Asma is a junior management accountant at Flower Cloth Ltd. Asma is given the task of compiling a cost-benefit analysis report on whether the company should purchase an expensive new machine from Radi Ltd,where her brother is the new sales manager. Asma did not tell anyone in Flower Cloth about her brother'snew job. In preparing her report, Asma overstates the qualitative benefits and understates the costsassociated with this new machine to help her brother make his first sales as the new sales manager.Required:Discuss why and how Asma has deviated from the standards of ethical conduct.

Standards of ethical conducts: Standards of ethical conducts can be defined as the standards that…

Asma is a junior management accountant at Flower Cloth Ltd. Asma is given the task of compiling a cost benefit analysis report on whether the company should purchase an expensive new machine from Radi Ltd where her brother is the new sales manager. Asma did not tell anyone in Flower Cloth about her brother' new job. In preparing her report, Asma overstates the qualitative benefits and understates the cost associated with this new machine to help her brother make his first sales as the new sales manager. Required: Discuss why and how Asma has deviated from the standards of ethical conduct.

Asma is a junior management accountant at Flower Cloth Ltd. Asma is given the task of compiling a cost benefit analysis report on whether the company should purchase an expensive new machine from Radi Ltd where her brother is the new sales manager. Asma did not tell anyone in Flower Cloth about her brother' new job. In preparing her report, Asma overstates the qualitative benefits and understates the cost associated with this new machine to help her brother make his first sales as the new sales manager. Required: Discuss why and how Asma has deviated from the standards of ethical conduct.

Cornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Series)

4th Edition

ISBN:9781305970663

Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. Mowen

Publisher:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. Mowen

Chapter1: Introduction To Cost Management

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 9P: John Biggs and Patty Jorgenson are both cost accounting managers for a manufacturing division....

