Concept explainers
Estimating a cost function, high-low method. Lacy Dallas is examining customer-service costs in the southern region of Camilla Products. Camilla Products has more than 200 separate electrical products that are sold with a 6-month guarantee of full repair or replacement with a new product. When a product is returned by a customer a service report is prepared. This service report includes details of the problem and the time and cost of resolving the problem. Weekly data for the most recent 8-week period are as follows:
Week | Customer-Service Department Costs | Number of Service Reports |
1 | $13,300 | 185 |
2 | 20,500 | 285 |
3 | 12,000 | 120 |
4 | 18,500 | 360 |
5 | 14,900 | 275 |
6 | 21,600 | 440 |
7 | 16,500 | 350 |
8 | 21,300 | 315 |
- 1. Plot the relationship between customer-service costs and number of service reports. Is the relationship economically plausible?
Required
- 2. Use the high-low method to compute the cost function relating customer-service costs to the number of service reports.
- 3. What variables, in addition to number of service reports, might be cost drivers of weekly customer-service costs of Camilla Products?
Learn your wayIncludes step-by-step video
Chapter 10 Solutions
Horngren's Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis (16th Edition)
Additional Business Textbook Solutions
Financial Accounting, Student Value Edition (4th Edition)
Managerial Accounting (4th Edition)
Financial Accounting (12th Edition) (What's New in Accounting)
Financial Accounting, Student Value Edition (5th Edition)
Horngren's Accounting (11th Edition)
Principles of Accounting Volume 2
- Horton Manufacturing Incorporated produces blinds and other window treatments for residential homes and offices. The owner is concerned about the maintenance costs for the production machinery because maintenance costs for the previous fiscal year were higher than he expected. The owner has asked you to assist in estimating future maintenance costs to better predict the firm's profitability. Together, you have determined that the best cost driver for maintenance costs is machine hours. The data from the previous fiscal year for maintenance costs and machine hours follow: Month Maintenance Costs Machine Hours $ 2,695 2,740 2,790 2,890 2,925 3,025 2,935 1 2 3 4 56789012 10 11 2,975 2,850 2,640 2,660 2,960 Maintenance cost 1,620 1,730 1,745 1,795 1,790 1,890 1,810 1,845 1,835 1,480 1,690 1,495 Required: 1. Use the high-low method to estimate the fixed and variable portions for maintenance costs. (In your calculations, round "slope (uni variable cost)" to 4 decimal places. Enter the "slope…arrow_forwardVishnuarrow_forwardThe manager of Trusty Car Inspection reviewed the monthly operating costs for the past year. The costs ranged from $4,300 for 1,300 inspections to $3,900 for 900 inspections. Requirements 1. Use the high-low method to calculate the variable cost per inspection. 2. Calculate the total fixed costs. 3. Write the equation and calculate the operating costs for 1,000 inspections. 4. Draw a graph illustrating the total cost under this plan. Label the axes, and show the costs at 900, 1,000, and 1,300 inspections.arrow_forward
- Wizard Corporation has analyzed their customer and order handling data for the past year and has determined the following costs: Order processing cost per order $7 Additional costs if order must be expedited (rushed) $10.00 Customer technical support calls (per call) $12 Relationship management costs (per customer per year) $1200 In addition to these costs, product costs amount to 75% of Sales. In the prior year, Wizard had the following experience with one of its customers, Chester Company: Sales $15,500 Number of orders 160 Percent of orders marked rush 70% Calls to technical support 80 Required: Calculate the profitability of the Chester Company account.arrow_forwardHorton Manufacturing Incorporated produces blinds and other window treatments for residential homes and offices. The owner is concerned about the maintenance costs for the production machinery because maintenance costs for the previous fiscal year were higher than he expected. The owner has asked you to assist in estimating future maintenance costs to better predict the firm's profitability. Together, you have determined that the best cost driver for maintenance costs is machine hours. The data from the previous fiscal year for maintenance costs and machine hours follow: Month 1 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Maintenance Costs Machine Hours $ 2,665 2,710 2,760 2,860 2,895 3,045 2,905 2,945 2,820 2,610 2,630 2,930 Maintenance cost 1,566 1,670 1,685 