Vineyard Test Laboratories does heat testing (HT) and stress testing (ST) on materials and operates at capacity. Under its current simple costing system, Vineyard aggregates all operating costs of $1,190,000 into a single overhead cost pool. Vineyard calculates a rate per test-hour of $17 ($1,190,000 / 70,000 total test-hours) HT uses 40,000 test-hours, and ST uses 30,000 test-hours. Gary Celeste, Vineyard’s controller, believes that there is enough variation in test procedures and cost structures to establish separate costing and billing rates for HT and ST. The market for test services is becoming competitive. Without this information, any miscosting and mispricing of its services could cause Vineyard to lose business. Celeste divides Vineyard’s costs into four activity-cost categories. a. Direct-labor costs, $146,000. These costs can be directly traced to HT, $100,000, and ST, $46,000. b. Equipment-related costs (rent, maintenance, energy, and so on), $350,000. These costs are allocated to HT and ST on the basis of test-hours. c. Setup costs, $430,000. These costs are allocated to HT and ST on the basis of the number of setup-hours required. HT requires 13,600 setup-hours, and ST requires 3,600 setup-hours. d. Costs of designing tests, $264,000. These costs are allocated to HT and ST on the basis of the time required for designing the tests. HT requires 3,000 hours, and ST requires 1,400 hours. Required: 1. Classify each activity cost as output unit–level, batch-level, product or service-sustaining, or facility-sustaining. Explain each answer. 2. Calculate the cost per test-hour for HT and ST. Explain briefly the reasons why these numbers differ from the $17 per test-hour that Vineyard calculated using its simple costing system. 3. Explain the accuracy of the product costs calculated using the simple costing system and the ABC system. How might Vineyard’s management use the cost hierarchy and ABC information to better manage its business?
> Pampered Pets, Inc., makes embellished accessories primarily for dogs. For 2017, budgeted variable overhead is $70,000 for 10,000 direct labor-hours. Budgeted total overhead is $100,000 at 8,000 direct labor-hours. The standard costs allocated to the pro
> Meals Made Easy (MME) operates a meal home-delivery service. It has agreements with 20 restaurants to pick up and deliver meals to customers who place orders on MME’s website. MME allocates variable and fixed overhead costs on the basis
> The Brazil division of an American telecommunications company uses standard costing for its machine-paced production of telephone equipment. Data regarding production during June are as follows: Variable manufacturing overhead costs incurred…………………………………
> The Lopez Company uses standard costing in its manufacturing plant for auto parts. The standard cost of a particular auto part, based on a denominator level of 4,000 output units per year, included 6 machine-hours of variable manufacturing overhead at $8
> Atkinson Construction assembles residential houses. It uses a job-costing system with two direct-cost categories (direct materials and direct labor) and one indirect-cost pool (assembly support). Direct labor-hours is the allocation base for assembly sup
> ProChem, Inc., produces chemicals for large biotech companies. It has the following data for manufacturing overhead costs during August 2017: Fill in the blanks. Use F for favorable and U for unfavorable: Variable Fixed (1) Spending variance (2) Ef
> The Rotations Corporation is a manufacturer of centrifuges. Fixed and variable manufacturing overheads are allocated to each centrifuge using budgeted assembly-hours. Budgeted assembly time is 2 hours per unit. The following table shows the budgeted amou
> The Sourdough Bread Company also allocates fixed manufacturing overhead to products on the basis of standard direct manufacturing labor-hours. For 2017, fixed manufacturing overhead was budgeted at $3.00 per direct manufacturing labor-hour. Actual fixed
> The Sourdough Bread Company bakes baguettes for distribution to upscale grocery stores. The company has two direct-cost categories: direct materials and direct manufacturing labor. Variable manufacturing overhead is allocated to products on the basis of
> Esquire Clothing allocates fixed manufacturing overhead to each suit using budgeted direct manufacturing labor-hours per suit. Data pertaining to fixed manufacturing overhead costs for June 2017 are budgeted, $62,400, and actual, $63,916. Required: 1.