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Tonya Martin, CMA and controller or the Parts Division of Gunderson Inc., was meeting with Doug Adams, manager of the division. The topic of discussion was the assignment of overhead costs to jobs and their impact on the divisions pricing decisions. Their conversation was as follows: Tonya: Doug, as you know, about 25% of our business is based on government contracts, with the other 75% based on jobs from private sources won through bidding. During the last several years, our private business has declined. We have been losing more bids than usual. After some careful investigation, I have concluded that we are overpricing some jobs because of improper assignment of overhead costs. Some jobs are also being underpriced. Unfortunately, the jobs being overpriced are coming from our higher-volume, labor-intensive products, so we are losing business. Dong: I think I understand. Jobs associated with our high-volume products are being assigned more overhead than they should be receiving. Then when we add our standard 40% markup, we end up with a higher price than our competitors, who assign costs more accurately. Tonya: Exactly. We have two producing departments, one labor-intensive and the other machine-intensive. The labor-intensive department generates much less overhead than the machine-intensive department. Furthermore, virtually all of our high-volume jobs are labor-intensive. We have been using a plantwide rate based on direct labor hours to assign overhead to all jobs. As a result, the high-volume, labor-intensive jobs receive a greater share of the machine-intensive departments overhead than they deserve. This problem can be greatly alleviated by switching to departmental overhead rates. For example, an average high-volume job would be assigned 100,000 of overhead using a plantwide rate and only 70,000 using departmental rates. The change would lower our bidding price on high-volume jobs by an average of 42,000 per job. By increasing the accuracy of our product costing, we can make better pricing decisions and win back much of our private-sector business. Doug: Sounds good. When can you implement the change in overhead rates? Tonya: It wont take long. I can have the new system working within four to six weekscertainly by the start of the new fiscal year. Doug: Hold it. I just thought of a possible complication. As I recall, most of our government contract work is done in the labor-intensive department. This new overhead assignment scheme will push down the cost on the government jobs, and we will lose revenues. They pay us full cost plus our standard markup. This business is not threatened by our current costing procedures, but we cant switch our rates for only the private business. Government auditors would question the lack of consistency in our costing procedures. Tonya: You do have a point. I thought of this issue also. According to my estimates, we will gain more revenues from the private sector than we will lose from our government contracts. Besides, the costs of our government jobs are distorted. In effect, we are overcharging the government. Doug: They dont know that and never would unless we switch our overhead assignment procedures. I think I have the solution. Officially, lets keep our plantwide overhead rate. All of the official records will reflect this overhead costing approach for both our private and government business. Unofficially. I want you to develop a separate set of books that can be used to generate the information we need to prepare competitive bids for our private-sector business. Required: 1. Do you believe that the solution proposed by Doug is ethical? Explain. 2. Suppose that Tonya decides that Dougs solution is not right and objects strongly. Further suppose that, despite Tonyas objections, Doug insists strongly on implementing the action. What should Tonya do?
Joan owns a printshop and has a difficult time fighting out what to bid on jobs. She knows how to estimate the cost of materials and labor on different jobs but is confused on how to handle many other costs she knows she incurs to run the shop. These include utilities, cleaning staff, property taxes on the building, and other expenses. Many of these types of costs vary from month to month. In addition, she often does not know the amonts until some time after the jobs are completed. Write a memo to Joan explaining how she should apply her overhead costs in developing bids on her job.
Mary Gatan had recently joined the ZMA as a sales executive. She was advised to be retrenched because the company was losing heavily, but that she would be given a substantial separation pay. The general manager, however, suggested to Mary to file a letter of resignation from the company, instead of having been involuntarily separated as the latter would have implications of inefficiency on her part. Mary chose to resign from the company and received the sum of P100,000 as separation pay. The above amount is Exempt from income tax Non-deductible expense on the part of the company Partially taxable Taxable in full
You have recently been appointed as the financial manager at Chickens Ltd, a company which specialises in the processing of frozen chickens through a joint process. The major products processed by the company are whole chickens as well as various chicken pieces (i.e. legs, thighs, etc). The process also results in other insignificant products such as bones and skin. The CEO has been extremely concerned about the costing of products. He has noted that before your appointment, there was a lack of qualified financial personal who were able to accurately cost the products. He believes that too few costs are allocated to high value products (such as the whole chickens) while too many costs are assigned to the lower value products such as the chicken pieces and insignificant products. In fact, he has noted that some of the costs allocated to the products exceed the selling prices resulting in significant write downs of inventory for accounting purposes. Required Draft a memorandum to the CEO…
Gordon Grimes, a self-employed consultant near Atlanta, received an invitation to visit a prospective client in Seattle. A few days later, he received an invitation to make a presentation to a prospective client in Denver. He decided to combine his visits, traveling from Atlanta to Seattle, Seattle to Denver, and Denver to Atlanta. Grimes received offers for his consulting services from both companies. Upon his return, he decided to accept the engagement in Denver. He is puzzled over how to allocate his travel costs between the two clients. He has collected the following data for regular round-trip fares with no stopovers: Atlanta to Seattle = $600 Atlanta to Denver = $400 Grimes paid $900 for his three-leg flight (Atlanta–Seattle, Seattle–Denver, Denver–Atlanta). In addition, he paid $45 each way ($90 total) for limousines from his home to Atlanta Airport and back when he returned. Q. How should Grimes allocate the $900 airfare between the clients in Seattle and Denver. Which method…
Gordon Grimes, a self-employed consultant near Atlanta, received an invitation to visit a prospective client in Seattle. A few days later, he received an invitation to make a presentation to a prospective client in Denver. He decided to combine his visits, traveling from Atlanta to Seattle, Seattle to Denver, and Denver to Atlanta. Grimes received offers for his consulting services from both companies. Upon his return, he decided to accept the engagement in Denver. He is puzzled over how to allocate his travel costs between the two clients. He has collected the following data for regular round-trip fares with no stopovers: Atlanta to Seattle = $600 Atlanta to Denver = $400 Grimes paid $900 for his three-leg flight (Atlanta–Seattle, Seattle–Denver, Denver–Atlanta). In addition, he paid $45 each way ($90 total) for limousines from his home to Atlanta Airport and back when he returned. Q. How should Grimes allocate the $90 limousine charges between the clients in Seattle and Denver?
