Concept explainers
Reciprocal cost allocation (continuation of 15-21). Consider E-books again. The controller of E-books reads a widely used textbook that states that “the reciprocal method is conceptually the most defensible” He seeks your assistance.
- 1. Describe the key features of the reciprocal method.
- 2. Allocate the support departments’ costs (human resources and information systems) to the two operating departments using the reciprocal method. Use (a) linear equations and (b) repeated iterations.
- 3. In the case presented in this exercise, which method (direct, step-down, or reciprocal) would you recommend? Why?
15-21 Direct and step-down allocation. E-books, an online book retailer, has two operating departments—corporate sales and consumer sales—and two support departments—human resources and information systems. Each sales department conducts merchandising and marketing operations independently. E-books uses number of employees to allocate human resources costs and processing time to allocate information systems costs. The following data are available for September 2017:
- 1. Allocate the support departments’ costs to the operating departments using the direct method.
Required
- 2. Rank the support departments based on the percentage of their services provided to other support departments. Use this ranking to allocate the support departments’ costs to the operating departments based on the step-down method.
- 3. How could you have ranked the support departments differently?
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HORNGRENS COST ACCOUNTING CUSTOM FOR UC
- Direct Method Seattle Western University has provided the following data to be used in its service department cost allocations: Required: Using the direct method, allocate the costs of the service departments to the two operating departments. Allocate the Administration cost on the basis of student credit-hours and the Facility Services cost on the basis of space occupied.arrow_forwardWhat are the total overhead costs of the operating departments (Eastern and Western) after the support-department costs of Engineering and Information Technology have been allocated using (a) the direct method, (b) the step-down method (allocate Engineering first), (c) the step-down method (allocate Information Technology first), and (d) the reciprocal method?arrow_forwardComprehensive support department allocationsManagement at C. Pier Press has decided to allocate costs of the paper’s two support departments (administration and human resources) to the two revenue-generating departments (advertising and circulation). Administration costs are to be allocated on the basis of dollars of assets employed; human resources costs are to be allocated on the basis of number of employees. The following costs and allocation bases are available: Department Direct Costs Number of Employees Assets Employed Administration $1,094,100 14 $541,940 Human resources 689,780 11 408,380 Advertising 1,340,920 17 1,067,360 Circulation 1,893,640 36 2,618,420 Totals $5,018,440 78 $4,636,100 c. Assuming that the benefits-provided ranking is the order shown in the table, use the step method to allocate the support department costs to the revenue-generating departments.Note: Round your final answers only to the nearest whole dollar. Amount…arrow_forward
- Comprehensive support department allocationsManagement at C. Pier Press has decided to allocate costs of the paper’s two support departments (administration and human resources) to the two revenue-generating departments (advertising and circulation). Administration costs are to be allocated on the basis of dollars of assets employed; human resources costs are to be allocated on the basis of number of employees. The following costs and allocation bases are available: Department Direct Costs Number of Employees Assets Employed Administration $1,094,100 14 $541,940 Human resources 689,780 11 408,380 Advertising 1,340,920 17 1,067,360 Circulation 1,893,640 36 2,618,420 Totals $5,018,440 78 $4,636,100 e. Using the algebraic method, allocate the support department costs to the revenue-generating departments. Note: Round percentages in your calculation to the nearest whole percent (for example, round 34.5% to 35%). Note: Round your final answer to the nearest…arrow_forwardComprehensive support department allocationsManagement at C. Pier Press has decided to allocate costs of the paper’s two support departments (administration and human resources) to the two revenue-generating departments (advertising and circulation). Administration costs are to be allocated on the basis of dollars of assets employed; human resources costs are to be allocated on the basis of number of employees. The following costs and allocation bases are available: Department Direct Costs Number of Employees Assets Employed Administration $1,094,100 14 $541,940 Human resources 689,780 11 408,380 Advertising 1,340,920 17 1,067,360 Circulation 1,893,640 36 2,618,420 Totals $5,018,440 78 $4,636,100 c. Assuming that the benefits-provided ranking is the order shown in the table, use the step method to allocate the support department costs to the revenue-generating departments.Note: Round your final answers only to the nearest whole dollar. Amount allocated…arrow_forwardComprehensive support department allocationsManagement at C. Pier Press has decided to allocate costs of the paper’s two support departments (administration and human resources) to the two revenue-generating departments (advertising and circulation). Administration costs are to be allocated on the basis of dollars of assets employed; human resources costs are to be allocated on the basis of number of employees. The following costs and allocation bases are available: Department Direct Costs Number of Employees Assets Employed Administration $1,094,100 14 $541,940 Human resources 689,780 11 408,380 Advertising 1,340,920 17 1,067,360 Circulation 1,893,640 36 2,618,420 Totals $5,018,440 78 $4,636,100 c. Assuming that the benefits-provided ranking is the order shown in the table, use the step method to allocate the support department costs to the revenue-generating departments.Note: Round your final answers only to the nearest whole dollar. Amount allocated…arrow_forward
