Concept explainers
Budgeting, ethics, pharmaceutical company. Chris Jackson was recently promoted to Controller of Research and Development (R&D) for BrisCor, a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company that manufactures prescription drugs and nutritional supplements. The company’s total R&D cost for 2017 was expected (budgeted) to be $5 billion. During the company’s midyear budget review, Chris realized that current R&D expenditures were already at $3.5 billion, nearly 40% above the midyear target. At this current rate of expenditure, the R&D division was on track to exceed its total year-end budget by $2 billion!
In a meeting with CFO Ronald Meece later that day, Jackson delivered the bad news. Meece was both shocked and outraged that the R&D spending had gotten out of control. Meece wasn’t any more understanding when Jackson revealed that the excess cost was entirely related to research and development of a new drug, Vyacon, which was expected to go to market next year. The new drug would result in large profits for BrisCor, if the product could be approved by year-end.
Meece had already announced his expectations of third-quarter earnings to Wall Street analysts. If the R&D expenditures weren’t reduced by the end of the third quarter, Meece was certain that the targets he had announced publicly would be missed and the company’s stock price would tumble. Meece instructed Jackson to make up the budget shortfall by the end of the third quarter using “whatever means necessary.”
Jackson was new to the controller’s position and wanted to make sure that Meece’s orders were followed. Jackson came up with the following ideas for making the third-quarter budgeted targets:
- a. Stop all research and development efforts on the drug Vyacon until after year-end. This change would delay the drug going to market by at least 6 months. It is possible that in the meantime a BrisCor competitor could make it to market with a similar drug.
- b. Sell off rights to the drug Martek. The company had not planned on doing this because, under current market conditions, it would get less than fair value. It would, however, result in a one-time gain that could offset the budget shortfall. Of course, all future profits from Martek would be lost.
- c. Capitalize some of the company’s R&D expenditures, reducing R&D expense on the income statement. This transaction would not be in accordance with GAAP, but Jackson thought it was justifiable because the Vyacon drug was going to market early next year. Jackson would argue that capitalizing R&D costs this year and expensing them next year would better match revenues and expenses.
- 1. Referring to the “Standards of Ethical Behavior for Practitioners of
Management Accounting and Financial Management,” Figure 1-7 (page 17),which of the preceding items (a–c) are acceptable to use? Which are unacceptable?
Required
- 2. What would you recommend Jackson do?
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COST ACCOUNTING W18 CUSTOM W/ACCESS
- CASH BUDGETING Helen Bowers, owner of Helens Fashion Designs, is planning to request a line of credit from her bank. She has estimated the following sales forecasts for the firm for parts of 2019 and 2020: Estimates regarding payments obtained from the credit department are as follows: collected within the month of sale, 10%; collected the month following the sale, 75%; collected the second month following the sale, 15%. Payments for labor and raw materials are made the month after these services were provided. Here are the estimated costs of labor plus raw materials: General and administrative salaries are approximately 27,000 a month. Lease payments under long-term leases are 9,000 a month. Depreciation charges are 36,000 a month. Miscellaneous expenses are 2,700 a month. Income tax payments of 63,000 are due in September and December. A progress payment of 180,000 on a new design studio must be paid in October. Cash on hand on July 1 will be 132,000, and a minimum cash balance of 90,000 should be maintained throughout the cash budget period. a. Prepare a monthly cash budget for the last 6 months of 2019. b. Prepare monthly estimates of the required financing or excess fundsthat is, the amount of money Bowers will need to borrow or will have available to invest. c. Now suppose receipts from sales come in uniformly during the month (that is, cash receipts come in at the rate of 1/30 each day), but all outflows must be paid on the 5th. Will this affect the cash budget? That is, will the cash budget you prepared be valid under these assumptions? If not, what could be done to make a valid estimate of the peak financing requirements? No