> Esquire Clothing is a manufacturer of designer suits. The cost of each suit is the sum of three variable costs (direct material costs, direct manufacturing labor costs, and manufacturing overhead costs) and one fixed-cost category (manufacturing overhead
> Why is it important to distinguish between the performance of a manager and the performance of the organization subunit for which the manager is responsible? Give an example.
> What special problems arise when evaluating performance in multinational companies?
> Distinguish between measuring assets based on current cost and historical cost.
> “RI is not identical to ROI, although both measures incorporate income and investment into their computations.” Do you agree? Explain.
> Dakota Products uses a job-costing system with two direct-cost categories (direct materials and direct manufacturing labor) and one manufacturing overhead cost pool. Dakota allocates manufacturing overhead costs using direct manufacturing labor costs. Da
> What are the three steps in designing accounting-based performance measures?
> Describe the four levers of control.
> Describe two disclosures required by the SEC with respect to executive compensation.
> Explain the incentive problems that can arise when employees must perform multiple tasks as part of their jobs.
> Explain the role of benchmarking in evaluating managers.
> “Managers should be rewarded only on the basis of their performance measures. They should be paid no salary.” Do you agree? Explain.
> Give examples of financial and nonfinancial performance measures that can be found in each of the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard.
> “Transfer pricing is confined to profit centers.” Do you agree? Explain.
> Name three benefits and two costs of decentralization.
> How should managers consider income tax issues when choosing a transfer-pricing method?
> In each of the following situations, determine whether job costing or process costing would be more appropriate. a. A CPA firm b. An oil refinery c. A custom furniture manufacturer d. A tire manufacturer e. A textbook publisher f. A home builder g.
> “Under the general guideline for transfer pricing, the minimum transfer price will vary depending on whether the supplying division has unused capacity or not.” Do you agree? Explain.
> “Cost and price information play no role in negotiated transfer prices.” Do you agree? Explain.
> Give two reasons why the dual-pricing system of transfer pricing is not widely used.
> What is one potential limitation of full-cost-based transfer prices?
> Under what conditions is a market-based transfer price optimal?
> “Let’s be more practical. DCF is not the gospel. Managers should not become so enchanted with DCF that strategic considerations are overlooked.” Do you agree? Explain.
> “The trouble with discounted cash flow methods is that they ignore depreciation.” Do you agree? Explain.
> Describe the accrual accounting rate-of-return method. What are its main strengths and weaknesses?
> What is the payback method? What are its main strengths and weaknesses?
> “Only quantitative outcomes are relevant in capital budgeting analyses.” Do you agree? Explain.
> The Walliston Group (WG) provides tax advice to multinational firms. WG charges clients for (a) direct professional time (at an hourly rate) and (b) support services (at 30% of the direct professional costs billed). The three professionals in WG and th
> “Relevant costs for pricing decisions are full costs of the product.” Do you agree? Explain.
> What is the essence of the discounted cash flow methods?
> List and briefly describe each of the five stages in capital budgeting.
> Distinguish the nominal rate of return from the real rate of return.
> How can capital budgeting tools assist in evaluating a manager who is responsible for retaining customers of a cellular telephone company?
> Describe three ways income taxes can affect the cash inflows or outflows in a motor-vehicle-replacement decision by a taxpaying company.
> Distinguish different categories of cash flows to be considered in an equipment-replacement decision by a taxpaying company.
> Bill Watts, president of Western Publications, accepts a capital budgeting project proposed by division X. This is the division in which the president spent his first 10 years with the company. On the same day, the president rejects a capital budgeting p
> “All overhead costs are relevant in NPV analysis.” Do you agree? Explain.
> What are three factors causing reductions in the cost to place purchase orders for materials?
> “JIT purchasing has many benefits but also some risks.” Do you agree? Explain briefly.
> Why might goal-congruence issues arise when managers use an EOQ model to guide decisions on how much to order?
> What are the steps in computing the cost of a prediction error when using the EOQ decision model?
> Give three examples of opportunity costs that typically are not recorded in accounting systems, although they are relevant when using the EOQ model in the presence of demand uncertainty.
> What assumptions are made when using the simplest version of the economic-order-quantity (EOQ) decision model?
> Discuss the differences between lean accounting and traditional cost accounting.
> Describe three different versions of backflush costing.
> Distinguish inventory-costing systems using sequential tracking from those using backflush costing.
