Management and Cost Accounting, 10th Edition Solution Manual

Cost assignment Solutions to Chapter 3 questions (a) For the answer to this question see ‘Budgeted overhead rates’ in Chapter 3. (b) A lower production overhead rate does not necessarily indicate that factory X is more efficient than factory Y. The reasons for this are: (i) Factory Y’s operations might be highly mechanized, resulting in large depreciation costs, whereas factory X’s operations might be labour-intensive. Consequently products produced in factory Y will incur higher overhead and lower labour costs, whereas products produced in factory X will incur lower overhead and higher labour costs. (ii) Factory Y may have invested in plant with a larger operating capacity in order to meet future output. This will result in larger fixed costs and a higher overhead rate. (iii) Both factories may use different denominators in calculating the overhead rates. For example, if factory Y uses normal capacity and factory X uses maximum practical capacity then factory Y will have a higher overhead rate. (iv) Current budgeted activity might be used by both firms to calculate the overhead rate. The level of budgeted sales will determine budgeted activity. The lower overhead rate of factory X might be due to a higher sales volume rather than efficient factory operations. (v) Different cost classification might result in different overhead rates. Factory X might treat all expenditure as a direct cost wherever possible. For example, employers’ costs might be charged out by means of an inflated hourly wage rate. Factory Y may treat such items as overhead costs. Solution IM 3.1 See answer to Question 3.22 in the text for the answer to this question. Solution IM 3.2 (a) For the answer to this question see ‘Blanket overhead rates’ in Chapter 3. (b) For the answer to this question see Learning Note 3.1 on the open access website. Solution IM 3.3 (a) Solution IM 3.4 Production department Service department Total A B C (£) (£) (£) (£) (£) Direct 261 745 226 120 93 890 53 305 635 060 Indirect 135 400 (40%) 118 475 (35%) 67 700 (20%) 16 925 (5%) 338 500 Service dept appointment Allocation base (1) COST ASSIGNMENT 1 23 410 ( ) ––––––– 3 420 555 ––––––– 17 760 =£23.68 per direct labour hour 1 23 410 ( ) ––––––– 3 368 005 ––––––– 5 760 =£63.89 per m/c hour 1 23 410 ( ) ––––––– 3 185 000 ––––––– 148 000 =£1.25 per hour (70 230) –––––– — –––––– ––––––– 973 560 ––––––– 5 Note: 1. Dept. A direct labour hours = 10 × 37 × 48 = 17 760 Dept. B machine hours = 5 × 24 × 48 =5760 Dept. C units = 148 000 (b) Dept A £ 213.12 9 direct labour hours at £23.68 Dept B 3 m/c hours at £63.89 Dept C 100 units at £1.25 191.67 125.00 529.79 Cost per unit = £5.30 (£529.79/100) Solution IM 3.5 Overhead analysis sheet (a) Production Cutting (£) Tents (£) Bags (£) Stores (£) Canteen Maintenance (£) (£) 147 200 54 600 84 200 31 700 13 800 14 400 13 500 6 400 5 300 31 200 5 389 19 500 4 100 17 500 12 046 20 100 2 300 24 600 10 144 41 200 — 2 500 951 15 000 18 700 3 400 2 536 45 000 24 200 5 000 634 11 120 13 900 9 730 2 085 3 475 1 390 359 400 59 409 67 046 66 874 46 736 43 111 76 224 – – – 29 210 2 694 1 887 5 842 18 476 37 731 5 842 21 941 42 448 (46 736) — (43 111) 5 842 — (82 066) Reapportionment: Storesc Canteend Maintenancee Machine hours Labour hours 359 400 87 000 112 000 ⎧ ⎨ ⎩ Indirect wages Consumable materials Plant depreciation Powera Heat and lightb Rent and ratesb Building insuranceb Service Total (£) 93 200 129 095 137 105 2 000 40 000 45 000 7 000 48 000 57 000 Machine hour rate £46.60 £3.23 £3.05 Overheads per labour hour £13.31 £2.69 £2.41 Notes Bases of apportionment: a estimated power usage; b area; c value of issues; d direct labour hours; e machine hours. Actual basis for other costs. (b) See section on budgeted overhead rates in Chapter 3 for the answer to this question. In addition the following points should be made: (i) It draws attention to the under/over recovery of overheads arising from changes in production levels. (ii) There is difficulty in determining estimated overheads and an appropriate level of activity when calculating predetermined overhead rates. 