Variable costs and activity bases in decision making
Sales volume has been dropping at Pinnacle Publishing Company. During this time, however, the Shipping Department manager has been under severe financial constraints. The manager knows that most of the Shipping Department's effort is related to pulling inventory from the warehouse for each order and performing the paperwork. The paperwork involves preparing shipping documents for each order. Thus, the pulling and paperwork effort associated with each sales order is essentially the same, regardless of the size of the order. The Shipping Department manager has discussed the financial situation with senior management. Senior management has responded by pointing out that sales volume has been dropping, so that the amount of work in the Shipping Department should be dropping. Thus, senior management told the Shipping Department manager that costs should be decreasing in the department.
The Shipping Department manager prepared the following information:
Given this information, how would you respond to senior management?
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Survey of Accounting (Accounting I)
- 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 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_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_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 $1,262,000 based on production of 320,000 handheld consoles and 114,000 home consoles. Direct labor and direct materials costs were as follows. Handheld Home Total Direct labor $1,192,500 $385,000 $1,577,500 Materials 780,000 711,000 1,491,000 Management has determined that…arrow_forward
- Assume you are the warehouse manager for Vinnies Vinyls, a multi-location business specializing in vinyl records. Vinniess operates under a cost-based transfer structure and the warehouse supplies all stores with the records. The stores can purchase records only from the warehouse, and the warehouse can only sell to Vinnies stores. The manager of the West store has some concerns relating to the stores financial performance and has asked for your help analyzing transfer costs. After calculating the operating income in dollars and the operating income percent, analyze the following financial information to determine costs that may need further investigation. (Hint: it may be helpful to perform a vertical analysis.)arrow_forwardSuppose that Stillwater Designs has two classes of distributors: JIT distributors and non-JIT distributors. The JIT distributor places small, frequent orders, and the non-JIT distributor tends to place larger, less frequent orders. Both types of distributors are buying the same product. Stillwater Designs provides the following information about customer-related activities and costs for the most recent quarter: Sales orders Sales calls Service calls Average order size Manufacturing cost/unit Customer costs: Processing sales orders Selling goods Servicing goods Sales (in units) Sales Allocation Ordering costs Selling costs Service costs Total 9.23 per unit JIT $ JIT Distributors $3,180,000 1,120,000 1,050,000 $5,350,000 Total 1. Calculate the total revenues per distributor category, and assign the customer costs to each distributor type by using revenues as the allocation base. Selling price for one unit is $150. Round calculations to the nearest dollar. 650,000 97,500,000 2,675,000…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 $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_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 $1,902,000 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 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_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 $2,023,500 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_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 $2,145,000 based on production of 30,000 Personal grinders and 10,000 Commercial grinders. Direct costs were as follows: Direct materials Direct labor Personal $ 1,451,400 1,038,000 Commercial $ 702,000 749,500 Total $ 2,153,400 1,787,500 Management has determined that overhead costs are caused by three cost drivers. These…arrow_forwardYou are the warehouse manager for a multi-location business specializing in old style vinyl records. The company operates under a cost-based transfer structure and the warehouse supplies all stores with the records. The stores can purchase records only from the warehouse, and the warehouse can only sell to the stores. The manager of the West store has concerns relating to the store’s financial performance and has asked for help analyzing transfer costs. After calculating the operating income in dollars and the operating income percent, analyze the following financial information to determine costs that may need further investigation. It may be helpful to perform a vertical analysis (i.e., perform a vertical analysis). warehouse west store sales $18,920 $43,860 cost of goods sold 9,082 21,053 gross profit $9,838 $22,807 selling expenses 860 2,752 Wges expenses 4,730 15,351 costs allocated from corporate 2,838 4,386 total expenses $8,428 $22,489 operating…arrow_forwardThe salespeople at Ayayai, a notebook manufacturer, commonly pressured operations managers to keep costs down so the company could give bigger discounts to large customers. Kenneth, the operations supervisor, leaked the $1.20 total unit cost to salespeople, who were thrilled, since that was slightly lower than the previous year's unit cost. Budgets were not yet finalized for the upcoming year, so it was unclear what the target unit cost would be. Kenneth knew the current year's operating capacity was two million notebooks, and Ayayai produced and sold just that many. The detailed breakdown of the $1.20 total unit cost is as follows. Direct material Direct labor Variable overhead Fixed overhead Total cost per unit (a) Total fixed costs Gross margin tA $ $0.10 What were Ayayai's total fixed costs? If the average selling price was $1.95, how much gross margin did the company generate? LA 0.25 0.05 0.80 $1.20arrow_forward
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