Alternative allocation bases for a professional services firm. The Walliston Group (WG) provides tax advice to multinational firms. WG charges clients for (a) direct professional time (at an hourly rate) and (b) support services (at 30% of the direct professional costs billed). The three professionals in WG and their rates per professional hour are as follows:
Professional | Billing Rate per Hour |
Max Walliston | $640 |
Alexa Boutin | 220 |
Jacob Abbington | 100 |
WG has just prepared the May 2017 bills for two clients. The hours of professional time spent on each client are as follows:
Hours per Client | ||
Professional | San Antonio Dominion | Amsterdam Enterprises |
Walliston | 26 | 4 |
Boutin | 5 | 14 |
Abbington | 39 | 52 |
Total | 70 | 70 |
- 1. What amounts did WG bill to San Antonio Dominion and Amsterdam Enterprises for May 2017?
Required
- 2. Suppose support services were billed at $75 per professional labor-hour (instead of 30% of professional labor costs). How would this change affect the amounts WG billed to the two clients for May 2017? Comment on the differences between the amounts billed in requirements 1 and 2.
- 3. How would you determine whether professional labor costs or professional labor-hours is the more appropriate allocation base for WG’s support services?
Trending nowThis is a popular solution!
Learn your wayIncludes step-by-step video
Chapter 5 Solutions
Horngren's Cost Accounting, Student Value Edition (16th Edition)
Additional Business Textbook Solutions
Construction Accounting And Financial Management (4th Edition)
Horngren's Accounting (11th Edition)
Intermediate Accounting (2nd Edition)
Horngren's Financial & Managerial Accounting, The Financial Chapters (6th Edition)
Financial Accounting
Managerial Accounting (4th Edition)
- Mason, Durant, and Westbrook (MDW) is a tax services firm. The firm is located in Oklahoma City and employs 15 professionals and eight staff. The firm does tax work for small businesses and well-to-do individuals. The following data are provided for the last fiscal year. (The Mason, Durant, and Westbrook fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30.) Required: 1. Prepare a statement of cost of services sold. 2. Refer to the statement prepared in Requirement 1. What is the dominant cost? Will this always be true of service organizations? If not, provide an example of an exception. 3. Assuming that the average fee for processing a return is 850, prepare an income statement for Mason, Durant, and Westbrook. 4. Discuss three differences between services and tangible products. Calculate the average cost of preparing a tax return for last year. How do the differences between services and tangible products affect the ability of MDW to use the last years average cost of preparing a tax return in budgeting the cost of tax return services to be offered next year?arrow_forwardPinnacle Consulting employs two CPAs, each having a different area of specialization. Judy specializes in tax consulting and Steve specializes in management consulting. Pinnacle expects to incur total overhead costs of $419,400 during the year and applies overhead based on annual salary costs. Judy is a senior partner, her annual salary is $225,000, and she is expected to bill 2,200 hours during the year. Steve is a senior associate, his annual salary is $124,500, and he is expected to bill 1,500 hours during the year. Required: Calculate the predetermined overhead rate. Assuming that the hourly billing rate should be set to cover the total cost of services plus a 25% markup, compute the hourly billing rates for Judy and Steve.arrow_forwardDye and Dye, Attorneys-at-Law, each bill 1,500 hours per year and receive pay of $100,000 each. Four paralegals work for the firm and each receives pay of $40,000 and works 2,000 hours per year. Overhead of $396,000 is anticipated, of which $300,000 is attorney support, and the rest is paralegal support. Determine overhead under each of the following circumstances: a. A simplified cost approach is used based on hours. b. A simplified cost approach is used based on payroll dollars. c. An activity-based costing approach is used. Attorney support is based on labor costs, and paralegal support is based on hours worked.arrow_forward
- The managing partner at Mina's Accounting Service typically hires one part-time intern to complete her client's basic tax returns. Mina expects her intern to complete 280 of these basic returns, estimating each one to take 30 minutes of the intern's time. Mina pays her intern $25/hr and incurs additional variable overhead costs of $20/hr associated with the resources that are needed behind the scenes for these jobs. What cost of services should Mina budget for all basic tax returns this season, and how much should she charge each client if she wants to earn a 60% gross margin on each of these returns?arrow_forwardGwen is the managerial accountant in charge of Company A, which sellswater bottles. She previously determined that the fixed costs of Company A consist ofproperty taxes, a lease, and executive salaries, which add up to P500,000. Thevariable cost associated with producing one water bottle is P80 per unit. The waterbottle is sold at a premium price of P500. a. Formulate the total cost function.b. Formulate the revenue function.c. Formulate the profit function.d. Determine the breakeven quantity and the breakeven sales.e. Use the graphical method to determine the breakeven point.arrow_forwardAs AdWorld’s sales manager, assume that you estimate costs pertaining to a proposed job as $17,076. Your normal pricing policy is to apply a markup of 18% from total costs. However, you learn that three other agencies are likely to bid for the same job, and that their quotes will range from $16,500 to $22,000. What price should you quote? What factors other than cost must you consider?arrow_forward
