Concept explainers
Quincy Farms is a producer of items made from farm products that are distributed to supermarkets. For many years, Quincy’s products have had strong regional sales on the basis of brand recognition. However, other companies have been marketing similar products in the area, and price competition has become increasingly important. Doug Gilbert, the company’s controller, is planning to implement a
Quincy’s most popular product is strawberry jam. The jam is produced in 10-gallon batches, and each batch requires six quarts of good strawberries. The fresh strawberries are sorted by hand before entering the production process. Because of imperfections in the strawberries and spoilage, one quart of strawberries is discarded for every four quarts of acceptable berries. Three minutes is the standard direct labor time required for sorting strawberries in order to obtain one quart of strawberries. The acceptable strawberries are then processed with the other ingredients: processing requires 12 minutes of direct labor time per batch. After processing, the jam is packaged in quart containers. Doug has gathered the following information from Joe Adams, Quincy’s cost accountant, relative to processing the strawberry jam.
- a. Quincy purchases strawberries at a cost of $0.80 per quart. All other ingredients cost a total of $0.45 per gallon.
- b. Direct labor is paid at the rate of $9.00 per hour.
- c. The total cost of direct material and direct labor required to package the jam is $0.38 per quart.
Joe has a friend who owns a strawberry farm that has been losing money in recent years. Because of good crops, there has been an oversupply of strawberries, and prices have dropped to $0.50 per quart. Joe has arranged for Quincy to purchase strawberries from his friend’s farm in hopes that the $0.80 per quart will put his friend’s farm in the black.
Required:
- 1. Discuss which coworkers Doug probably consulted to set standards. What factors should Doug consider in establishing the standards for direct materials and direct labor?
- 2. Develop the standard cost sheet for the prime costs of a 10-gallon batch of strawberry jam.
- 3. Citing the specific standards of the IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice described in Chapter 1, explain why Joe’s behavior regarding the cost information provided to Doug is unethical. (CMA adapted)
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Chapter 9 Solutions
Cornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Series)
- Paul Golding and his wife, Nancy, established Crunchy Chips in 1938. Over the past 60 years, the company has established distribution channels in 11 western states, with production facilities in Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado. In 1980, Pauls son, Edward, took control of the business. By 2017, it was clear that the companys plants needed to gain better control over production costs to stay competitive. Edward hired a consultant to install a standard costing system. To help the consultant establish the necessary standards, Edward sent her the following memo: The manufacturing process for potato chips begins when the potatoes are placed into a large vat in which they are automatically washed. After washing, the potatoes flow directly to an automatic peeler. The peeled potatoes then pass by inspectors, who manually cut out deep eyes or other blemishes. After inspection, the potatoes are automatically sliced and dropped into the cooking oil. The frying process is closely monitored by an employee. After the chips are cooked, they pass under a salting device and then pass by more inspectors, who sort out the unacceptable finished chips (those that are discolored or too small). The chips then continue on the conveyor belt to a bagging machine that bags them in 1-pound bags. After bagging, the bags are placed in a box and shipped. The box holds 15 bags. The raw potato pieces (eyes and blemishes), peelings, and rejected finished chips are sold to animal feed producers for 0.16 per pound. The company uses this revenue to reduce the cost of potatoes. We would like this reflected in the price standard relating to potatoes. Crunchy Chips purchases high-quality potatoes at a cost of 0.245 per pound. Each potato averages 4.25 ounces. Under efficient operating conditions, it takes four potatoes to produce one 16-ounce bag of plain chips. Although we label bags as containing 16 ounces, we actually place 16.3 ounces in each bag. We plan to continue this policy to ensure customer satisfaction. In addition to potatoes, other raw materials are the cooking oil, salt, bags, and boxes. Cooking oil costs 0.04 per ounce, and we use 3.3 ounces of oil per bag of chips. The cost of salt is so small that we add it to overhead. Bags cost 0.11 each and boxes 0.52 each. Our plant produces 8.8 million bags of chips per year. A recent engineering study revealed that we would need the following direct labor hours to produce this quantity if our plant operates at peak efficiency: Im not sure that we can achieve the level of efficiency advocated by the study. In my opinion, the plant is operating efficiently for the level of output indicated if the hours allowed are about 10% higher. The hourly labor rates agreed upon with the union are: Overhead is applied on the basis of direct labor dollars. We have found that variable overhead averages about 116% of our direct labor cost. Our fixed overhead is budgeted at 1,135,216 for the coming year. Required: 1. Discuss the benefits of a standard costing system for Crunchy Chips. 