Sheila is also concerned that she is doesn't understand numbers well enough. She wants to learn more about accounting for specific jobs, both in a sense of doing her own contract work and perhaps monitoring costs for a steel frame order. She is wondering how to deal with overhead costs accurately in a factory setting and how accounting can impact decision making in the short and long run. Additionally, she wants to know about specific ethical standards for an accountant, as she, as plant manager, would be directly involved in hiring an accounting manager along with Bruce.

Sheila is also concerned that she is doesn't understand numbers well enough. She wants to learn more about accounting for specific jobs, both in a sense of doing her own contract work and perhaps monitoring costs for a steel frame order. She is wondering how to deal with overhead costs accurately in a factory setting and how accounting can impact decision making in the short and long run. Additionally, she wants to know about specific ethical standards for an accountant, as she, as plant manager, would be directly involved in hiring an accounting manager along with Bruce.

Principles of Accounting Volume 2

19th Edition

ISBN:9781947172609

Author:OpenStax

Publisher:OpenStax

Chapter8: Standard Costs And Variances

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 2PA: Stan is opening a coffee shop next to Big State University. He knows that controlling his costs will...

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Stan is opening a coffee shop next to Big State University. He knows that controlling his costs will be important to the success of the shop. He will not be able to work all the hours the shop is open, so the employees will need some guidelines to perform their jobs correctly. After talking to an accounting professor, he decides he needs a standard cost system for his shop. Describe the process Stan should follow in setting his standards for materials and labor.
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?
The comptroller wants to set the standards according to a study done by a consulting firm for a company. The consulting firm used the following assumptions: The machines never break down. Workers never take a break. The material used is perfect. The material arrives on time. No one takes a day off. Workers are well trained. Workers do not make defective units. What kinds of standards are these? Will the workers be motivated to achieve these standards?
You are interviewing for an accountant position with Smith Industries. There are several candidates, and you intend to stand out. You learn the company is not satisfied with the timeliness of its information and its inventory management. The company manufactures custom-order holiday decorations and display items. To show your abilities, you plan to recommend the company use a job order accounting system., include recommendations and why a job order costing system would be advantageous to the company.
Darnell Poston, owner of Poston Manufacturing, Inc., wants to determine the cost behavior oflabor and overhead. Darnell pays his workers a salary; during busy times, everyone works to getthe orders out. Temps (temporary workers hired through an agency) may be hired to pack and prepare completed orders for shipment. During slower times, Darnell catches up on bookkeep-ing and administrative tasks while the salaried workers do preventive maintenance, clean the lines and building, etc. Temps are not hired during slow times. Darnell found that workers’ sal-aries, temp agency payments, rentals, utilities, and plant and equipment depreciation are the largest dollar accounts. He believes that workers’ salaries and plant and equipment depreciationare fixed, temp agency payments are associated with the number of orders (since temp workers are used to pack and prepare completed orders for shipment), and electricity is associated with the number of machine hours. When the number of different parts…
Keating& Associates is a law firm specializing in labor relations employee-related work. Keating & Associates received feedback from Punch, Inc., that its bid for the labor contract work was too high. This feedback prompted Keating to review its work activities and how they are reflected in its job-costing system. The review included the detailed analysis of how past jobs used the firm’s resources and interviews with personnel about what factors drive the level of indirect costs. Management concluded that a system with two direct-cost categories (professional partner labor and professional associate labor) and two indirect-cost categories (general support and secretarial support) would yield more accurate job costs. Budgeted information for 2016 related to two direct cost categories is as follows: Professional Professional Partner labor…
Paula Woodward is the head of the Information Systems Department at Mo Manufacturing Company. Roland Randolph, the company’s controller, is meeting with her to discuss changes in data gathering that relate to the company’s new flexible manufacturing system. Woodward opens the conversation by saying, “Roland, the old job order costing methods just will not work with the new flexible manufacturing system. The new system is based on continuous product flow, not batch processing. We need to change to a process costing system for both data gathering and product costing. Otherwise, our product costs will be way off, and it will affect our pricing decisions. I found out about this at a professional seminar I attended last month. You should have been there.” Randolph responds, “Job order costing has provided accurate information for this product line for more than 15 years. Why should we change just because we’ve purchased a new machine? We’ve purchased several machines for this line over the…
The management of a liquid cleaning product company is trying to decide whether to install a job or process costing system. The manufacturing vice president has stated that job costing gives the best control because it is possible to assign costs to specific lots of goods. The controller, however, has stated that job costing requires too much record-keeping. Would a process costing system meet the manufacturing vice president’s control objectives? Explain.
You have just been hired by Ogden Company to fill a new position that was created in response to rapidgrowth in sales. It is your responsibility to coordinate shipments of finished goods from the factory to distribution warehouses located in various parts of the United States so that goods will be available as ordersare received from customers.The company is unsure how to classify your annual salary in its cost records. The company’s costanalyst says that your salary should be classified as a manufacturing (product) cost; the controller says thatit should be classified as a selling expense; and the president says that it doesn’t matter which way yoursalary cost is classified.Required:1. Which viewpoint is correct? Why?2. From the point of view of the reported net operating income for the year, is the president correct in hisstatement that it doesn’t matter which way your salary cost is classified? Explain.
The following situations describe decision scenarios that could use managerial accounting information: The manager of High Times Restaurant wishes to determine the price to charge for various lunch plates. By evaluating the cost of leftover materials, the plant manager of a precision tool facility wishes to determine how effectively the plant is being run. The division controller of West Coast Supplies needs to determine the cost of products left in inventory. The manager of the Maintenance Department of a large manufacturing company wishes to plan next year’s anticipated expenditures. For each situation, discuss how managerial accounting information could be used. b) What are the major differences between managerial accounting and financial accounting?
Case: Establishing Pay at United Grinding Technologies Incorporated Establishing pay in companies can be a tough task for HR professionals and general managers because doing it right is very important to the bottom line. Compensation is often one of the most expensive functions managed in organizations. The process can be particularly challenging when dealing with corporate jobs that function at the higher echelons of the hierarchy because of the inherent complexities of the work processes. HR leaders have to identify useful compensation data and appropriate benchmark jobs so that the compensation amounts offered are competitive with comparative market levels. The compensation approaches employed also need to support a firm’s overall pay ideas and philosophies. One of the most important steps in developing reasonable pay involves securing sound salary data, information that is commonly collected through surveys. Luckily, HR professionals have many options for obtaining this…
Do you think that a Managerial Accountant, responsible for manufacturing operations, would work on making sure the three categories accurately reflect reality? Or is that the job of the folks back in Accounting?