Service Department Charges Hannibal Steel Company has a Transport Services Department that provides trucks to haul ore from the company’s mine to its two steel mills—the Northern Plant and the Southern Plant. Budgeted costs for the Transport Services Department total $350,000 per year, consisting of $0.25 per ton variable cost and $300,000 fixed cost. The level of fixed cost is determined by peak-period requirements. During the peak period, the Northern Plant requires 70% of the Transport Services Department’s capacity and the Southern Plant requires 30%. During the year, the Transport Services Department actually hauled the following amounts of ore for the two plants: Northern Plant, 130,000 tons; Southern Plant, 50,000 tons. The Transport Services Department incurred $364,000 in cost during the year, of which $54,000 was variable cost and $310,000 was fixed cost. Required: 1. How much of the $54,000 in variable cost should be charged to each plant. 2. How much of the $310,000 in fixed cost should be charged to each plant. 3. Should any of the $364,000 in the Transport Services Department cost be treated as a spending variance and not charged to the plants? Explain.
Variance Analysis
In layman's terms, variance analysis is an analysis of a difference between planned and actual behavior. Variance analysis is mainly used by the companies to maintain a control over a business. After analyzing differences, companies find the reasons for the variance so that the necessary steps should be taken to correct that variance.
Standard Costing
The standard cost system is the expected cost per unit product manufactured and it helps in estimating the deviations and controlling them as well as fixing the selling price of the product. For example, it helps to plan the cost for the coming year on the various expenses.
Service Department Charges
Hannibal Steel Company has a Transport Services Department that provides trucks to haul ore from the company’s mine to its two steel mills—the Northern Plant and the Southern Plant. Budgeted costs for the Transport Services Department total $350,000 per year, consisting of $0.25 per ton variable cost and $300,000 fixed cost. The level of fixed cost is determined by peak-period requirements. During the peak period, the Northern Plant requires 70% of the Transport Services Department’s capacity and the Southern Plant requires 30%.
During the year, the Transport Services Department actually hauled the following amounts of ore for the two plants: Northern Plant, 130,000 tons; Southern Plant, 50,000 tons. The Transport Services Department incurred $364,000 in cost during the year, of which $54,000 was variable cost and $310,000 was fixed cost.
Required:
1. How much of the $54,000 in variable cost should be charged to each plant.
2. How much of the $310,000 in fixed cost should be charged to each plant.
3. Should any of the $364,000 in the Transport Services Department cost be treated as a spending variance and not charged to the plants? Explain.
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