- During each year, CSL Computer Company needs to train 27 service representatives. It costs $12,000 to run a training program, regardless of the number of students being trained. Service reps earn a monthly salaryof $1500, so CSL does not want to train them before they are needed. Each training session takes one month. a. State the assumptions needed for the EOQ model to be applicable. b. How many service reps should be in each training group? c. How many training programs should CSL undertake each year? d. How many trained service reps will be available when each training program begins?arrow_forward*THIS IS THE LAST PART OF THE QUESTION- THE IMAGE ARE THE FIRST PART THIS IS THE ENDING* A&R bills audit services based on billable hours and advising services at a fixed fee. The cost for audit services is determined by multiplying the billable hours by the quoted employee rates. Staff rates for the following year are $370 per hour and manager rates are $925 per hour. The rates are set to meet the competition in the area. To determine the cost (not the price) of the job. A&R uses a job costing system. To the employee costs (not the billing rates) is added an amount for overhead based on the predetermined rate and the billable hours in the job. The predetermined rate is based on expected billable hours. Total revenue at A&R next year is expected to be $16 million. The two founding partners of A&R are looking at these forecasts for next year and trying to decide whether to drop one of these services. "We should probably become more focused, as we sometimes remind our…arrow_forwardThe Lombard Company produces and sells office-space dehumidifiers to companies that own or rent office space. (a) Lombard’s materials and labor costs for producing the dehumidifiers are $3,000 per unit and the fixed costs of its dehumidifier production plant are $1.85 million. If Lombard sells a dehumidifier for $5,000 per unit, what is its percent contribution margin? Show your work. (b) If Lombard used revenue-based compensation to pay its sales force, what would be a salesperson’s sales credit for selling 20 dehumidifiers at a price of $4,500? Show your work. (c) If Lombard used the profit-based compensation method described in the course to pay its sales force and sets the dehumidifier’s target price at $5,000 per unit, what would be a salesperson’s sales credit for selling 20 dehumidifiers at a price of $4,500? Show your work. (d) Explain the benefit to Lombard’s management of using the profit-based compensation method of Part (c) over revenue-based compensation for…arrow_forward
- Seal Financial Advisors provides accounting and finance assistance to customers in the retail business. Seal has four professionals on staff and an office with six clerical staff. Total compensation, including benefits, for the professional staff runs about $573,000 per year, and normal billable hours are 8,300 hours per year. The professional staff keep detailed time sheets organized by client number. The total office and administrative costs for the year are $755,000. Seal allocates office and administrative costs to clients monthly, using a predetermined overhead allocation rate based on billable hours. What is the predetermined overhead allocation rate that Seal will use for office and administrative costs? (Round your answer to the nearest cent.) A. $69.04 per hour B. $21.93 per hour C. $160.00 per hour D. $90.96 per hourarrow_forwardGwen is the managerial accountant in charge of Company A, which sellswater bottles. She previously determined that the fixed costs of Company A consist ofproperty taxes, a lease, and executive salaries, which add up to P500,000. Thevariable cost associated with producing one water bottle is P80 per unit. The waterbottle is sold at a premium price of P500. d. Determine the breakeven quantity and the breakeven sales.e. Use the graphical method to determine the breakeven point.arrow_forwardThe accounting firm of Pie and Lowell is examining its client base to determine how profitable its regular clients are. Its analysis indicates that Chico, Incorporated paid $116,000 in fees last year, but cost the firm $124,000 ($106,000 in billable labor, supplies, and copying, and $18,000 in allocated common fixed costs). If Pie and Lowell dropped Chico, Incorporated as a client, and all common fixed costs are unavoidable, how would profit be affected? Multiple Choice Options Increase $8,000 Decrease $10,000 $0 Decrease $116,000arrow_forward
- Managerial Accounting: The Cornerstone of Busines...AccountingISBN:9781337115773Author:Maryanne M. Mowen, Don R. Hansen, Dan L. HeitgerPublisher:Cengage LearningPrinciples of Accounting Volume 2AccountingISBN:9781947172609Author:OpenStaxPublisher:OpenStax CollegeCornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Ser...AccountingISBN:9781305970663Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. MowenPublisher:Cengage Learning