities and products that cause the overhead in the first place. (Averkamp, CPA, MBA, n.d.) This is beneficial when looking at the actual costs of products, rather than the total cost to produce
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7 multiple products over a period of time. This type of costing can prevent the under and over- costing of products to give management a better view of the performance of specific products. (Datar & Rajan, 2022) If the Hampshire Company was looking to only carry a single product, the traditional method of costing would be the best choice, however adding the production of the Collapsible Umbrella, the ABC method would give better information. An example of the differences can be seen when looking at the spreadsheet tab for Cost Information where traditional costing puts the Stick Umbrella cost per unit at $10.92 and ABC cost is $10.79. While there is not much difference, the cost per unit on the Collapsible Umbrella shows $11.12 at traditional costing, but $13.86 using ABC. This gives a better picture of the actual cost to produce the Collapsible Umbrella which is necessary to make decisions around that product. When a company is determining whether or not they should adopt a different costing method, there are several factors to take into account. The first is if there are multiple products being produced. If there is only one product, then the traditional method of costing would likely remain the best option since the ABC method is meant to allocate costs based on the different activities and products. They will then need to look at the different cost pools that would be used to allocate the costs and determine if these vary based on the specific products. Once these variables are determined, they can make a decision of whether or not it makes sense to utilize a more complex method for costing. In my opinion, it depends on what the Hampshire Company is looking to accomplish, whether they should utilize the traditional or ABC method of costing. They first began to produce the single Stick Umbrella. If they determined that they were just going to produce that one product, then I would definitely recommend to stay on traditional costing, as there would not be a reason to over complicate the costing process. If they decide to take on the second product
8 of the Collapsible Umbrella, then I would recommend the ABC method. The reason for that is that it is apparent that due to the lower production numbers and the higher overhead costs associated with producing that umbrella, the ABC method allows for more accurate reporting of the costs for both products. By using the traditional method, they are erroneously decreasing the cost for the Collapsible Umbrella, and increasing the cost of the Stick Umbrella which will have an effect on how the cost margins, operating income, and cost per unit are reported and will affect the ability to make proper managerial decisions.
9 References Averkamp, CPA, MBA, H. (n.d.). Activity Based Costing . Retrieved from Accounting Coach: https://www.accountingcoach.com/activity-based-costing/explanation Busan, G., & Dina, I.-C. (2009). Using cost-volume-profit analysis in decision making. Annals of the University of Petrosani, Economics, 9 (3), 103-106. Daniels, S. (1996). Benchmarking. Work Study, 45 (3), pp. 18-20. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com %2Fscholarly-journals%2Fbenchmarking%2Fdocview%2F218383504%2Fse- 2%3Faccountid%3D3783 Datar, S. M., & Rajan, M. V. (2022). Horngren's cost accounting: a managerial emphasis. Pearson Education Inc. Hayes, A. (2022). Inventory Management . Retrieved from Investopedia: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inventory-management.asp Teeboom, L. (2019). Pros & Cons of the JIT Inventiry System . Retrieved from CHRON: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/pros-cons-jit-inventory-system-3195.html The Investopedia Team. (2021). Absorption Costing vs. Variable Costing: What's the Difference . Retrieved from Investopedia: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052515/what- are-differences-between-absorption-costing-and-variable-costing.asp#:~:text=Absorption %20costing%20includes%20all%20of,exclude%20some%20direct%20fixed %20costs.&text=Variable%20costing%20includes%20all%2
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