Cost Allocation—Ethical Issues
Star Buck, a coffee shop manager, has two major product lines—drinks and pastries. If Star allocates common costs on any objective basis discussed in this chapter, the drinks are profitable, but the pastries are not. Star is concerned that her boss will pull the plug on pastries. Star’s brother, who is struggling to make a go of his new business, supplies pastries to the coffee shop. Star decides to allocate all common costs to the drinks because, “Drinks can afford to absorb these costs until we get the pastries line on its feet.” After assigning all common costs to drinks, both the drinks and pastries product lines appear to be marginally profitable. Consequently, Star’s manager decides to continue the pastries line.
Required
- a. How would you recommend Star allocate the common costs between drinks and pastries?
- b. You are the assistant manager and have been working with Star on the allocation problem. What should you do?
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solutionChapter 2 Solutions
FUNDAMENTALS OF COST ACCOUNTING
- Cost Behavior, High-Low Method, Pricing Decision Fonseca, Ruiz, and Dunn is a large, local accounting firm located in a southwestern city. Carlos Ruiz, one of the firms founders, appreciates the success his firm has enjoyed and wants to give something back to his community. He believes that an inexpensive accounting services clinic could provide basic accounting services for small businesses located in the barrio. He wants to price the services at cost. Since the clinic is brand new, it has no experience to go on. Carlos decided to operate the clinic for 2 months before determining how much to charge per hour on an ongoing basis. As a temporary measure, the clinic adopted an hourly charge of 25, half the amount charged by Fonseca, Ruiz, and Dunn for professional services. The accounting services clinic opened on January 1. During January, the clinic had 120 hours of professional service. During February, the activity was 150 hours. Costs for these two levels of activity usage are as follows: Required: 1. Classify each cost as fixed, variable, or mixed, using hours of professional service as the activity driver. 2. Use the high-low method to separate the mixed costs into their fixed and variable components. (Note: Round variable rates to two decimal places and fixed amounts to the nearest dollar.) 3. Luz Mondragon, the chief paraprofessional of the clinic, has estimated that the clinic will average 140 professional hours per month. If the clinic is to be operated as a nonprofit organization, how much will it need to charge per professional hour ? How much of this charge is variable? How much is fixed? (Note: Round answers to two decimal places.) 4. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Suppose the accounting center averages 170 professional hours per month. How much would need to be charged per hour for the center to cover its costs ? Explain why the per-hour charge decreased as the activity output increased. (Note: Round answers to two decimal places.)arrow_forward2 Uma has heard about cost-volume-profit analysis and wants to know how it applies to her business. The cost accountant at the soda factory is constantly rambling about break-even and margin of safety. Uma wants comprehensive analysis and recommendations on how her business can be run as effectively as possible.arrow_forwardVVH Training is a company that provides expert training sessions on how to run your business and make it profitable. They offer these training sessions in their offices and offer catering services during the sessions. You have been hired to complete a profitability analysis and you decided to start by completing a cost analysis of the business, in order to figure out for each training sessions, what costs are fixed and what costs are variable. You were able to gather the following information about the associated costs: Instructor: $11,000 per session Training Material: $2,500 per session and $35 per attendee Catering Services: Food: $75 per attendee Setup/cleanup: $25 per attendee Fixed fee: $5,000 per training session The catering company has also offered VVH Training a 1,000$ discount per session, if they are willing to leave their brochures on the dinner table as a form of advertising. VVH has accepted the offer saying that it is a no-brainer Required: plot a…arrow_forward