6 COST ASSIGNMENT (a) Percentage of direct labour cost method = (£600 000/£200 000) 100 = 300% of direct labour cost Direct labour hour method = (£600 000/40 000 direct labour hours) = £15 per direct labour hour Machine hour method = (£600 000/50 000 machine hour) = £12 per machine hour Solution IM 3.6 (b) See ‘Predetermined overhead rates’ in Chapter 3 for the answer to this question. (c) The question states that the company has become machine-intensive and implies that in the long term there is a closer association between overhead expenditure and machine hours than the other two methods. Therefore the best measure of overhead resources consumed by jobs or products is machine hours. (d) Job Ax Direct material Direct labour Direct expenses (£) 3788 1100 422 Prime cost Production overhead (120 machine hours £12) 5310 1440 Factory cost Administrative overheads (20% £6750) 6750 1350 Total cost Profit (£8100/0.90 £8100) 8100 900 Selling price 9000 Workings Administration overhead absorption rate = Total admin. overheads/total factory cost = £328 000/£1 640 000 = 20% of factory cost (e) The general characteristics of incentive schemes should ensure that: (i) the scheme is simple to understand and administer; (ii) payment should be made as quickly as possible after production; (iii) there should be no limit on earnings and employees must be safe-guarded from earning lower wages than time rate wages arising from problems which are outside their control. The advantages of incentive schemes are: (i) increased production and lower average unit costs; (ii) increased morale of the workforce; (iii) attraction of more efficient workers to the company. COST ASSIGNMENT 7 Solution IM 3.7 machine department overheads (£1 080 000) (a) Predetermined machine hour rate = machine hours (80 000) Machining department = £13.50 per machine hour Hand finishing department = £760 000/120 000 labour hours = £6.33 per labour hour (b) (i) Machine department Hand finishing department (£) (£) Overhead incurred 84 500 67 100 Overhead absorbed 81 000 (6000 £13.50) 60 800 (9600 £6.33) Under recovery of overheads 3 500 6 300 (ii) Overheads that are apportioned to cost centres tend to be on an arbitrary basis and are unlikely to be controllable by the cost centre manager. Managers should be held accountable for only those overheads that they can control. See ‘Guidelines for applying the controllability principle’ in Chapter 16 for a more detailed discussion of controllable and non-controllable costs. (c) Absorption costing is used by companies to ensure that all products/services bear an equitable share of company overheads. Statement of Standard Accounting Practice 9 (Replaced by Financial Reporting Standard 102) requires that stocks should be valued at full production cost. Therefore absorption costing is required to allocate overheads to products in order to meet financial accounting requirements. Solution IM 3.8 (a) In order to ascertain the actual overhead traced to the production departments, it is necessary to allocate the service department overheads to the filling and sealing departments: Allocated Reallocation of: Canteen Maintenance Canteen Maintenance Filling (£) 74 260 Sealing (£) 38 115 14 625 (60%) 18 900 (70%) 486 (60%) 47 (70/97) 7 800 (32%) 1 950 (8%) 7 290 (27%) (27 000) 259 (32%) 65 (8%) 18 (27/97) – 108 318 53 482 Predetermined overhead rates: Filling (£) Budgeted overheads 110 040 Budgeted direct labour hours 13 100 Direct labour hour overhead rate 8.40 Overhead incurred Overhead allocated £5.20) (Under)/over recovery 8 Maintenance (£) 25 050 Canteen (£) 24 375 (24 375) 810 (3%) (810) – Sealing (£) 53 300 10 250 5.20 108 318 53 482 107 688 (12 820 £8.40) 52 390 (10 075 (630) (1 092) COST ASSIGNMENT (b) The objectives of overhead apportionment and absorption are: (i) To meet the stock valuation and profit measurement requirements for financial accounting purposes. Financial accounting regulations in most countries require that all manufacturing