California Creamery Case Summary

Q3. How were the limitations of the existing cost system overcome by the ABC Cost System? What are the implications of the ABC system?

Q6: How much production fixed expenses should be allocated to 1 kg of "complete meal"? Give a specific number and your logic to support the

1. For financial accounting purposes, what is the total amount of product costs incurred to make 10,000 units?

B. 1. The impact of costs on the decision to move forward with the new Maui Sandal line is as follows: As the production continues, the hours needed for each batch, or individual pair, will begin to decrease. By continuing to produce this line the total labor costs will continue to decrease, but most likely, at a slower rate as more sandals are produced. This data can help the company decide employment levels, capacity, costs, and their pricing of this particular merchandise in the open market. The company predicts that it will take 1,000 labor hours for production to complete for the first batch, with 50 total batches between month 1 and month 4.

14. A decision to work closely with a limited number of suppliers for the purpose of ensuring that the proper materials are available at the optimal time is an example of:

Overhead costs need to be accounted for this way we can understand just how much cost goes into producing each unit. There are other cost factors that contribute to the product aside from labor and material. Since the projected and the actual sales volumes do not align Kelly should be concerned with the other

|Price of Belgium cocoa beans|Quantity of Belgium cocoa beans |Quantity of Belgium cocoa beans |Total Demanded |

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:

The costing approach should be based on per Transaction Basis rather than on per kit or per pound basis because of the following reasons:

As will be seen below, the cost to manufacture a single unit of the architectural windows is much greater than the standard window (note the negative contribution margin of the architectural windows). This is contrary to the volume-based method where standard windows were more expensive. Under ABC, It makes sense that the architectural window is more expensive as it is generally more labor-intensive, requires more direct material and consumes more fixed resources than its standard window counterpart. ABC is able to capture these costs by tracing the activities to the correct product. The following section will analyze the individual components of the income statement in further detail. What is realized is that cost information is severely distorted under volume-based allocation approach, leading Doug to make uninformed decisions. As it currently stands, architectural windows would be unable to bring the Texas plant into a profitable position.

Abby Conroy was tasked with calculating an effective quote for Breeland Ltd., she chose the activity based accounting costing system since it more accurately captures the related costs. A special order was placed by Breeland Ltd. with Ace Fertilizer Company. The did not plan to order more of this product in the future. Based on Ace’s policy, the special order included disposal costs for any used materials in the event no other orders existed for the unused materials at the time the Breeland contract was signed. Abby correctly calculated the total direct material and labor costs and accurately arrived at the indirect costs using the ABC method and used cost activity pools that make sense for the company and

| | | | | | | | | | | | | |75000 | |100000 | |125000 | |150000 | |175000 | |200000 | | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |Direct Labor |4.00 |  |3.90 |  |3.80 |  |3.70 |  |3.80 |  |4.00 | |Material |2.00

We will examine the given data from the case and compare the unit costs from the company’s current costing system (traditional costing) and from activity-based costing. We will also highlight other qualitative data in consideration with the numerical factors that may result to a significant change on our recommendation.

INTRODUCTION Businesses – from manufacturing, merchandising and service industries alike – take careful consideration in the analysis of their costing systems in order to be able to set up competitive prices in the market. Misallocation of costs may lead to incorrect price estimates, continuous production of unprofitable products, and ineffective processing schedules. In this case study, we will discuss the costing methods which Zauner Ornaments have used or is currently using and, in conclusion, be able to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of each costing method. CASE CONTEXT The case seeks to assist Zauner’s comptroller, Yu Chia-yi, in determining the best costing method for their overhead costs. In addition we also aim to

6. Calculate the volume-based (traditional) cost per reel for grades A-D identified in Exhibit 1.