ACC 550 FINAL PROJECT

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Southern New Hampshire University *

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Apr 3, 2024

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ACC 550 Cost Accounting Final Project Dorcia Heath Southern New Hampshire University
Cost Volume-Profit Analysis The cost volume- profit (CVP) analysis is a crucial planning and decision-making tool that businesses utilize. It is more effective to use for short term planning than for long term planning, especially in the case that the economy is unstable. Cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis is a way to find out how changes in variable and fixed costs affect a firm's profit . This analysis helps the management team of a company to determine how many units the company needs to sell to break even (Kenton). Breaking even for a company means that the total revenue and total cost are equal this includes no loss or no gain. In the Hampshire Company case, it was assumed that our sales would increase by 20% in 2015. By using CVP analysis, we were able to calculate that our operating income would increase by 82.56% when the degree of operating leverage is 4.13. The variable cost would increase also by 20% from $360,000 to $432,000, which would also increase the contribution margin by 20% from $390,000 to $468,000 and bring the degree of operating leverage to 2.71. The changing of the degree of operating leverage helps to determine what the impact of any change in sales will be on the company’s earnings (Hayes). The Hampshire company should examine all aspects of assumptions and limitations when preparing the company’s CVP analysis to ensure accurate data placement. For example, inaccurate forecasting of a company’s revenue can cause problems when trying to predict the company’s net income and cash flow statements. The break-even point is when total costs and the total revenues are equal, this then results in no loss or gain ( operating income of $0). Most Companies usually use 3 break-even points to determine how many product units they will need to sell at a certain price point to break even or to gain (Libretexts, 2020). The Hampshire company sold 60000 units and reached its break-even point at $45465 units. The break-even point in sales for the company is $568,317 (295,525/52%),
with the of cost $272,792 (45465 units x $6 price) this brings the contribution margin to $295,525 ($568,317 break even sale – $ 272,792 variable costs). The fixed cost will remain the same at $295,525. This then makes the breakeven net income equal to zero ($295,525 break-even – $ 295,525 fixed cost). For the company to cover the production costs it has to sell 45465 units but in this case the company sold 60000 units, which puts the company over the break-even point to also earning a profit. The management team will have an idea if the company generates profit or loss if the company uses the break-even method. If a company performs above the break-even points, then the company will gain profits but if the company performs below the break-even point, then the company will incur a loss. Based on the CVP analysis, the was done on the Hampshire Company, if the company continues to perform above the break-even point the company will continue to earn a profit. Concluding from the break-even analysis, the 24% margin of safety ratio indicates the level of profitability at different volumes of sales above the break-even point. In this document we will be discussing inventory management and creating benchmarking for the Hampshire Company. “Inventory management refers to the process of storing, ordering, and selling of goods and services (Waida)”. The four major inventory management methods include just-in-time management (JIT), materials requirements planning (MRP), economic order quantity (EOQ), and days sales of inventory (DSI). We will be focusing on variable costing, absorption costing and JIT. “A benchmark is a standard against which something is compared. Investors use benchmarks to measure the performance of securities,   mutual funds,   exchange-traded funds, portfolios, or other investment instruments (Chen)”. Inventory Management
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Cost Allocation Method The best cost allocation method that should be used by the Hampshire company would be the Absorption Costing Method. The reason for which this method should be chosen is because the ACM provides the Hampshire Company with an additional $54,000 of disposable income. This happens because when the ACM is used there is no need to separate the fixed and variable cost of manufacturing. Absorption Costing Method The Fixed overhead cost is assigned to the ACM to the produced products on a per unit basis. When first being introduced to this method you may think that this would be a more costly method if you want to produce additional units, however, most often the opposite is true, and you are more likely to be left with more operating income. This is because once you produce over the budgeted monthly amount any extra that is sold will not incur additional fixed costs. The Hampshire Company produced 80,000 units and the fixed overhead cost was $216,000 meaning each umbrella was assigned $2.70 in overhead costs. If the company was able to sell all 80,000 units and an additional 100 units, the company would see an additional $690 in operating income rather than $650 because they would need to subtract the cost of manufacturing overhead $50. When using AMC, the cost of inventory on the balance sheet is not subtracted until after it has been sold so it is held as an asset because the Hampshire company assigns the fixed overhead to finished or completed products. This is why the value of the ending inventory is subtracted on the excel worksheet. The company sold 60,000 units of the 80,00 units manufactured. This left 20,000 units which are marked as unfinished, and it will be shown on the
balance sheet as an asset instead of as a cost. ACM would be a good indicator of accurate cost of goods sold. Just- in- Time Inventory System There are many gains to using JIT, the biggest of them is that it reduces or sometimes eliminates inventory. Looking at the Hampshire Company, the difference between Absorption and Variable Costing Systems is how inventory is processed. If the company uses JIT both systems would come to the same operating income. Not having extra inventory allows a company to find and correct errors in production that lead to faulty products which in turn leads to a decline in reverted and compensated products. This also means that the materials and production chain stay top-notch, which only stands to strengthen the company’s status. All costs will be assigned to the cost of goods sold when using JIT except for the inventories that remain at the end of the period; the remaining inventories will be assigned to inventory accounts. This will allow there to be savings in administrative costs because it allows less time to be spent on external reporting duties and more time on data finding for management to make decisions. One of the disadvantages of using JIT is that the company is risking experiencing stock-out costs. If JIT is implemented it will cause a decline in Hampshire Company’s profitability because it will be using the ACM and there will still be 20,00 units remaining for this period. The inventory will reduce eventually to zero which will lower the variable cost and any cost correlated with inventory management. This will free up space for other undertakings. JIT could be favorable here because it will lower inventory and fixed costs and increase profitability. Benchmarking