calculations are required, although if you prefer, you can use calculations to illustrate the effects. d. Bowers sales are seasonal, and her company produces on a seasonal basis, just ahead of sales. Without making any calculations, discuss how the companys current and debt ratios would vary during the year if all financial requirements were met with short-term bank loans. Could changes in these ratios affect the firms ability to obtain bank credit? Explain.arrow_forwardNorton Company, a manufacturer of infant furniture and carriages, is in the initial stages of preparing the annual budget for the coming year. Scott Ford has recently joined Nortons accounting staff and is interested in learning as much as possible about the companys budgeting process. During a recent lunch with Marge Atkins, sales manager, and Pete Granger, production manager, Ford initiated the following conversation. FORD: Since Im new around here and am going to be involved with the preparation of the annual budget, Id be interested in learning how the two of you estimate sales and production numbers. ATKINS: We start out very methodically by looking at recent history, discussing what we know about current accounts, potential customers, and the general state of consumer spending. Then, we add that usual dose of intuition to come up with the best forecast we can. GRANGER: I usually take the sales projections as the basis for my projections. Of course, we have to make an estimate of what this years closing inventories will be, which is sometimes difficult. FORD: Why does that present a problem? There must have been an estimate of closing inventories in the budget for the current year. GRANGER: Those numbers arent always reliable since Marge makes some adjustments to the sales numbers before passing them on to me. FORD: What kind of adjustments? ATKINS: Well, we dont want to fall short of the sales projections so we generally give ourselves a little breathing room by lowering the initial sales projection anywhere from 5 to 10 percent. GRANGER: So, you can see why this years budget is not a very reliable starting point. We always have to adjust the projected production rates as the year progresses, and of course, this changes the ending inventory estimates. By the way, we make similar adjustments to expenses by adding at least 10 percent to the estimates; I think everyone around here does the same thing. Required: 1. Marge Atkins and Pete Granger have described the use of budgetary slack. a. Explain why Atkins and Granger behave in this manner, and describe the benefits they expect to realize from the use of budgetary slack. b. Explain how the use of budgetary slack can adversely affect Atkins and Granger. 2. As a management accountant, Scott Ford believes that the behavior described by Marge Atkins and Pete Granger may be unethical and that he may have an obligation not to support this behavior. By citing the specific standards of competence, confidentiality, integrity, and/or credibility from the Statement of Ethical Professional Practice (in Chapter 1), explain why the use of budgetary slack may be unethical. (CMA adapted)arrow_forwardCoral Seas Jewelry Company makes and sells costume jewelry. For the coming year, Coral Seas expects sales of 15.9 million and cost of goods sold of 8.75 million. Advertising is a key part of Coral Seas business strategy, and total marketing expense for the year is budgeted at 2.8 million. Total administrative expenses are expected to be 675,000. Coral Seas has no interest expense. Income taxes are paid at the rate of 40 percent of operating income. Required: 1. Construct a budgeted income statement for Coral Seas Jewelry Company for the coming year. 2. What if Coral Seas had interest payments of 500,000 during the year? What effect would that have on operating income? On income before taxes? On net income?arrow_forward
- Carmichael Corporation is in the process of preparing next years budget. The pro forma income statement for the current year is as follows: Required: 1. What is the break-even sales revenue (rounded to the nearest dollar) for Carmichael Corporation for the current year? 2. For the coming year, the management of Carmichael Corporation anticipates an 8 percent increase in variable costs and a 60,000 increase in fixed expenses. What is the break-even point in dollars for next year? (CMA adapted)arrow_forwardSales, production, direct materials, direct labor, and factory overhead budgets King Tire Co.s budgeted unit sales for the year 2016 were: The budgeted selling price for truck tires was 200 per tire, and for passenger car tires it was 65 per tire. The beginning finished goods inventories were