Case 3a Analysis : Auerbach Enterprises

The Rose Company is building a new plant to reduce cost, improve the quality of products, and maintain competitive leadership by gaining a slight production advantage. The main obstacles to be overcome are the commissioning of a new plant, new methods and process, and administrative reporting issues. As the newly hired General Plant Manager, I plan to resolve these issues by insisting that all plant communications flow through me, instituting training for plant personnel and setting operational expectations.

Only the incremental costs and benefits are relevant. In particular, only the variable manufacturing overhead and the cost of the special tool are relevant overhead costs in this situation. The other manufacturing overhead costs are fixed and are not affected by the decision.

Herein will begin with an overview and introduction from personal knowledge of DixieLands Glory, LLC; a small family owned and operated business for the purpose of owning and managing rental properties. The company was initially operated as Warf’s Rentals; in 2003 the business was renamed and incorporated to become DixieLands Glory, LLC. The business is operated from a small office located in the family’s home, which is located in Linden, Tennessee. DixieLands Glory owns, operate, and manage approximately eighty-five rental units ranging from single-family homes to 4-plexes and mobile home parks. The properties that the company owns are mostly located in the states of Tennessee and Alabama. Of this, about 50 percent are located in the family’s hometown of Linden, Tennessee, with the remainder being located in two other Tennessee counties, and Decatur, Alabama.

Overhead costs are not in proportion to the production output because of the method they are using. This leads to inaccurate pricing and costing decisions. An Activity Based Costing System would help find the real relationship between the products produced and overhead.

A decade ago the Lehman Brothers were the fourth largest investment bank in America. Dealing with Investment banking and investment management, the Lehman Brothers was one of the largest global financial service providers. Consequently, the subprime mortgage crisis left the company filing for the declaration of the chapter 11 bankruptcy protections, due to the unnecessary undertaken risk and obnoxious negligence accusations directed towards the group. Companies should utilize observational and analytical pundit functions in identifying the presence of crisis situations to avoid an economic downturn in the business (Pontell, 2014). The fraud would have prevented through stronger and better internal controls, which

“Auerbach Enterprises uses machine hours as the cost driver to assign overhead costs to the air conditioners. The company has used a company-wide predetermined overhead rate in past years, but the new controller, Bennie Leon, is considering the use of departmental overhead rates beginning with the next year. “(Schneider, 2012). One product is affected more than the other by use of departmental rates rather than companywide rate.

Wilkerson employs a Normal Cost System, which means that they use predetermined overhead rates along with actual costs for direct material and direct labor. Normal costing systems are appropriate when overhead costs are a relatively small percentage of total manufacturing costs and product diversity is limited. For Wilkerson, normal costing does not make sense. Overhead costs make up over 50 percent of total manufacturing costs and their product offering is relatively more diverse. This indicates that the current accounting system in place may be distorting costs significantly. Supporting data:

Abby could allocate indirect costs to special orders using a company-wide overhead rate. Frequently, these indirect costs are allocated by selecting an allocation base common to all of the company’s products or services. Many companies base overhead allocations on direct labor-hours

Under a traditional system, overhead cost is allocated to an activity based on hours or rates for direct labor or machine usage. However, this approach does not clearly indicate how much overhead cost will be needed in order to complete a job through a particular function. ABC methodology is to be used as an alternative to traditional accounting where a business 's overhead costs (indirect costs such as electrical energy consumption for heating or cooling, or indirect cost associated with marketing) are allocated as a proportion of direct costs, to an activity. This approach is unsatisfactory because there can be cases where two activities could absorb the same direct costs

This case analysis commences by explaining the type of accounting officer needed to execute the job functions for the client, Big Spenders Inc. The next objective will be to examine the income statements of the two prospective business entities that the client intends to choose from concerning investment – in order to diversify its portfolio. The strategies that will be explored in terms of the analysis of the income statements includes the computation of (i) operation profit margin, (ii) gross margin, (iii) net profit margin, and (iv) return on equity – for both companies of interest. The results of examinations will put the accountant in a position to make sounds recommendation to his superior at BUSI 1043 LLP, so that Big Spenders Inc. can be properly guided.

In using ABC overhead costs are distributed differently across the three products, but in total they are the same, in total. However, ABC changes the information that managers receive to make effective business decisions, which will ultimately result in improved business results.

• This cost method does not provide the best system for JDCW’s cost allocation. By using only three overhead rates the present system grossly undermines the true production costs since other activities of the production process are not acknowledged.

v. Bausch & Lomb Inc., the court was tasked to decide if the post-closing price dispute provision controlled the seller’s objections or if the objections fell under the indemnification arbitration provision. The court reasoned that since the post-closing price dispute provision clearly set forth that the expert accountants shall “determine on the basis of Accounting Principles whether and to what extent, if any, the CNOAS requires adjustment,” the dispute provisions applied to the seller’s objections, which claimed incorrectly recorded values on the CNOAS. The court went on to find that even though the language of the post-closing price dispute provision did not refer to the expert accountant procedure as a valuation or appraisal, the agreement clearly provided for a third party to determine the controversy via a specific procedure which is allowed under N.Y. CPLR §

Therefore, there is no doubt that it is significant to allocate overhead cost accurately for every production. If the overhead is calculated incorrectly, the selling price of the product will change. The company will not cover the cost and make a loss.

Honicker Corporation is a USA based, successful dashboard manufacturer. It has opportunities for international expansion, but due to the ultraconservative culture it did not happened until they faced a change in management in 2009. Honicker was a rich company, and to expand, they took the short road and acquired four companies around the world: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. There were two commonalities among these companies: they serviced mainly in their own geographical area, and senior management knew their geographical culture and hold good reputation with their stakeholders.