Benchmarking is a way to compare a company’s performance to the competitors in the same industry. The Hampshire Company, using the variable costing method, has an operating income of $94,475 before taxes. This does not provide a manager with any insight other than that the company is turning a profit. The same can be said with units sold. For you to determine how effective the company’s policies and procedures are, compare them to your closest competitors. For example, if your competitors are selling more than 80,000 units in the same field and are earning more than $95,000 in operating income. If this was the case for Hampshire Company then managers will need to review production methods, cost, advertising, and prices to identify where there needs to be improvement to compete with its competitors. Advantages The four major advantages to using benchmarking when trying to improve the company’s performance are: lowering labor cost, areas of focus, improving product quality, and increasing sales and profits. Benchmarking allows companies to analyze top companies in their industry to adopt the best strategy for lowering labor costs. It provides companies with a baseline for upgrade so they can assess what areas or protocols of the business they may need to devote more focus to overhauling. This also helps the company to be more flexible as it encourages change. Benchmarking will also help sales and profits as knowing the units sold and profits made can help a company devise advertising strategies and help them set budgets. This helps a company to become more effective and more lucrative. Approaches There are many approaches to benchmarking including the evolutionary approach, practice approach, continuous quality, and strategic contingent approach. The evolutionary
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approach consists of four types. Competitive benchmarking takes the nearest direct competitors and contrasts processes, protocols, products, and services to create projections. Strategic looks only at the strategies of a company such as cost or technology. The practice approach interviews senior managers for data to compare with annual reports, training manuals and reports on current benchmarking progress within the company. The continuous quality approach utilizes the best practices to achieve the best cost. This relies on the careful application and administration of examining data and staff involvement. The strategic contingent approach aims to improve the overall general health of the company by focusing on specific processes and strategies. The Hampshire Company is most compatible with the competitive benchmarking approach. It is a small and maybe a new company so it will be best if they make comparisons with direct competitors in their industry. Activity Based Costing vs Traditional Costing The two most common costing methods used by companies are Activity Based Costing and Traditional Costing. Even though the traditional costing method is less expensive to implement and keep up with I believe that the best alternative costing method that would benefit The Hampshire Company is the Activity Based costing method system. Activity based costing is a method that assigns overhead and indirect costs to related products and services (Kenton). This method would give a more precise depiction of the goods being produced, sold, and warehoused for inventory purposes. ABC would allow us to see what is being allocated to each product based on what has been used or expensed. The remaining goods will be held as inventory assets until they are sold, which will better help managers to know what has been used by each product during any given period, which will accurately depict the operating income balances.
The Hampshire company will need to investigate the major elements when deciding if they should use this method. ABC method provides a greater comprehension of what choices to make when it comes to pricing. Making the best pricing decisions will increase sales which will lead to a gain instead of a loss. Which will benefit the company in showing that the company is profitable. The company also needs to assess the actuality that full interest-based costing allows an organization to better recognize the significance of interest necessary for production. Every interest is labeled as an amount and assigned to each product which allows the company to determine the lead time. Costing systems differ in three dimensions, namely: the components being measured; what is included in product cost; and the way the cost is accumulated (“Alternative Methods of Product Costing”) . To determine whether The Hampshire Company should adopt the ABC method they must consider the cost of implementing such a method, being that ABC method is a costly method to implement. They should also consider if using the ABC method would be a better method for them to use as opposed to the traditional costing method which is cheaper to implement but not the most accurate. To adopt this method the company should also consider the fast pace of technological development continues to shorten product lifecycles, companies no longer must change tariffs or price once cost errors are discovered. For example, companies that use other costing methods and have had inaccurate prices tend to lose creditability with clients because of overpriced products and the company will suffer losses and will become unprofitable. If the Hampshire company uses the ABC method, they would be able to allocate more overhead, which will give management a better overview of the manufacturing costs. It also tells management how efficient the manufacturing process is by determining the accuracy of activity
costs, customer profitability, distribution costs, margin reserve price and manufacturing facility costs.
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Reference Alternative Methods of Product Costing. (2016, February 16). Retrieved from MBA Knowledge Base website: https://www.mbaknol.com/financial-management/alternative-methods-of- product-costing/ Kenton, W. (2023, March 7). Activity-Based Costing (ABC). Retrieved from Investopedia website: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/abc.asp#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways Chen, J. (2020). Benchmark Definition. Retrieved from Investopedia website: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/benchmark.asp Waida, M. (2022, March 18). What Is Inventory Management and Why Is it Important? | Wrike. Retrieved from Blog Wrike website: https://www.wrike.com/blog/what-is-inventory- management/#:~:text=Inventory%20management%20refers%20to%20the Kenton, W. (2022, March 27). Understanding cost-volume-profit – CVP analysis. Retrieved from Investopedia website: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cost-volume-profit- analysis.asp Hayes, A. (2019). Understanding the Degree of Operating Leverage. Retrieved from Investopedia website: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/degreeofoperatingleverage.asp Lesson 5.1: Cost-volume Profit (CVP) Analysis and Break-Even Point. (2020, December 11). Retrieved from Workforce LibreTexts website: https://workforce.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Food_Production_Service_and_Culinary_A rts/Introduction_to_Food_Production_and_Service_(Egan)/ 05%3A_Planning_for_Profitable_Business/5.01%3A_Cost- volume_Profit_(CVP)_Analysis_and_Break-Even_Point