- E4arrow_forwardIm having an issue with this problem. Thank you!arrow_forwardCost Information and Ethical Behavior, Service Organization Jean Erickson, manager and owner of an advertising company in Charlotte, North Carolina, arranged a meeting with Leroy Gee, the chief accountant of a large, local competitor. The two are lifelong friends. They grew up together in a small town and attended the same university. Leroy is a competent, successful accountant but is having some personal financial difficulties after some of his investments turned sour, leaving him with a 15,000 personal loan to pay offjust when his oldest son is starting college. Jean, on the other hand, is struggling to establish a successful advertising business. She had recently acquired the rights to open a branch office of a large regional advertising firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. During her first 2 years, she was able to build a small, profitable practice. However, the chance to gain a significant foothold in Charlotte hinged on the success of winning a bid to represent the state of North Carolina in a major campaign to attract new industry and tourism. The meeting she had scheduled with Leroy concerned the bid she planned to submit. Jean: Leroy, Im at a critical point in my business venture. If I can win the bid for the states advertising dollars, Ill be set. Winning the bid will bring 600,000 to 700,000 of revenues into the firm. On top of that, I estimate that the publicity will bring another 200,000 to 300,000 of new business. Leroy: I understand. My boss is anxious to win that business as well. It would mean a huge increase in profits for my firm. Its a competitive business, though. As new as you are, I doubt that youll have much chance of winning. Jean: Youre forgetting two very important considerations. First, I have the backing of all the resources and talent of a regional firm. Second, I have some political connections. Last year, I was hired to run the publicity side of the governors campaign. He was impressed with my work and would like me to have this business. I am confident that the proposals I submit will be very competitive. My only concern is to submit a bid that beats your firm. If I come in with a lower bid and good proposals, the governor can see to it that I get the work. Leroy: Sounds promising. If you do win, however, there will be a lot of upset people. After all, they are going to claim that the business should have been given to local advertisers, not to some out-of-state firm. Given the size of your office, youll have to get support from Atlanta. You could take a lot of heat. Jean: True. But I am the owner of the branch office. That fact alone should blunt most of the criticism. Who can argue that Im not a local? Listen, with your help, I think I can win this bid. Furthermore, if I do win it, you can reap some direct benefits. With that kind of business, I can afford to hire an accountant, and Ill make it worthwhile for you to transfer jobs. I can offer you an up-front bonus of 15,000. On top of that, Ill increase your annual salary by 20%. That should solve most of your financial difficulties. After all, we have been friends since day oneand what are friends for? Leroy: Jean, my wife would be ecstatic if I were able to improve our financial position as quickly as this opportunity affords. I certainly hope that you win the bid. What kind of help can I provide? Jean: Simple. To win, all I have to do is beat the bid of your firm. Before I submit my bid, I would like you to review it. With the financial skills you have, it should be easy for you to spot any excessive costs that I may have included. Or perhaps I included the wrong kind of costs. By cutting excessive costs and eliminating costs that may not be directly related to the project, my bid should be competitive enough to meet or beat your firms bid. Required: 1. What would you do if you were Leroy? Fully explain the reasons for your choice. What do you suppose the code of conduct for Leroys company would say about this situation? 2. What is the likely outcome if Leroy agrees to review the bid? Is there much risk to him personally if he reviews the bid? Should the degree of risk have any bearing on his decision?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_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_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 belleves 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 $2,091,000 based on production of 30,000 Personal grinders and 10,000 Commercial grinders. Direct costs were as follows: Direct materials Direct labor Personal $ 1,448,200 1,034,000 Commercial $ 661,000 708,500 Total $ 2,109,200 1,742,500 Management has determined that overhead costs are caused by three cost drivers. These…arrow_forward
- Manjiarrow_forwardManoarrow_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 $1,902,000 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_forward
- Principles of Accounting Volume 2AccountingISBN:9781947172609Author:OpenStaxPublisher:OpenStax CollegeFinancial And Managerial AccountingAccountingISBN:9781337902663Author:WARREN, Carl S.Publisher:Cengage Learning,Managerial AccountingAccountingISBN:9781337912020Author:Carl Warren, Ph.d. Cma William B. TaylerPublisher:South-Western College Pub
- Managerial Accounting: The Cornerstone of Busines...AccountingISBN:9781337115773Author:Maryanne M. Mowen, Don R. Hansen, Dan L. HeitgerPublisher:Cengage Learning