2. Discuss the presidents concern about using the result of the engineering study to set the labor standards. What standard would you recommend? 3. Form a group with two or three other students. Develop a standard cost sheet for Crunchy Chips plain potato chips. Round all computations to four decimal places. 4. Suppose that the level of production was 8.8 million bags of potato chips for the year as planned. If 9.5 million pounds of potatoes were used, compute the materials usage variance for potatoes.arrow_forwardThe Chocolate Baker specializes in chocolate baked goods. The firm has long assessed the profitability of a product line by comparing revenues to the cost of goods sold. However, Barry White, the firms new accountant, wants to use an activity-based costing system that takes into consideration the cost of the delivery person. Following are activity and cost information relating to two of Chocolate Bakers major products: Using activity-based costing, which of the following statements is correct? a. The muffins are 2,000 more profitable. b. The cheesecakes are 75 more profitable. c. The muffins are 1,925 more profitable. d. The muffins have a higher profitability as a percentage of sales and, therefore, are more advantageous.arrow_forwardLeather Works is a family-owned maker of leather travel bags and briefcases located in the northeastern part of the United States. Foreign competition has forced its owner, Heather Gray, to explore new ways to meet the competition. One of her cousins, Wallace Hayes, who recently graduated from college with a major in accounting, told her about the use of cost variance analysis to learn about efficiencies of production. In May of last year, Heather asked Matt Jones, chief accountant, and Alfred Prudest, production manager, to implement a standard costing system. Matt and Alfred, in turn, retained Shannon Leikam, an accounting professor at Hardings College, to set up a standard costing system by using information supplied to her by Matts and Alfreds staff. To verify that the information was accurate, Shannon visited the plant and measured workers output using time and motion studies. During those visits, she was not accompanied by either Matt or Alfred, and the workers knew about Shannons schedule in advance. The cost system was implemented in June of last year. Recently, the following dialogue took place among Heather, Matt, and Alfred: HEATHER: How is the business performing? ALFRED: You know, we are producing a lot more than we used to, thanks to the contract that you helped obtain from Lean, Inc., for laptop covers. (Lean is a national supplier of computer accessories.) MATT: Thank goodness for that new product. It has kept us from sinking even more due to the inroads into our business made by those foreign suppliers of leather goods. HEATHER: What about the standard costing system? MATT: The variances are mostly favorable, except for the first few months when the supplier of leather started charging more. HEATHER: How did the union members take to the standards? ALFRED: Not bad. They grumbled a bit at first, but they have taken it in stride. Weve consistently shown favorable direct labor efficiency variances and direct materials usage variances. The direct labor rate variance has been flat. MATT: It should be since direct labor rates are negotiated by the union representative at the start of the year and remain the same for the entire year. HEATHER: Matt, would you send me the variance report for laptop covers immediately? The following chart summarizes the direct materials and direct labor variances from November of last year through April of this year (extracted from the report provided by Matt). Standards for each laptop cover are as follows: a. Three feet of direct materials at 7.50 per foot b. Forty-five minutes of direct labor at 14 per hour In addition, the data for May of this year, but not the variances for the month, are as follows: Actual direct labor cost per hour exceeded the budgeted rate by 0.10 per hour. Required: 1. For May of this year, calculate the price and quantity variances for direct labor and direct materials. 2. Discuss the trend of the direct materials and labor variances. 3. What type of actions must the workers have taken during the period they were being observed for the setting of standards? 4. What can be done to ensure that the standards are set correctly? (CMA adapted)arrow_forward
- KarlAuto Corporation manufactures automobiles, vans, and trucks. Among the various KarlAuto plants around the United States is the Bloomington plant, where vinyl covers and upholstery fabric are sewn. These are used to cover interior seating and other surfaces of KarlAuto products. Pam Teegin is the plant manager for the Bloomington cover plantthe first KarlAuto plant in the region. As other area plants were opened, Teegin, in recognition of her management ability, was given the responsibility to manage them. Teegin functions as a regional manager, although the budget for her and her staff is charged to the Bloomington plant. Teegin has just received a report indicating that KarlAuto could purchase the entire annual output of the Bloomington cover plant from outside suppliers for 32 million. Teegin was astonished at the low outside price, because the budget for the Bloomington plants operating costs was set at 56.45 million. Teegin believes that the Bloomington plant will have