Gordon Grimes, a self-employed consultant near Atlanta, received an invitation to visit a prospective client in Seattle. A few days later, he received an invitation to make a presentation to a prospective client in Denver. He decided to combine his visits, traveling from Atlanta to Seattle, Seattle to Denver, and Denver to Atlanta. Grimes received offers for his consulting services from both companies. Upon his return, he decided to accept the engagement in Denver. He is puzzled over how to allocate his travel costs between the two clients. He has collected the following data for regular round-trip fares with no stopovers: Atlanta to Seattle = $600 Atlanta to Denver = $400 Grimes paid $900 for his three-leg flight (Atlanta–Seattle, Seattle–Denver, Denver–Atlanta). In addition, he paid $45 each way ($90 total) for limousines from his home to Atlanta Airport and back when he returned. Q. How should Grimes allocate the $900 airfare between the clients in Seattle and Denver using (a) the…
Jackie Iverson was furious. She was about ready to fire Tom Rich, her purchasing agent. Just a month ago, she had given him a salary increase and a bonus for his performance. She had been especially pleased with his ability to meet or beat the price standards. But now, she found out that it was because of a huge purchase of raw materials. It would take months to use that inventory, and there was hardly space to store it. In the meantime, space had to be found for the other materials supplies that would be ordered and processed on a regular basis. Additionally, it was a lot of capital to tie up in inventorymoney that could have been used to help finance the cash needs of the new product just coming online. Her interview with Tom was frustrating. He was defensive, arguing that he thought she wanted those standards met and that the means were not that important. He also pointed out that quantity purchases were the only way to meet the price standards. Otherwise, an unfavorable variance would have been realized. Required: 1. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Why did Tom Rich purchase the large quantity of raw materials? Do you think that this behavior was the objective of the price standard? If not, what is the objective(s)? 2. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Suppose that Tom is right and that the only way to meet the price standards is through the use of quantity discounts. Also, assume that using quantity discounts is not a desirable practice for this company. What would you do to solve this dilemma? 3. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Should Tom be fired? Explain.
John Biggs and Patty Jorgenson are both cost accounting managers for a manufacturing division. During lunch yesterday, Patty told John that she was planning on quitting her job in three months because she had accepted a position as controller of a small company in a neighboring state. The starting date was timed to coincide with the retirement of the current controller. Patty was excited because it allowed her to live near her family. Today, the divisional controller took John to lunch and informed him that he was taking a position at headquarters and that he had recommended that Patty be promoted to his position. He indicated to John that it was a close call between him and Patty and that he wanted to let John know personally about the decision before it was announced officially. Required: What should John do? Describe how you would deal with his ethical dilemma (considering the IMA code of ethics in your response).
Leather Works is a family-owned maker of leather travel bags and briefcases located in the northeastern part of the United States. Foreign competition has forced its owner, Heather Gray, to explore new ways to meet the competition. One of her cousins, Wallace Hayes, who recently graduated from college with a major in accounting, told her about the use of cost variance analysis to learn about efficiencies of production. In May of last year, Heather asked Matt Jones, chief accountant, and Alfred Prudest, production manager, to implement a standard costing system. Matt and Alfred, in turn, retained Shannon Leikam, an accounting professor at Hardings College, to set up a standard costing system by using information supplied to her by Matts and Alfreds staff. To verify that the information was accurate, Shannon visited the plant and measured workers output using time and motion studies. During those visits, she was not accompanied by either Matt or Alfred, and the workers knew about Shannons schedule in advance. The cost system was implemented in June of last year. Recently, the following dialogue took place among Heather, Matt, and Alfred: HEATHER: How is the business performing? ALFRED: You know, we are producing a lot more than we used to, thanks to the contract that you helped obtain from Lean, Inc., for laptop covers. (Lean is a national supplier of computer accessories.) MATT: Thank goodness for that new product. It has kept us from sinking even more due to the inroads into our business made by those foreign suppliers of leather goods. HEATHER: What about the standard costing system? MATT: The variances are mostly favorable, except for the first few months when the supplier of leather started charging more. HEATHER: How did the union members take to the standards? ALFRED: Not bad. They grumbled a bit at first, but they have taken it in stride. Weve consistently shown favorable direct labor efficiency variances and direct materials usage variances. The direct labor rate variance has been flat. MATT: It should be since direct labor rates are negotiated by the union representative at the start of the year and remain the same for the entire year. HEATHER: Matt, would you send me the variance report for laptop covers immediately? The following chart summarizes the direct materials and direct labor variances from November of last year through April of this year (extracted from the report provided by Matt). Standards for each laptop cover are as follows: a. Three feet of direct materials at 7.50 per foot b. Forty-five minutes of direct labor at 14 per hour In addition, the data for May of this year, but not the variances for the month, are as follows: Actual direct labor cost per hour exceeded the budgeted rate by 0.10 per hour. Required: 1. For May of this year, calculate the price and quantity variances for direct labor and direct materials. 2. Discuss the trend of the direct materials and labor variances. 3. What type of actions must the workers have taken during the period they were being observed for the setting of standards? 4. What can be done to ensure that the standards are set correctly? (CMA adapted)
A local coffee shop has two major product lines—drinks and pastries. If the manager allocates common costs on any objective basis discussed in this chapter, the drinks are profitable, but the pastries are not. The manager is concerned that the supervisor at corporate headquarters will drop the pastries. The manager is concerned because a relative, who is struggling to make a go of a new business, supplies pastries to the coffee shop. The manager, therefore, decides to allocate all common costs to the drinks because “Drinks can afford to absorb these costs until we get the pastries line on its feet.” After assigning all common costs to drinks, both the drinks and pastries product lines appear to be marginally profitable. Consequently, corporate headquarters decides to continue the pastries line. Required How would you recommend the manager allocate the common costs between drinks and pastries? You are the assistant manager and have been working with the manager on the allocation…
A local coffee shop has two major product lines—drinks and pastries. If the manager allocates common costs on any objective basis discussed in this chapter, the drinks are profitable, but the pastries are not. The manager is concerned that the supervisor at corporate headquarters will drop the pastries. The manager is concerned because a relative, who is struggling to make a go of a new business, supplies pastries to the coffee shop. The manager, therefore, decides to allocate all common costs to the drinks because “Drinks can afford to absorb these costs until we get the pastries line on its feet.” After assigning all common costs to drinks, both the drinks and pastries product lines appear to be marginally profitable. Consequently, corporate headquarters decides to continue the pastries line. What can we do to boost pastry sales?