Cost-plus and market-based pricing. (CMA, adapted) Precision Laboratories evaluates the reaction of materials to extreme increases in temperature. Much of the company’s early growth was attributable to government contracts, but recent growth has come from expansion into commercial markets. Two types of testing at Precision are Heat Testing (HTT) and Arctic-Condition Testing (ACT). Currently, all of the budgeted operating costs are collected in a single overhead pool. All of the estimated testing-hours are also collected in a single pool. One rate per test-hour is used for both types of testing. This hourly rate is marked up by 40% to recover administrative costs and taxes and to earn a profit.
Jeff Boone, Precision’s controller, believes that there is enough variation in the test procedures and cost structure to establish separate costing rates and billing rates at a 40% markup. He also believes that the inflexible rate structure the company is currently using is inadequate in today’s competitive environment. After analyzing the company data, he has divided operating costs into the following three cost pools:
Labor and supervision | $ 500,000 |
Setup and facility costs | 300,000 |
Utilities | 360,000 |
Total budgeted costs for the period | $1,160,000 |
Jeff Boone budgets 100,000 total test-hours for the coming period. Test-hours is also the cost driver for labor and supervision. The budgeted quantity of cost driver for setup and facility costs is 600 setup hours. The budgeted quantity of cost driver for utilities is 9,000 machine-hours.
Jeff has estimated that HTT uses 60% of the test-hours, 20% of the setup-hours, and half the machine-hours.
- 1. Find the single rate for operating costs based on test-hours, and the hourly billing rate for HTT and ACT. Required
- 2. Find the three activity-based rates for operating costs.
- 3. What will the billing rate for HTT and ACT be based on the activity-based costing structure? State the rates in terms of test-hours. Referring to both requirements 1 and 2, which rates make more sense for Precision?
- 4. If Precision’s competition all charge $19.50 per hour for arctic testing, what can Precision do to stay competitive?
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solutionChapter 13 Solutions
COST ACCOUNTING
- Kagle design engineers are in the process of developing a new “green” product, one that will significantly reduce impact on the environment and yet still provide the desired customer functionality. Currently, two designs are being considered. The manager of Kagle has told the engineers that the cost for the new product cannot exceed $550 per unit (target cost). In the past, the Cost Accounting Department has given estimated costs using a unit-based system. At the request of the Engineering Department, Cost Accounting is providing both unit- and activity-based accounting information (made possible by a recent pilot study producing the activity-based data). Unit-based system:Variable conversion activity rate: $100 per direct labor hourMaterial usage rate: $20 per partABC system:Labor usage: $15 per direct labor hourMaterial usage (direct materials): $20 per partMachining: $75 per machine hourPurchasing activity: $150 per purchase orderSetup activity: $3,000 per setup hourWarranty…arrow_forwardMathes Corporation manufactures paper products. The company operates a landfill, which it uses to dispose of nonhazardous trash. The trash is hauled from the two nearby manufacturing facilities in trucks that can carry up to four tons of trash In a load. The landfill operation requires certain preparation activities regardless of the amount of trash in a truck (Le., for each load). The budget for the landfill for next year follows. volume of trash Preparation costs (varies by loads) other variable costs (varies by tons) Fixed costs 1,200 tons (300 loads) $ 54,000 54,000 178,000 $286, 000 Total budgeted costs Mathes is considering making the landfill a profit center and charging the manufacturing plants for disposal of the trash. The landfill has sufficlent capacity to operate for at least the next 20 years. Other landfills are available in the area (both private and municipal), and each plant would be free to declde which landfill to use. Required: a. Compute the optimal transfer…arrow_forwardPace Labs. Inc. provides mad cow disease testing for both state and federal governmental, agricultural agencies. Because the company's customers are governmental agencies, prices are strictly regulated. Therefore, Pace Labs must constantly monitor and control its testing costs. Shown below are the standard costs for a typical test. Direct materials (2 test tubes @ $1.46 per tube) $ 2.92 Direct Labor (1 hour @ $24 per hour) 24.00 Variable overhead (1 hour @ $6 per hour) 6.00 Fixed overhead (1 hour @ $10 per hour) 10.00 Total standard cost per test $42.92 The lab does not maintain an inventory of test tubes. Therefore, the tubes purchased each month are used that month. Actual activity for the month of November 2014, when 1,500 tests were conducted, resulted in the following. Direct materials (3,050 test…arrow_forward