1,735 1,855 1,890 1,865 1,885 1,775 1,450 1,630 1,465 Required: 1. Use the high-low method to estimate the fixed and variable portions for maintenance costs. (In your calculations, round "slope (unit variable cost)" to 4 decimal places. Enter the…arrow_forwardThane Company is interested in establishing the relationship between electricity costs and machine hours. Data have been collected and a regression analysis prepared using Excel. The monthly data and the regression output follow: Month Machine Hours Electricity Costs January 2,500 $ 18,400 February 2,900 21,000 March 1,900 13,500 April 3,100 23,000 May 3,800 28,250 June 3,300 22,000 July 4,100 24,750 August 3,500 22,750 September 2,000 15,500 October 3,700 26,000 November 4,700 31,000 December 4,200 27,750 Summary Output Regression Statistics Multiple R 0.965 R Square 0.932 Adjusted R2 0.925 Standard Error 1,425.18 Observations 12.00 Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-value Lower 95% Upper 95% Intercept 3,726.88 1,682.82 2.21 0.05 (22.69) 7,476.45 Machine Hours 5.77 0.49 11.7 0.00 4.67 6.87 The percent of the total variance that can be explained by the regression is:…arrow_forward
- Barkoff Enterprises, which uses the high-low method to analyze cost behavior, has determined that machine hours best explain the company's utilities cost. The company's relevant range of activity varies from a low of 600 machine hours to a high of 1,100 machine hours, with the following data being available for the first six months of the year: Month Utilities Machine Hours January $8,700 800 February 8,360 720 March 8,950 810 April 9,360 920 May 9,625 950 June 9,150 900 The variable utilities cost per machine hour for Barkoff is: Select one: a. $5.00. b. $4.50. c. $0.18 d. $5.50.e. None of the answers is correct.arrow_forwardThe manager of Quick Car Inspection reviewed the monthly operating costs for the past year. The costs ranged from $4,800 for 1,200 inspections to $3,800 for 700 inspections. Read the requirements. Requirement 1. Use the high-low method to calculate the variable cost per inspection. Select the formula and enter the amounts to calculate the variable cost per inspection. (Round to the nearest cent.) Requirements 1. Use the high-low method to calculate the variable cost per inspection. 2. Calculate the total fixed costs. 3. Write the equation and calculate the operating costs for 800 inspections. 4. Draw a graph illustrating your total cost under this plan. Show the costs at 700, 800, and 1,200 inspections. (Use the high-low method for all calculations.)arrow_forwardJohnson Filtration. Inc., provides maintenance service for water filtration systems throughout southern Florida. Customers contact Johnson with requests for maintenance service on their water filtration systems. To estimate the service time and the service cost. Johnson’s managers want to predict the repair time necessary for each maintenance request. Hence, repair time in hours is the dependent variable. Repair time is believed to be related to three factors: the number of months since the last maintenance service, the type of repair problem (mechanical or electrical), and the repairperson who performs the repair (Donna Newton or Bob Jones). Data for a sample of 10 service calls are reported in the following table: Develop the simple linear regression equation to predict repair time given the number of months since the last maintenance service, and use the results to test the hypothesis that no relationship exists between repair time and the number of months since the last maintenance service at the 0.05 level of significance. What is the interpretation of this relationship? What does the coefficient of determination tell you about this model? Using the simple linear regression model developed in part (a), calculate the predicted repair time and residual for each of the 10 repairs in the data. Sort the data in ascending order by value of the residual. Do you see any pattern in the residuals for the two types of repair? Do you see any pattern in the residuals for the two repairpersons? Do these results suggest any potential modifications to your simple linear regression model? Now create a scatter chart with months since last service on the x-axis and repair time in hours on the y-axis for which the points representing electrical and mechanical repairs are shown in different shapes and/or colors. Create a similar scatter chart of months since last service and repair time in hours for which the points representing repairs by Bob Jones and Donna Newton are shown in different shapes and/or colors. Do these charts and the results of your residual