overheads be traced to products for stock valuation purposes. (ii) For various decisions, such as pricing decisions, management require estimates of the total product costs. (iii) Overhead costs may be traced to different segments of the business, such as product groups or geographical regions, in order to assess the performance of each segment. Overhead apportionment and absorption can be criticized on the following grounds: (i) The process includes many arbitrary apportionments and does not provide an accurate indication of the resources consumed by each product. In tracing overheads to products, the allocation procedure assumes that all overheads are related to volume. This is inappropriate for many fixed overheads, since they are fixed in the short term, and tend to be caused by factors other than volume, such as the diversity of the product range, number of set-ups and range of component parts which the firm stocks. (ii) Fixed overheads are sunk costs, and will tend not to change in the short term. Hence they are unaffected in the short term, irrespective of which decisions are taken. Arbitrary overhead allocations should not be used for decision-making purposes. (iii) Overhead allocations are normally undertaken for stock valuation purposes. The procedures are not intended to meet other requirements, such as decision-making and performance evaluation. (iv) Individuals should not be held accountable for costs which they cannot control. Arbitrary apportionment of overheads is therefore inappropriate for cost control and performance measurement purposes. (a) (i) An over-absorption of overheads occurs because the actual overhead charged Solution IM 3.9 to products (or clients) exceeds the overheads incurred. Therefore £747 360 (£742 600 actual overheads + £4760 over-absorption were charged to clients during direct hours worked, the actual professional staff hours worked during the period were 99 648 (£747 360/£7.50 hourly overhead rate). Therefore budgeted professional staff hours = 98 288 (99 648 1360). (ii) Budgeted overhead expenditure = Budgeted hours (98 288) × Overhead rate (£7.50) = £737 160 (b) To determine the overhead rate the senior staff hours should be weighted by a factor of 1.4 and the junior staff hours by a factor of 1.0: Senior staff= 21 600 × 1.4 = 30 240 Junior staff= 79 300 × 1.0 = 79 300 109 540 Allocation of overheads: Senior staff= 30 240/109 540 × £784 000 = £216 434 Junior staff= 79 300/109 540 × £784 000 = £567 566 £784 000 COST ASSIGNMENT 9 Senior staff overhead allocation rate = £216 434/21 600 = £10.020 per hour Junior staff overhead allocation rate = £567 566/79 300 hours = £7.157 per hour (c) Presumably the senior staff consume a greater proportion of the overhead costs than the junior staff and the revised method is an attempt to reflect this difference in resource consumption. For example, senior staff are likely to require more office space and make greater demands on secretarial time, telephones, etc. The revised method creates two separate cost centres and overhead rates whereas the previous method used a single blanket rate for the whole organization. (d) See the section on under- and over-recovery of overheads in Chapter 3 for the answer to this question. Differences between overhead incurred and overhead absorbed may be due to: (1) differences between actual and budgeted expenditure; (2) differences between actual and budgeted activity level. Solution IM 3.10 (i) With the step-wise method the costs of the first service department (Department G specified in the question) are reapportioned to the second department but return allocations are not made from the second department back to the first department. Production depts Internal services 1 2 G H (£000) (£000) (£000) (£000) Overheads 870 690 Costs 160 82 G apportioned 96 (60%) 48 (30%) 160 16 (10%) –––– –––– 98 H apportioned 61 (50/80) 37 (30/80) 98 –––– –––– –––– 1027 775 –––– –––– (ii) Let G = Service Department G overheads Let H = Service Department H overheads G = 160 + 0.2H H = 82 + 0.1G Rearranging the above equations 