Ethics in Action
TAC Industries Inc. sells heavy equipment to large corporations and federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to the government, however, are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined by adding a fixed markup percentage to the total
Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve operating income. As Tandy reviewed the division’s job cost sheets, she realized that she could increase the division’s operating income by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order costs sheets of government customers. She believed that this would create a “win–win” for the division by (1) reducing the cost of corporate jobs, and (2) increasing the cost of government jobs whose profit is based on a percentage of job cost. Tandy submitted this idea to her division manager, who was impressed by her creative solution for improving the division’s profitability.
Is Tandy’s plan ethical?
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Managerial Accounting
- 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?arrow_forwardCommunication The controller of New Wave Sounds Inc. prepared the following product profitability report for management, using activity-based costing methods for allocating both the factory overhead and the marketing expenses. As such, the controller has confidence in the accuracy of this report. In addition, the controller interviewed the vice president of marketing, who provided the following insight into the companys three products: The home theater speakers are an older product that is highly recognized in the marketplace. The wireless speakers are a new product that was just recently launched. The wireless headphones are a new technology that has no competition in the marketplace, and it is hoped that they will become an important future addition to the companys product portfolio. Initial indications are that the product is well received by customers. The controller believes that the manufacturing costs for all three products are in line with expectations. Based on the information provided: 1. Calculate the ratio of gross profit to sales and the ratio of operating income to sales for each product. 2. Write a brief (one-page) memo using the product profitability report and the calculations in (a) to make recommendations to management with respect to strategies for the three products.arrow_forwardAaron McKinney is a cost accountant for Majik Systems Inc. Martin Dodd, Vice President of Marketing, has asked Aaron to meet with representatives of Majik Systems major competitor to discuss product cost data. Martin indicates that the sharing of these data will enable Majik Systems to determine a fair and equitable price for its products. Would it be ethical for Aaron to attend the meeting and share the relevant cost data? Explain your answer.arrow_forward
- Lavender Manufacturing Company began business in the current year. The company uses the simplified method to allocate mixed services costs to production. The companys costs and expenses for the year were as follows. a. Determine Lavenders total production costs for the year. b. Assume that the hourly pay for direct labor is much lower than the hourly pay for employees in general administration and that the employee turnover is much higher for production employees than for general administration employees. How should these facts affect the companys decision to use the simplified mixed services method to allocate mixed services costs to production?arrow_forwardFor apparel manufacturer Abercrombie Fitch, Inc. (ANF), classify each of the following costs as either a product cost or a period cost: a. Advertising expenses b. Chief financial officers salary c. Depreciation on office equipment d. Depreciation on sewing machines e. Fabric used during production f. Factory janitorial supplies g. Factory supervisors salaries h. Property taxes on factory building and equipment i. Oil used to lubricate sewing machines j. Repairs and maintenance costs for sewing machines k. Research and development costs l. Sales commissions m. Salaries of distribution center personnel n. Salaries of production quality control supervisors o. Travel costs of media relations employees p. Utility costs for office building q. Wages of sewing machine operatorsarrow_forwardIndicate whether the following costs of Procter Gamble (PG), a maker of consumer products, would be classified as direct materials cost, direct labor cost, or factory overhead cost: a. Depreciation on assembly line equipment in the Mehoopany, Pennsylvania, paper products plant b. Licensing payments for use of Disney characters on children products c. Maintenance supplies d. Packaging materials e. Paper used in bath tissue f. Plant manager salary for the Iowa City, Iowa, plant g. Resins for body wash products h. Salary of process engineers i. Scents and fragrances used in making soaps and detergents j. Wages of production line employees at the Pineville, Louisiana, soap and detergent plantarrow_forward
- TAC Industries, Inc. sells heavy equipment to large corporations and federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to government, however, are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined by adding a fixed markup percentage to the total job cost. Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries, Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve income from operations. As Tandy reviewed the division's job cost sheets, she realized that she could increase the division's income from operations by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job order cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order cost sheets of government customers. She believed this would create a "win-win" situation for the division by (1) reducing the cost of corporate jobs, and…arrow_forwardTAC Industries Inc. sells heavy equipment to large corporations and federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to the government, however, are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined by adding a fixed markup percentage to the total job cost. Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve income from operations. As Tandy reviewed the division's job cost sheets, she realized that she could increase the division's income from operations by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job order cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order costs sheets of government customers. She believed that this would create a “win–win” for the division by (1) reducing the cost of corporate jobs, and (2)…arrow_forwardTAC Industries Inc. sells heavy equipment to large corporations and federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to the government, however, are determined on a cost-plus basis, where the selling price is determined by adding a fixed markup percentage to the total job cost. Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve income from operations. As Tandy reviewed the division's job cost sheets, she realized that she could increase the division's income from operations by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job order cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order costs sheets of government customers. She believed that this would create a “win–win” for the division by (1) reducing the cost of corporate jobs, and (2)…arrow_forward
- TAC Industries sells heavy equipment to large corporations and to federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to the government, however, are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined byadding a fixed markup percentage to the total job cost. Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve income from operations. As Tandy reviewed the division’s job cost sheets, she realized that she couldincrease the division’s income from operations by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job order cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order costs sheets of governmentcustomers. She believed that this would create a win–win for the division by (1) reducing the cost of corporate jobs and (2)…arrow_forwardAssigning Direct Labor Costs to Jobs TAC Industries Inc. sells heavy equipment to large corporations and federal, state, and local governments. Corporate sales are the result of a competitive bidding process, where TAC competes against other companies based on selling price. Sales to the government, however, are determined on a cost plus basis, where the selling price is determined by adding a fixed markup percentage to the total job cost. Tandy Lane is the cost accountant for the Equipment Division of TAC Industries Inc. The division is under pressure from senior management to improve operating income. As Tandy reviewed the division’s job cost sheets, she realized that she could increase the division’s operating income by moving a portion of the direct labor hours that had been assigned to the job cost sheets of corporate customers onto the job order costs sheets of government customers. She believed that this would create a “win–win” for the division by (1) reducing the cost of…arrow_forwardBest Practices, Inc., is a management consulting firm. Its Corporate Division advises private firms on the adoption and use of cost management systems. Government Division consults with state and local governments. Government Division has a client that is interested in implementing an activity-based costing system in its public works department. The division’s head approached the head of Corporate Division about using one of its associates. Corporate Division charges clients $645 per hour for associate services, the same rate other consulting companies charge. The Government Division head complained that it could hire its own associate at an estimated variable cost of $245 per hour, which is what Corporate pays its associates. Suppose that Government Division will charge the client interested in implementing an activity-based costing system by the hour based on cost plus a fixed fee, where the cost is primarily the consultant’s hourly pay. Assume also that Government Division cannot…arrow_forward
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