> What are the main features of JIT production, and what are its benefits and costs?
> What is supply-chain analysis, and how can it benefit manufacturers and retailers?
> “You should always choose the supplier who offers the lowest price per unit.” Do you agree? Explain.
> Roberta, Inc., manufactures elliptical machines for several well-known companies. The machines differ significantly in their complexity and their manufacturing batch sizes. The following costs were incurred in 2017: a. Indirect manufacturing labor costs
> Why do better decisions regarding the purchasing and managing of goods for sale frequently cause dramatic percentage increases in net income?
> Give two examples of nonfinancial measures of internal-business-process quality.
> Give two examples of nonfinancial measures of customer satisfaction relating to quality.
> “Companies should focus on financial measures of quality because these are the only measures of quality that can be linked to bottom-line performance.” Do you agree? Explain.
> Describe three methods that companies use to identify quality problems.
> Distinguish between internal failure costs and external failure costs.
> “When evaluating a company’s performance on the time dimension, managers should only consider financial measures.” Do you agree? Explain.
> “Companies should always make and sell all products whose selling prices exceed variable costs.” Assuming fixed costs are irrelevant, do you agree? Explain.
> Give two reasons why delays occur.
> “There is no tradeoff between customer-response time and on-time performance.” Do you agree? Explain.
> What are three important pitfalls to avoid when implementing a balanced scorecard?
> Distinguish between customer-response time and manufacturing cycle time.
> “When evaluating alternative ways to improve quality, managers need to consider the fully allocated costs of quality.” Do you agree? Explain.
> “Total input includes abnormal as well as normal spoilage and is, therefore, inappropriate as a basis for computing normal spoilage.” Do you agree? Explain.
> Distinguish among spoilage, rework, and scrap.
> How do managers use information about scrap?
> “Abnormal rework costs should be charged to a loss account, not to manufacturing overhead.” Do you agree? Explain.
> “In job costing, the costs of normal spoilage that occur while a specific job is being done are charged to the specific job.” Do you agree? Explain.
> Describe the distinctive characteristic of FIFO computations in assigning costs to units completed and to units in ending work in process.
> Name the five steps in process costing when equivalent units are computed.
> What problems might arise in estimating the degree of completion of semiconductor chips in a semiconductor plant?
> What are the five types of conditions to consider when evaluating a strategy map?
> Explain equivalent units. Why are equivalent-unit calculations necessary in process costing?
> In process costing, why are costs often divided into two main classifications?
> “There’s no reason for me to get excited about the choice between the weighted-average and FIFO methods in my process-costing system. I have long-term contracts with my materials suppliers at fixed prices.” Do you agree with this statement made by a plan
> Why should the accountant distinguish between transferred-in costs and additional direct materials costs for each subsequent department in a process-costing system?
> “The standard-costing method is particularly applicable to process-costing situations.” Do you agree? Why?
> Give two limitations of the physical-measure method of joint-cost allocation.
> Distinguish between the sales value at splitoff method and the NRV method.
> Describe a situation in which the sales value at splitoff method cannot be used but the NRV method can be used for joint-cost allocation.
> Provide three reasons for allocating joint costs to individual products or services.
> Why might the number of products in a joint-cost situation differ from the number of outputs? Give an example.
> “We are already measuring total factor productivity. Measuring partial productivities would be of no value.” Do you agree? Comment briefly.
> Distinguish between a joint product and a byproduct.
> Why might managers seeking a monthly bonus based on attaining a target operating income prefer the sales method of accounting for byproducts rather than the production method?
> “Managers should consider only additional revenues and separable costs when making decisions about selling at splitoff or processing further.” Do you agree? Explain.
> “Managers must decide whether a product should be sold at splitoff or processed further. The sales value at splitoff method of joint-cost allocation is the best method for generating the information managers need for this decision.” Do you agree? Explain
> Why is the constant gross-margin percentage NRV method sometimes called a “joint-cost-allocation and a profit-allocation” method?
> Distinguish among the three methods of allocating the costs of support departments to operating departments.
> Why might a manager prefer that budgeted rather than actual cost-allocation rates be used for costs being allocated to his or her department from another department?