0.2H + G = 160 1H 0.1 G = 82 (1) (2) Multiply equation (1) by 1 and equation (2) by 10 0.2H + G = 160 10H G = 820 Add the above equations together: 9.8H = 980 H = 100 Substituting for the value of H in equation (1) 0.2 (100) + G = 160 G = 180 10 COST ASSIGNMENT Internal Services G (180 × 90%) H (100 × 80%) Total (£000) 162 80 ––– 242 Overheads (given) Production depts 1 (£000) (69) 108 (39) 5 (8) 50 (38) –––– 158 870 –––– 1028 –––– 2 (£000) 54 30 ––– 84 690 ––– 774 ––– (iii) The simultaneous equation method will yield more accurate allocations because it takes into account the fact that service departments serve each other whereas the step-wise method ignores such reciprocal usage. The step-wise method involves simpler computations and, in this question, does not give a significantly different answer. However, the step-wise method may yield inaccurate results where service costs are high and there are more than two service departments with significantly different usage ratios between the departments. (a) Primary allocation Apportionment of general factory overhead a Charges by service cost centre 1 b Charges by service cost centre 2 c Budgeted direct labour hours Absorption rates General factory overhead (£) 210 000 (210 000) ––––––– — ––––––– ––––––– Overhead analysis (ignoring reciprocal allocations) Service cost Production cost centres centres 1 2 A B (£) (£) (£) (£) 93 800 38 600 182 800 124 800 10 500 ––––––– 104 300 21 000 –––––– 59 600 31 500 –––––––– 214 300 147 000 –––––––– 271 800 (104 300) ––––––– — ––––––– ––––––– — –––––– 59 600 91 262 –––––––– 305 562 13 038 –––––––– 284 838 (59 600) –––––– — –––––– –––––– 8 221 –––––––– £313 783 –––––––– –––––––– 51 379 –––––––– £336 217 –––––––– –––––––– 120 000 –––––––– –––––––– £2.61 –––––––– –––––––– 20 000 –––––––– –––––––– £16.81 –––––––– –––––––– Solution IM 3.11 Notes a General factory overhead is apportioned to service cost centres before reallocation to production centres as indicated in note (i) of the question. b Because reciprocal allocations are not made, the costs allocated to service cost centre 1 are reallocated as follows: £91 262 (63/72 £104 300) to production cost centre A £13 038 (9/72 £104 300) to production cost centre B c Reciprocal charges are not made. Therefore the allocation is as follows: 4 000/29 000 £59 600 = £8 221 to production cost centre A 25 000/29 000 £59 600 = £51 379 to production cost centre B COST ASSIGNMENT 11 (b) The difference may be due to the following: (i) Changes occurred in projected overhead expenditure compared with expenditure which was used to determine the current year’s overhead rate. (ii) Current overhead rates do not include a proportion of the service cost centres overhead. (iii) Budgeted activity for the next year is greater than the current year for production cost centre A. If this is not matched by a corresponding increase in overhead expenditure then the hourly overhead rate will decline. Budgeted activity for production cost centre B is lower than the current year, resulting in an increase in the overhead rate. Because fixed overheads do not change in relation to activity, the hourly overhead rate will fluctuate whenever changes in activity occur. (See Example 3.2 in Chapter 3 for an illustration.) (c) This question can be answered by using either the repeated distribution or simultaneous equation methods. Both methods are illustrated in Appendix 3.1 to Chapter 3. The simultaneous equation method is illustrated below: Let X = total overhead of service cost centre 1 Y = total overhead of service cost centre 2 Then X = 104 300 + 310Y (i.e. 1000/30 000 hrs of service cost centre 2 overheads) Y = 59 600 + 15X (i.e. 18% out of total of 90% of service cost centre 1 overheads) Rearranging the above equations: X 310Y = 104 300 15X + Y = 59 600 (1) (2) Multiply equation (1) by 1 and equation (2) by 5: X 310Y = 104 300 X + 5Y = 298 000 Adding the above equations together: 149 Y = 402 300 30 402 300 30 Y= 149 Y = 81 000 Substituting for Y in equation (1) results in the following equation: X 310 81 000 = 104 