Department Patterns Finishing Total Accounting cost Transactions processed $30,000 $90,000 $120,000 20,000 60,000 80,000 Total direct labor hours 15,000 30,000 45,000 Direct labor hours per backpack" Direct labor hours per duffel bag 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.20 0.40 0.60 "Hours required to produce one unit of each product.

Principles of Accounting Volume 2
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Chapter5: Process Costing
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 10MC: Direct material costs $3 per unit, direct labor costs $5 per unit, and overhead is applied at the...
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Functional-Based versus Activity-Based Costing
For years, Tamarindo Company produced only one product: backpacks. Recently, Tamarindo
added a line of duffel bags. With this addition, the company began assigning overhead costs
by using departmental rates. (Prior to this, the company used a predetermined plantwide rate
based on units produced.) Surprisingly, after the addition of the duffel-bag line and the switch
to departmental rates, the costs to produce the backpacks increased, and their profitability
dropped.
Josie, the marketing manager, and Steve, the production manager, both complained
about the increase in the production cost of backpacks. Josie was concerned because the
increase in unit costs led to pressure to increase the unit price of backpacks. She was resisting
this pressure because she was certain that the increase would harm the company’s market
share. Steve was receiving pressure to cut costs also, yet he was convinced that nothing different was being done in the way the backpacks were produced. After some discussion, the two
managers decided that the problem had to be connected to the addition of the duffel-bag
line.
Upon investigation, they were informed that the only real change in product-costing procedures was in the way overhead costs are assigned. A two-stage procedure was now in use.
First, overhead costs are assigned to the two producing departments, Patterns and Finishing.
Second, the costs accumulated in the producing departments are assigned to the two products
by using direct labor hours as a driver (the rate in each department is based on direct labor
hours). The managers were assured that great care was taken to associate overhead costs with individual products. So that they could construct their own example of overhead cost assignment,
the controller provided them with the information necessary to show how accounting costs are
assigned to products:

The controller remarked that the cost of operating the accounting department had doubled
with the addition of the new product line. The increase came because of the need to process
additional transactions, which had also doubled in number.
During the first year of producing duffel bags, the company produced and sold 100,000
backpacks and 25,000 duffel bags. The 100,000 backpacks matched the prior year’s output for
that product.
Required:
(Note: Round rates and unit cost to the nearest cent.)
1. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Compute the amount of accounting cost assigned to a
backpack before the duffel-bag line was added by using a plantwide rate approach based
on units produced. Is this assignment accurate? Explain.
2. Suppose that the company decided to assign the accounting costs directly to the product
lines by using the number of transactions as the activity driver. What is the accounting
cost per unit of backpacks? Per unit of duffel bags?

3. Compute the amount of accounting cost assigned to each backpack and duffel bag by
using departmental rates based on direct labor hours.
4. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Which way of assigning overhead does the best job—the
functional-based approach by using departmental rates or the activity-based approach by
using transactions processed for each product? Explain. Discuss the value of ABC before
the duffel-bag line was added.

Department
Patterns
Finishing
Total
Accounting cost
Transactions processed
$30,000
$90,000
$120,000
20,000
60,000
80,000
Total direct labor hours
15,000
30,000
45,000
Direct labor hours per backpack"
Direct labor hours per duffel bag
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.20
0.40
0.60
"Hours required to produce one unit of each product.
Transcribed Image Text:Department Patterns Finishing Total Accounting cost Transactions processed $30,000 $90,000 $120,000 20,000 60,000 80,000 Total direct labor hours 15,000 30,000 45,000 Direct labor hours per backpack" Direct labor hours per duffel bag 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.20 0.40 0.60 "Hours required to produce one unit of each product.
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