ABC Department Store

Another concern identified, is the utilities expense budget for utilities in Year 9 which is $150,000. This amount is identified as a fixed amount and is unrelated to actually production activities and manufacturing efficiency. Considering that production levels and activity fluctuates throughout the year, the budget for utilities should be a variable item. An example; from Year 7 to Year 8, the utilities expenses increase by $15,000 and with this detection, ways to reduce this expense should be investigate. Another concern is a duplicated line item under the Selling, General, and Administrative Budget for Utilities and Utilities and Services. Another issue for concern, Total Variable Cost was reported to be lower; however was not enough for the lack of sales combined with an increase in advertising and transportation which resulted in an overall negative result. The low Net Sales directly impacted the Contribution Margin which decreased by $49,397. Overall, these concerns indicate the need for a flexible budget with variance analysis.

the variable production cost will be decreased by $0.05 per steel cabinet. Some plant shutdown time is involved, but

We decided to decrease the price of mountain bike production from $134 per bike to $108. The difference of $26 for 11,000 units results in a saving of almost $300,000. In the meanwhile, we also decided to dump our finish goods inventory, incurring a loss of $175,000. We decided to increase our capacity from 20,000 to 27,500 and efficiency from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000. We want to avoid increasing capacity significantly in order to avoid low efficiency. At the same time we want to keep our wastage at a minimum. We reduced our retail margin for the bike and sports store to 20% while reducing the discount stores to 27%. These new retail margins

In the case of Mendel Paper Company which produces four basic paper products lines at one of its plants: computer paper, napkins, place mats, and poster board. Although the plant superintendent, Marlene Herbert is pleases with increased sales he is also concerned about the costs. The superintendent is concerned with the high fixed cost of production, the increases in fixed overhead and even variable overhead. He feels that the production of place mat should be discontinued. His reason for the discontinuation is that the special printing is driving up the variable overhead to the point where the company may not find it profitable to continue with the line. After reviewing the future predictions of the

2. If the department that produces Item 345 was a profit center and if you were the manager of that department, would it be to your financial advantage to lower the price?

Running Head: DOLLAR GENERAL 1Dollar General StrategiesGlenda ReeseManagerial Marketing BUS 620Professor Mary WrightJuly 8, 2012

Break even analysis can be used to decide whether to alter the existing product emphasis or not. For example in this case, if we refer last year’s data, we can see that the product C is not economically feasible to manufacture at $2.40 / unit. Following table gives the analysis for checking whether the company can afford to invest in additional “C” capacity.

As per the cost structure given in the case, Selling costs, Sales and Administration costs, Depreciation and other manufacturing overheads have been considered to be variable costs, i.e. per unit costs and hence have been accounted for in the calculation of profit and loss. As such, this methodology is resulting in a loss of $900 for every Sunday that the plant is operated. Therefore, if the present cost structure is used no production should be done on Sunday since it is clearly unprofitable.

8. I would like to remove allocated costs and fixed overheads and see what would be the variable cost. If this is done, you can see that the variable cost hovers around 7 FF. ( Not many of you have done this)

In vertical analysis, it is easier to see elements as a percentage of Revenue. Between 2011-12, the portion that cost of sales takes in revenue has increased however, there is a bigger deterioration in distribution cost. In 2011, 9.21% of revenue remains as profit but in 2012 this figure decreases to 8.14%. Despite reduction in costs is one of the strategies of Ted Baker(part 1.4), analysis illustrates that costs increase each year.

It is common to business manager in a business unit to adjust different variables (fixed cost, variable cost and price strategy) to maximize the bottom-line or top-line to either maximize profit or minimize the operation cost. Provided the data as below,

Before performing the CVP analysis for the Hampshire manufacturing firm, we identify two basic cost classifications of interest comprising variable costs and fixed costs. As we analyze the case in study, we need to initially acknowledge that both variable costs per

It consists of weighting and combining the weights of the ten factors and to evaluate implementing ABC. The potential benefits of ABC can be analyzed in advance along two separate dimensions. And there are ten mediating factors (Pricing Diversity, Support Diversity, Common Processes, Cost Allocation, Growth of Indirect Costs, Pricing Freedom, Fixed Expense Ratio, Strategic Considerations, Cost Reduction Effort, Analysis Frequency) can guide management in determining the answers. The fist five factors (PD, SD, CP, CA, FG) based on the probability. The second dimension of the model seeks to establish decisions. lY axis potential for ABC due to cost distortion---PD.SD.CP.CA.FG lX axis proclivity to use cost information in decision---PF.FE.SC.CR.AF To start management must analyze and responses to two key questions: 1. For a given organization, is it likely that ABC will produce costs that are significantly different from those that are generated with conventional accounting, and does it seem likely that those costs will be "better"? 2. If information that is considered "better" is generated by the system, will the new information change the dependent decisions made by the management? After finish these questions managers of company can discuses the ten factors that support or reject implementation. Finally, the combined weighted scores are plotted as a point on one of the four quadrants of a graph.Plotting the Answers--- Use Contingency Grid Method The steps in the

decrease the own accounts receivable, but it may also cost more overhead than it at the end brings.

The goal of traditional accounting practices is to achieve the lowest possible cost per unit by maximizing employee and equipment productivity. However, the goal of the plant’s