300 X = 107 000 The service cost centre overheads of £107 000 (service cost centre 1) and £81 000 (service cost centre 2) are now apportioned to the production cost centres as follows: 12 COST ASSIGNMENT Primary allocation Apportionment of general factory overhead Charges by service cost centre 1 a Charges by service cost centre 2 b Budgeted direct labour hours Absorption rates General factory overhead (£) 210 000 Service cost centre 1 2 (£) (£) 93 800 38 600 Production cost centre A B (£) (£) 182 800 124 800 (210 000) –––––––– — –––––––– –––––––– 10 500 –––––– 104 300 21 000 –––––– 59 600 31 500 ––––––– 214 300 147 000 ––––––– 271 800 (107 000) 21 400 74 900 10 700 2 700 –––––– — –––––– –––––– (81 000) 10 800 –––––– ––––––– — £300 000 –––––– ––––––– –––––– ––––––– 67 500 ––––––– £350 000 ––––––– ––––––– 120 000 –––––– –––––– £2.50 –––––– –––––– 20 000 –––––– –––––– £17.50 –––––– –––––– Notes a 18/90 £107 000 = £21 400 to service cost centre 2 (18% out of 90%) 63/90 £107 000 = £74 900 to production cost centre A 9/90 £107 000 = £10 700 to production cost centre B b 1000/30 000 £81 000 = £2700 to service cost centre 1 4000/30 000 £81 000 = £10 800 to production cost centre A 25 000/30 000 £81 000 = £67 500 to production cost centre B (d) The answer should include the following points: (i) The overhead rate calculations do not distinguish between fixed and variable elements. Such an analysis is necessary for decision-making purposes. (ii) The majority of service cost centre 1 costs are variable. It is preferable to determine an activity measure which exerts most influence on the variable costs and apportion the costs on the basis of this measure. The present method of apportionment appears to be inappropriate. (iii) Service cost centre 2 is the maintenance department and the majority of costs are fixed, thus suggesting preventive maintenance be undertaken. The question does not make it clear which hourly base is used for allocating overheads (direct labour hours or machine hours). Machine hours should be used for allocating variable costs, since these costs are likely to vary with this activity base. Preventive maintenance should be apportioned on the basis of the planned hours which the maintenance staff intend to allocate to each department. (iv) Production cost centre B is highly mechanized, thus suggesting that a machine hour rate might be preferable to the present direct labour hour rate. COST ASSIGNMENT 13 Solution IM 3.12 Department cost statement (a) Direct variable costs: Materials Labour Factory-wide indirect cost per floorspace Service departments Administration a Maintenance b Warehousing b Cost per unit: Belts (£000) Braces Administration (£000) (£000) Maintenance (£000) Warehousing (£000) Total (£000) 120 80 –––– 200 130 70 –––– 200 — 50) –––– 50) 20) 80) –––– 100) 30) 20) –––– 50) 300 300 ––––– 600 400 –––– 600 400 –––– 600 50) –––– 100) 100) –––– 200) 50) –––– 100) 1000 ––––– 1600 40 –––– 640 79 108 –––– £827 –––– 40 –––– 640 79 54 –––– £773 –––– (100) –––– — — — –––– — –––– 10) –––– 210) (264) 54) –––– — –––– 10) –––– 110) 106) (216) –––– — –––– — ––––– 1600 — — ––––– £1600 ––––– £827 000 Belts 100 000 Braces £773 000 50 000 = £8.27 = £15.46 Notes a Administration does not receive any charges from the other service departments. Therefore the reciprocal basis does not apply. b The simultaneous equation method is used to allocate the maintenance and warehouse costs. Let M = total cost of the maintenance department W = total cost of the warehousing department Then M = 210 + 0.25W W = 110+ 0.4M (1) (2) Multiplying equation (1) by 4 and equation (2) by 1, and rearranging the resulting equations: 4M W = 840 0.4M + W = 110 3.6M M = 950 = £263.89 Substituting the value of M into equation (2): W = 110 + 0.4 263.89 W = £215.56 (b) Kaminsky Ltd has spare capacity, and therefore any sales revenue in excess of variable costs will provide a contribution towards fixed costs and profit. Therefore it is necessary to calculate the variable cost per unit for belts and braces. The calculations of the unit variable cost