- Pace Labs. Inc. provides mad cow disease testing for both state and federal governmental, agricultural agencies. Because the company's customers are governmental agencies, prices are strictly regulated. Therefore, Pace Labs must constantly monitor and control its testing costs. Shown below are the standard costs for a typical test. Direct materials (2 test tubes @ $1.46 per tube) $ 2.92 Direct Labor (1 hour @ $24 per hour) 24.00 Variable overhead (1 hour @ $6 per hour) 6.00 Fixed overhead (1 hour @ $10 per hour) 10.00 Total standard cost per test $42.92 The lab does not maintain an inventory of test tubes. Therefore, the tubes purchased each month are used that month. Actual activity for the month of November 2014, when 1,500 tests were conducted, resulted in the following. Direct materials (3,050 test…arrow_forwardPace Labs. Inc. provides mad cow disease testing for both state and federal governmental, agricultural agencies. Because the company's customers are governmental agencies, prices are strictly regulated. Therefore, Pace Labs must constantly monitor and control its testing costs. Shown below are the standard costs for a typical test. Direct materials (2 test tubes @ $1.46 per tube) $ 2.92 Direct Labor (1 hour @ $24 per hour) 24.00 Variable overhead (1 hour @ $6 per hour) 6.00 Fixed overhead (1 hour @ $10 per hour) 10.00 Total standard cost per test $42.92 The lab does not maintain an inventory of test tubes. Therefore, the tubes purchased each month are used that month. Actual activity for the month of November 2014, when 1,500 tests were conducted, resulted in the following. Direct materials (3,050 test…arrow_forwardAMT, Inc., is considering the purchase of a digital camera for maintenance of design specifications by feeding digital pictures directly into an engineering workstation where computer-aided design files can be superimposed over the digital pictures. Differences between the two images can be noted, and corrections, as appropriate, can then be made by design engineers a. You have been asked by management to determine the PW of the EVA of this equipment, assuming the following estimates: capital investment = $362,000; market value at end of year six = $115,000; annual revenues = $111,000; annual expenses = $10,000; equipment life = 6 years; effective income tax rate = 27%; and after-tax MARR = 10% per year. MACRS depreciation will be used with a five-year recovery period. b. Compute the PW of the equipment's ATCFS. Click the icon to view the GDS Recovery Rates (r,) for the 5-year property class. E Click the icon to view the interest and annuity table for discrete compounding when the MARR…arrow_forward
- Hart Labs, Inc. provides mad cow disease testing for both state and federal governmental agricultural agencies. Because the company’s customers are governmental agencies, prices are strictly regulated. Therefore, Hart Labs must constantly monitor and control its testing costs. Shown below are the standard costs for a typical test. Direct materials (2 test tubes @ $1.46 per tube) $2.92 Direct labor (1 hour @ $24 per hour) 24.00 Variable overhead (1 hour @ $6 per hour) 6.00 Fixed overhead (1 hour @ $10 per hour) 10.00 Total standard cost per test $42.92 The lab does not maintain an inventory of test tubes. As a result, the tubes purchased each month are used that month. Actual activity for the month of November 2020, when 1,475 tests were conducted, resulted in the following. Direct materials (3,050 test tubes) $4,270 Direct labor (1,550 hours) 35,650 Variable overhead 7,400 Fixed overhead 15,000 Monthly budgeted fixed overhead is…arrow_forwardHart Labs, Inc. provides mad cow disease testing for both state and federal governmental agricultural agencies. Because the company's customers are governmental agencies, prices are strictly regulated. Therefore, Hart Labs must constantly monitor and control its testing costs. Shown below are the standard costs for a typical test. Direct materials (2 test tubes @ $1.00 per tube) $2.00 Direct labor (1 hour @ $32 per hour) 32.00 Variable overhead (1 hour @ $6.00 per hour) 6.00 Fixed overhead (1 hour @ $13.00 per hour) 13.00 Total standard cost per test $53.00 The lab does not maintain an inventory of test tubes. As a result, the tubes purchased each month are used that month. Actual activity for the month of November 