- The step-down allocation method: a. recognizes the total amount of services that support departments provide to each other b. allocates complete reciprocated costs c. typically begins with the support department that provides the highest percentage of its total services to other support departments d. offers key input for outsourcing decisionsarrow_forwardSupport department cost allocation Blue Mountain Masterpieces produces pictures, paintings, and other home decor. The Printing and Framing production departments are supported by the Janitorial and Security departments. Janitorial costs are allocated to the production departments based on square feet, and security costs are allocated based on asset value. Information about these departments is detailed in the following table: Management has experimented with different support department cost allocation methods in the past. The different allocation methods did not yield large differences of cost allocation to the production departments. Instructions 1. Determine which support department cost allocation method Blue Mountain Masterpieces would most likely use to allocate its support department costs to the production departments. 2. Determine the total costs allocated from each support department to each production department using the method you determined in part (1). 3. Without doing calculations, consider and answer the following: If Blue Mountain Masterpieces decided to use square feet instead of asset value as the cost driver for security services, how would this change the allocation of Security Department costs?arrow_forwardRefer to the data in Exercise 7.22. The company has decided to simplify its method of allocating support service costs by switching to the direct method. Required: 1. Allocate the costs of the support departments to the producing departments using the direct method. (Round allocation ratios to four significant digits. Round allocated costs to the nearest dollar.) 2. Using direct labor hours, compute departmental overhead rates. (Round to the nearest cent.)arrow_forward
- Classify the following cost drivers as structural, executional, or operational. a. Number of plants b. Number of moves c. Degree of employee involvement d. Capacity utilization e. Number of product lines f. Number of distribution channels g. Engineering hours h. Direct labor hours i. Scope j. Product configuration k. Quality management approach l. Number of receiving orders m. Number of defective units n. Employee experience o. Types of process technologies p. Number of purchase orders q. Type and efficiency of layout r. Scale s. Number of functional departments t. Number of planning meetingsarrow_forwardRandy Harris, controller, has been given the charge to implement an advanced cost management system. As part of this process, he needs to identify activity drivers for the activities of the firm. During the past four months, Randy has spent considerable effort identifying activities, their associated costs, and possible drivers for the activities costs. Initially, Randy made his selections based on his own judgment using his experience and input from employees who perform the activities. Later, he used regression analysis to confirm his judgment. Randy prefers to use one driver per activity, provided that an R2 of at least 80 percent can be produced. Otherwise, multiple drivers will be used, based on evidence provided by multiple regression analysis. For example, the activity of inspecting finished goods produced an R2 of less than 80 percent for any single activity driver. Randy believes, however, that a satisfactory cost formula can be developed using two activity drivers: the number of batches and the number of inspection hours. Data collected for a 14-month period are as follows: Required: 1. Calculate the cost formula for inspection costs using the two drivers, inspection hours and number of batches. Are both activity drivers useful? What does the R2 indicate about the formula? 2. Using the formula developed in Requirement 1, calculate the inspection cost when 300 inspection hours are used and 30 batches are produced. Prepare a 90 percent confidence interval for this prediction.arrow_forwardJoseph Fox, controller of Thorpe Company, has been in charge of a project to install an activity-based cost management system. This new system is designed to support the companys efforts to become more competitive. For the past six weeks, he and the project committee members have been identifying and defining activities, associating workers with activities, and assessing the time and resources consumed by individual activities. Now, he and the project committee are focusing on three additional implementation issues: (1) identifying activity drivers, (2) assessing value content, and (3) identifying cost drivers (root causes). Joseph has assigned a committee member the responsibilities of assessing the value content of five activities, choosing a suitable activity driver for each activity, and identifying the possible root causes of the activities. Following are the five activities with possible activity drivers: The committee member ran a regression analysis for each potential activity driver, using the method of least squares to estimate the variable and fixed cost components. In all five cases, costs were highly correlated with the potential drivers. Thus, all drivers appeared to be good candidates for assigning costs to products. The company plans to reward production managers for reducing product costs. Required: 1. What is the difference between an activity driver and a cost driver? In answering the question, describe the purpose of each type of driver. 2. For each activity, assess the value content and classify each activity as value-added or non-value-added (justify the classification). Identify some possible root causes of each activity, and describe how this knowledge can be used to improve activity performance. For purposes of discussion, assume that the value-added activities are not performed with perfect efficiency. 3. Describe the behavior that each activity driver will encourage, and evaluate the suitability of that behavior for the companys objective of becoming more competitive.arrow_forward
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