analysis suggest the same potential modifications to your simple linear regression model? Create a new dummy variable that is equal to zero if the type of repair is mechanical and one if the type of repair is electrical. Develop the multiple regression equation to predict repair time, given the number of months since the last maintenance service and the type of repair. What are the interpretations of the estimated regression parameters? What does the coefficient of determination tell you about this model? Create a new dummy variable that is equal to zero if the repairperson is Bob Jones and one if the repairperson is Donna Newton. Develop the multiple regression equation to predict repair time, given the number of months since the last maintenance service and the repairperson. What are the interpretations of the estimated regression parameters? What does the coefficient of determination tell you about this model? Develop the multiple regression equation to predict repair time, given the number of months since the last maintenance service, the type of repair, and the repairperson. What are the interpretations of the estimated regression parameters? What does the coefficient of determination tell you about this model? Which of these models would you use? Why?arrow_forward
- Corazon Manufacturing Company has a purchasing department staffed by five purchasing agents. Each agent is paid 28,000 per year and is able to process 4,000 purchase orders. Last year, 17,800 purchase orders were processed by the five agents. Required: 1. Calculate the activity rate per purchase order. 2. Calculate, in terms of purchase orders, the: a. total activity availability b. unused capacity 3. Calculate the dollar cost of: a. total activity availability b. unused capacity 4. Express total activity availability in terms of activity capacity used and unused capacity. 5. What if one of the purchasing agents agreed to work half time for 14,000? How many purchase orders could be processed by four and a half purchasing agents? What would unused capacity be in purchase orders?arrow_forwardUsing the information in the previous exercises about Marleys Manufacturing, determine the operating income for department B, assuming department A sold department B 1,000 units during the month and department A reduces the selling price to the market price.arrow_forwardVentana Window and Wall Treatments Company provides draperies, shades, and various window treatments. Ventana works with the customer to design the appropriate window treatment, places the order, and installs the finished product. Direct materials and direct labor costs are easy to trace to the jobs. Ventanas income statement for last year is as follows: Ventana wants to find a markup on cost of goods sold that will allow them to earn about the same amount of profit on each job as was earned last year. Required: 1. What is the markup on cost of goods sold (COGS) that will maintain the same profit as last year? (Round the percentage to two significant digits.) 2. A customer orders draperies and shades for a remodeling job. The job will have the following costs: What is the price that Ventana will quote given the markup percentage calculated in Requirement 1? (Round the price to the nearest dollar.) 3. What if Ventana wants to calculate a markup on direct materials cost, since it is the largest cost of doing business? What is the markup on direct materials cost that will maintain the same profit as last year? (Round the percentage to two significant digits.) What is the bid price Ventana will use for the job given in Requirement 2 if the markup percentage is calculated on the basis of direct materials cost? (Round to the nearest dollar.)arrow_forward
- Excel Applications for Accounting PrinciplesAccountingISBN:9781111581565Author:Gaylord N. SmithPublisher:Cengage LearningCornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Ser...AccountingISBN:9781305970663Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. MowenPublisher:Cengage LearningEssentials of Business Analytics (MindTap Course ...StatisticsISBN:9781305627734Author:Jeffrey D. Camm, James J. Cochran, Michael J. Fry, Jeffrey W. Ohlmann, David R. AndersonPublisher:Cengage Learning
- Managerial Accounting: The Cornerstone of Busines...AccountingISBN:9781337115773Author:Maryanne M. Mowen, Don R. Hansen, Dan L. HeitgerPublisher:Cengage LearningManagerial AccountingAccountingISBN:9781337912020Author:Carl Warren, Ph.d. Cma William B. TaylerPublisher:South-Western College PubPrinciples of Cost AccountingAccountingISBN:9781305087408Author:Edward J. Vanderbeck, Maria R. MitchellPublisher:Cengage Learning