expected to be 2,000 truck tires and 5,000 passenger tires, for a total cost of 326,478, with desired ending inventories at 2,500 and 6,000, respectively, with a total cost of 400,510. There was no anticipated beginning or ending work-in- process inventory for either type of tire. The standard materials quantities for each type of tire were as follows: The purchase prices of rubber and steel were 2 and 3 per pound, respectively. The desired ending inventories for rubber and steel were 60,000 and 6,000 lb, respectively. The estimated beginning inventories for rubber and steel were 75,000 and 7,000 lb, respectively. The direct labor hours required for each type of tire were as follows: The direct labor rate for each department is as follows: Budgeted factory overhead costs for 2016 were as follows: Required: Prepare each of the following budgets for King for the year ended December 31, 2016: 1. Sales budget. 2. Production budget. 3. Direct material budget. 4. Direct labor budget. 5. Factory overhead budget. 6. Cost of goods sold budget.arrow_forwardMcGuire Industries prepares budgets to help manage the company. McGuire is budgeting forthe fiscal year ended January 31, 2018. During the preceding year ended January 31, 2017, salestotaled $9,200 million and cost of goods sold was $6,300 million. At January 31, 2017, inventorywas $1,700 million. During the upcoming 2018 year, suppose McGuire expects cost of goodssold to increase by 12%. The company budgets next year’s ending inventory at $2,000 million.Requirement1. One of the most important decisions a manager makes is how much inventory to buy. Howmuch inventory should McGuire purchase during the upcoming year to reach its budget?arrow_forward
- Concord Company manufactures tablecloths. Sales have grown rapidly over the past 2 years. As a result, the president has installed a budgetary control system for 2020. The following data were used in developing the master manufacturing overhead budget for the Ironing Department, which is based on an activity index of direct labor hours. Variable costs Rate per DirectLabor Hour Annual Fixed Costs Indirect labor $0.40 Supervision $43,680 Indirect materials 0.51 Depreciation 17,160 Factory utilities 0.34 Insurance 12,480 Factory repairs 0.24 Rent 23,040 The master overhead budget was prepared on the expectation that 484,200 direct labor hours will be worked during the year. In June, 38,600 direct labor hours were worked. At that level of activity, actual costs were as shown below.Variable—per direct labor hour: indirect labor $0.43, indirect materials $0.50, factory utilities $0.38, and factory repairs $0.29.Fixed: same as budgeted.arrow_forwardConcord Company manufactures tablecloths. Sales have grown rapidly over the past 2 years. As a result, the president has installed a budgetary control system for 2020. The following data were used in developing the master manufacturing overhead budget for the Ironing Department, which is based on an activity index of direct labor hours. Variable costs Rate per DirectLabor Hour Annual Fixed Costs Indirect labor $0.40 Supervision $43,680 Indirect materials 0.51 Depreciation 17,160 Factory utilities 0.34 Insurance 12,480 Factory repairs 0.24 Rent 23,040 The master overhead budget was prepared on the expectation that 484,200 direct labor hours will be worked during the year. In June, 38,600 direct labor hours were worked. At that level of activity, actual costs were as shown below.Variable—per direct labor hour: indirect labor $0.43, indirect materials $0.50, factory utilities $0.38, and factory repairs $0.29.Fixed: same as budgeted.…arrow_forwardMajor Landscaping Company is preparing its budget for the first quarter of 2017. The next step in the budgeting process is to prepare a cash receipts schedule and a cash payments schedule. To that end the following information has been collected. Clients usually pay 60% of their fee in the month that service is provided, 30% the month after, and 10% the second month after receiving service. Actual service revenue for 2016 and expected service revenues for 2017 are: November 2016, $120,000; December 2016, $110,000; January 2017, $140,000; February 2017, $160,000; March 2017, $170,000. Purchases on landscaping supplies (direct materials) are paid 40% in the month of purchase and 60% the following month. Actual purchases for 2016 and expected purchases for 2017 are: December 2016, $21,000; January 2017, $20,000; February 2017, $22,000; March 2017, $27,000. Instructions Prepare the following schedules for each month in the first quarter of 2017 and for the quarter in total: Expected…arrow_forward
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