2020, when 1,400 tests were conducted, resulted in the following. Direct materials (2,940 test tubes) $2,646 Direct labor (1,442 hours) 44,702 Variable overhead 8,512 Fixed overhead 16,968 Monthly budgeted fixed overhead is $17,030. Revenues for the month were $93,800, and…arrow_forwardBiotechtron, Inc., has two research laboratories in the Southwest, one in Yuma, Arizona, and theother in Bernalillo, New Mexico. The owner of Biotechtron centralized the legal services functionin the Yuma office and had both laboratories send any legal questions or issues to the Yuma office. The legal services support center has budgeted fixed costs of $160,000 per year and a budg-eted variable rate of $65 per hour of professional time. The normal usage of the legal services cen-ter is 2,600 hours per year for the Yuma office and 1,400 hours per year for the Bernalillo office. This corresponds to the expected usage for the coming year.Required:1. Determine the amount of legal services support center costs that should be assigned to eachoffice. 2. Since the offices produce services, not tangible products, what purpose is served by allocat-ing the budgeted costs? 3. Now, assume that during the year, the legal services center incurred actual fixed costs of$163,000 and actual variable…arrow_forward
- Hudson Corporation is considering three options for managing its data warehouse: continuing with its own staff, hiring an outside vendor to do the managing, or using a combination of its own staff and an outside vendor. The cost of the operation depends on future demand. The annual cost of each option (in thousands of dollars) depends on demand as follows: If the demand probabilities are 0.2, 0.5, and 0.3, which decision alternative will minimize the expected cost of the data warehouse? What is the expected annual cost associated with that recommendation? Construct a risk profile for the optimal decision in part (a). What is the probability of the cost exceeding $700,000?arrow_forwardBiotechtron, Inc., has two research laboratories in the Southwest, one in Yuma, Arizona, and the other in Bernalillo, New Mexico. The owner of Biotechtron centralized the legal services function in the Yuma office and had both laboratories send any legal questions or issues to the Yuma office. The legal services support center has budgeted fixed costs of 160,000 per year and a budgeted variable rate of 65 per hour of professional time. The normal usage of the legal services center is 2,600 hours per year for the Yuma office and 1,400 hours per year for the Bernalillo office. This corresponds to the expected usage for the coming year. Required: 1. Determine the amount of legal services support center costs that should be assigned to each office. 2. Since the offices produce services, not tangible products, what purpose is served by allocating the budgeted costs? 3. Now, assume that during the year, the legal services center incurred actual fixed costs of 163,000 and actual variable costs of 272,400. It delivered 4,180 hours of professional time2,580 hours to Yuma and 1,600 hours to Bernalillo. Determine the amount of the legal services centers costs that should be allocated to each office. Explain the purposes of this allocation. 4. Did the costs allocated differ from the costs incurred by the legal services center? If so, why?arrow_forwardBrandon Technology makes two models of a specialized sensor for the aerospace Industry. The difference in the two models relates to the required accuracy of the sensor. The Standard model is used for most normal operations while the High-Performance model is used for high-altitude and specialized missions. Before shipment, the two models are passed through a machine that, among other things, certifies the accuracy of the sensor. The company only has one testing machine. The price and costs of the two sensor models are shown here: Price per sensor Standard $ 52 $ 34 0.04 Variable cost per sensor Testing hours per sensor The testing machine used for both models has a capacity of 8.250 hours annually. Fixed manufacturing costs are $2,400,000 annually. Required: a. Suppose that the maximum annual unit sales that is possible for Brandon Technology is 250,000 units of the Standard model and 80,000 of the High-Performance model. How many units of each sensor model should Brandon Technology…arrow_forward
- Cornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Ser...AccountingISBN:9781305970663Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. MowenPublisher:Cengage LearningEssentials of Business Analytics (MindTap Course ...StatisticsISBN:9781305627734Author:Jeffrey D. Camm, James J. Cochran, Michael J. Fry, Jeffrey W. Ohlmann, David R. AndersonPublisher:Cengage Learning