are as follows: 14 COST ASSIGNMENT Direct variable costs: Materials Labour Service departments Administration Maintenance a Warehousing a Belts (£000) Braces Administration (£000) (£000) 120 80 –––– 200 130 70 –––– 200 20 –––– 220 39.6 53.9 –––– 313.5 –––– 20 –––– 220 39.6 26.9 –––– 286.5 –––– Variable cost per unit: Belts Maintenance (£000) Warehousing (£000) Total (£000) —)) 50) ––– 50) 20) 80) ––––– 100) 30) 20) –––– 50) 300 300 ––– 600 (50) ––– —)) —)) —)) ––– —)) ––– 5) ––––– 105) (132) 26.95) ––––– —) ––––– 5) –––– 55) 52.8) (107.8) –––– —) –––– — ––– 600 — — ––– 600 ––– £313 500 100 000 Braces £286 500 50 000 = £3.135 = £5.73 Note a The simultaneous equation method is used to allocate the service department costs as follows: Let M = maintenance department variable costs W = warehousing department variable costs Then M = 105 + 0.25W W = 55 + 0.4M (1) (2) Multiplying equation (1) by 4 and equation (2) by 1: 4M W = 420 0.4M + W = 55 3.6M = 475 M = 131.94 Substituting in equation (2): W = 55 + 0.4 131.94 W = 107.8 Camfan order Contract price Variable costs (1000 belts at £3.135) (£) 5000 3135 Contribution 1865 If this order is accepted, profits will increase by £1865, provided that better opportunities are not available and the normal selling price will not be affected. It is unlikely that such a small order will affect the normal selling price. Mixon Spenders contract The normal unit cost based on a normal activity of 100 000 belts is £8.27. If this unit cost is used as the basis for determining the ‘cost-plus’ selling price then the agreed selling price will be £9.10 (£8.27 + 10%). The normal selling price will be £9.92 (£8.27 + 20%). The contribution from supplying 100 000 belts will be £596 500 [(£9.10 £3.135 variable cost) 100 000]. Total demand will now be 200 000 belts, but maximum output is 150 000 belts. Therefore existing sales will be reduced by 50 000 belts. The lost contribution is £339 250 [50 000 (£9.92 £3.135)]. Consequently total contribution will increase by £257 250. COST ASSIGNMENT 15 Alternatively, Kaminsky might base selling price on unit costs at maximum capacity of 150 000 units. The revised unit cost will be as follows: Fixed costs apportioned to belts = £513 500 (£827 000 total cost £313 500 variable cost) Fixed costs per unit (£) = 3.42 (£513 500/150 000 units) Variable cost per unit (£) = 3.135 –––– Total cost per unit (£) = 6.555 –––– Selling price for contract = £7.21 (£6.555 + 10%). The total contribution from the contract will be £407 500, consisting of 100 000 units at a contribution per unit of £4.075 (£7.21 £3.135). This will still cover the contribution sacrificed on existing business. On the basis of the above quantitative information, the contract should be accepted. However, before acceptance, the following qualitative factors should be considered: (i) Will the long-term disadvantages from a loss of customer goodwill from depriving normal customers of 50 000 units outweigh the short-term advantage of taking on the contract? (ii) An attractive feature of the contract is that it will result in certain sales of 2000 units per week, thus enabling production, cash flows etc. to be forecasted more accurately. (c) For the answer to this question see ‘alternative denominator level measures’ in Chapter 7. In addition the answer should emphasize that normal overhead rates reflect a long-term planned activity base which is expected to satisfy demand levels over a series of years. Over this period, fluctuations in customer demand, seasonal and cyclical changes will be incorporated into an annual rate. A normalized overhead rate recognizes that the company’s overhead cost commitment is related to the long-run demand for its products. A normalized overhead rate is preferable for pricing purposes, since the alternative of basing overhead rates on the activity for next year will result in higher selling prices when demand is low if cost-plus pricing is used. Prices should be lower when demand is depressed. A normalized overhead rate should avoid such inconsistencies. 16 COST ASSIGNMENT