Cost classification; ethics. Paul Howard, the new plant manager of Garden Scapes Manufacturing Plant Number 7, has just reviewed a draft of his year-end financial statements. Howard receives a year-end bonus of 11.5% of the plant’s operating income before tax. The year-end income statement provided by the plant’s controller was disappointing to say the least. After reviewing the numbers, Howard demanded that his controller go back and “work the numbers” again. Howard insisted that if he didn’t see a better operating income number the next time around he would be forced to look for a new controller.
Garden Scapes Manufacturing classifies all costs directly related to the manufacturing of its product as product costs. These costs are inventoried and later expensed as costs of goods sold when the product is sold. All other expenses, including finished-goods warehousing costs of $3,640,000, are classified as period expenses. Howard had suggested that warehousing costs be included as product costs because they are “definitely related to our product.” The company produced 260,000 units during the period and sold 240,000 units.
As the controller reworked the numbers, he discovered that if he included warehousing costs as product costs, he could improve operating income by $280,000. He was also sure these new numbers would make Howard happy.
- 1. Show numerically how operating income would improve by $280,000 just by classifying the preceding costs as product costs instead of period expenses.
- 2. Is Howard correct in his justification that these costs are “definitely related to our product”?
- 3. By how much will Howard profit personally if the controller makes the adjustments in requirement 1?
- 4. What should the plant controller do?
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solutionChapter 2 Solutions
EBK HORNGREN'S COST ACCOUNTING
- Anita Brown is the manager of a wholesale food company. Her compensation, in part, is incentive-based. In other words, the higher the company income, the higher her incentive compensation. Each year, in an effort to influence her bonus, Anita makes several recommendations, concerning adjusting entries, to the company controller. One of her favorites is to ask the controller to reduce the estimate of doubtful accounts.1. How does lowering the estimate of doubtful accounts affect the income statement and balance sheet?2. Is there an ethical consideration in this case? If so, what is it?3. Should Anita be permitted to weigh in on adjusting entries under these circumstances? Why or why not?arrow_forwardThe managing partner at Mina's Accounting Service typically hires one part-time intern to complete her client's basic tax returns. Mina expects her intern to complete 280 of these basic returns, estimating each one to take 30 minutes of the intern's time. Mina pays her intern $25/hr and incurs additional variable overhead costs of $20/hr associated with the resources that are needed behind the scenes for these jobs. What cost of services should Mina budget for all basic tax returns this season, and how much should she charge each client if she wants to earn a 60% gross margin on each of these returns?arrow_forwardCal’s Carpentry is considering outsourcing its accountsreceivable function. Currently, Cal employs two full-time clerksand one part-time clerk to manage accounts receivable. Each fulltime clerk has an annual salary of $36,000 plus fringe benefitscosting 30 percent of their salary. The part-time clerk makes$18,000 per year but has no fringe benefits. Total salary plus fringecost is $111,600. Cal estimates that each account receivable incursa $10 variable cost. The Small Business Accounts ReceivablesGroup (SBARG) specializes in handling accounts receivable forsmall- to medium-size companies. Doris Roberts from SBARGhas offered to do the accounts receivable for Cal’s Carpentry ata fixed cost of $75,000 per year plus $30 per account receivable.Next year, Cal expects to have 2000 accounts receivable.(a) Calculate the cost for Cal’s Carpentry to continue doingaccounts receivable in-house.(b) Calculate the cost for Cal’s Carpentry to use SBARG tohandle the accounts receivable.(c) If the fixed…arrow_forward
- Willingham Construction is in the business of building high-priced, custom, single-family homes. The company,headquartered in Anaheim, California, operates throughout the Southern California area. The construction periodfor the average home built by Willingham is six months, although some homes have taken as long as nine months.You have just been hired by Willingham as the assistant controller and one of your first tasks is to evaluate thecompany’s revenue recognition policy. The company presently recognizes revenue upon completion for all of itsprojects and management is now considering whether revenue recognition over time is appropriate.Required:Write a 1- to 2-page memo to Virginia Reynolds, company controller, describing the differences between theeffects of recognizing revenue over time and upon project completion on the income statement and balance sheet.Indicate any criteria specifying when revenue should be recognized. Be sure to include references to GAAP asthey pertain to…arrow_forwardI have a cost accounting question.arrow_forwardMcNulty, Inc., produces desks and chairs. A new CFO has just been hired and announces a new policy that if a product cannot earn a margin of at least 20 percent, it will be dropped. The margin is computed as product gross profit divided by reported product cost. Manufacturing overhead for year 1 totaled $800,000. Overhead is allocated to products based on direct labor cost. Data for year 1 show the following. Chairs Desks Sales revenue $ 1,150,000 $ 2,105,000 Direct materials 584,000 800,000 Direct labor 160,000 340,000 Required: a-1. Based on the CFO's new policy, calculate the profit margin for both chairs and desks. a-2. Which of the two products should be dropped? b. Regardless of your answer in requirement (a), the CFO decides at the beginning of year 2 to drop the chair product. The company cost analyst estimates that overhead without the chair line will be $650,000. The revenue and costs for desks are expected to be the same as last…arrow_forward
- 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 $ 2,665 2,710 2,760 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 2,860 2,895 Maintenance cost 3,045 2,905 2,945 2,820 2,610 2,630 2,930 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_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 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_forwardHaving an issue with this problem. Thank youarrow_forward
- McNulty, Inc., produces desks and chairs. A new CFO has just been hired and announces a new policy that if a product cannot earn a margin of at least 35 percent, it will be dropped. The margin is computed as product gross profit divided by reported product cost. Manufacturing overhead for year 1 totaled $1,071,000. Overhead is allocated to products based on direct labor cost. Data for year 1 show the following. Chairs Desks Sales revenue $1,580,800 $2,786,000 Direct materials 595,000 910,000 Direct labor 230,000 400,000 Required: a-1. Based on the CFO's new policy, calculate the profit margin for both chairs and desks. a-2. Which of the two products should be dropped? b. Regardless of your answer in requirement (a), the CFO decides at the beginning of year 2 to drop the chair product. The company cost analyst estimates that overhead without the chair line will be $760,000. The revenue and costs for desks are expected to be the same as last year. What is the…arrow_forwardFusion Metals Company needs a new manager for its Cutting Department. It is considering closing its Packaging Department, and if it does the Packaging Department manager will be appointed manager of the Cutting Department. The Packaging Department manager makes $45,000 per year. To hire a newCutting Department manager from outside the company will cost Fusion $60,000 per year. Required: Discuss the relevance of each of these salary figures to the department-closing decision.arrow_forwardDinesharrow_forward
- Managerial AccountingAccountingISBN:9781337912020Author:Carl Warren, Ph.d. Cma William B. TaylerPublisher:South-Western College Pub