to close down operations in order to realize the 24.45 million in annual cost savings. The budget (in thousands) for the Bloomington plants operating costs for the coming year follows: Additional facts regarding the plants operations are as follows: Due to the Bloomington plants commitment to use high-quality fabrics in all of its products, the Purchasing Department was instructed to place blanket orders with major suppliers to ensure the receipt of sufficient materials for the coming year. If these orders are canceled as a consequence of the plant closing, termination charges would amount to 18 percent of the cost of direct materials. Approximately 600 plant employees will lose their jobs if the plant is closed. This includes all direct laborers and supervisors as well as the plumbers, electricians, and other skilled workers classified as indirect plant workers. Some would be able to find new jobs, but many others would have difficulty. All employees would have difficulty matching the Bloomington plants base pay of 29.40 per hour, the highest in the area. A clause in the Bloomington plants contract with the union may help some employees; the company must provide employment assistance to its former employees for 12 months after a plant closing. The estimated cost to administer this service would be 1 million for the year. Some employees would probably elect early retirement because the company has an excellent pension plan. In fact, 4.6 million of next years pension expense would continue whether or not the plant is open. Teegin and her staff would not be affected by the closing of the Bloomington plant. They would still be responsible for administering three other area plants. Equipment depreciation for the plant is considered to be a variable cost and the units-of-production method is used to depreciate equipment; the Bloomington plant is the only KarlAuto plant to use this depreciation method. However, it uses the customary straight-line method to depreciate its building. Required: 1. Prepare a quantitative analysis to help in deciding whether or not to close the Bloomington plant. Explain how you treated the nonrecurring relevant costs. 2. Consider the analysis in Requirement 1, and add to it the qualitative factors that you believe are important to the decision. What is your decision? Would you close the plant? Explain. (CMA adapted)arrow_forwardMaxwell Company produces a variety of kitchen appliances, including cooking ranges and dishwashers. Over the past several years, competition has intensified. In order to maintainand perhaps increaseits market share, Maxwells management decided that the overall quality of its products had to be increased. Furthermore, costs needed to be reduced so that the selling prices of its products could be reduced. After some investigation, Maxwell concluded that many of its problems could be traced to the unreliability of the parts that were purchased from outside suppliers. Many of these components failed to work as intended, causing performance problems. Over the years, the company had increased its inspection activity of the final products. If a problem could be detected internally, then it was usually possible to rework the appliance so that the desired performance was achieved. Management also had increased its warranty coverage; warranty work had been increasing over the years. David Haight, president of Maxwell Company, called a meeting with his executive committee. Lee Linsenmeyer, chief engineer; Kit Applegate, controller; and Jeannie Mitchell, purchasing manager, were all in attendance. How to improve the companys competitive position was the meetings topic. The conversation of the meeting was recorded as seen on the following page: DAVID: We need to find a way to improve the quality of our products and at the same time reduce costs. Lee, you said that you have done some research in this area. Would you share your findings? LEE: As you know, a major source of our quality problems relates to the poor quality of the parts we acquire from the outside. We have a lot of different parts, and this adds to the complexity of the problem. What I thought would be helpful would be to redesign our products so that they can use as many interchangeable parts as possible. This will cut down the number of different parts, make it easier to inspect, and cheaper to repair when it comes to warranty work. My engineering staff has already come up with some new designs that will do this for us. JEANNIE: I like this idea. It will simplify the purchasing activity significantly. With fewer parts, I can envision some significant savings for my area. Lee has shown me the designs so I know exactly what parts would be needed. I also have a suggestion. We need to embark on a supplier evaluation program. We have too many suppliers. By reducing the number of different parts, we will need fewer suppliers. And we really dont need to use all the suppliers that produce the parts demanded by the new designs. We should pick suppliers that will work with us and provide the quality of parts that we need. I have done some preliminary research and have identified five suppliers that seem willing to work with us and assure us of the quality we need. Lee may need to send some of his engineers into their plants to make sure that they can do what they are claiming. DAVID: This sounds promising. Kit, can you look over the proposals and their estimates and give us some idea if this approach will save us any money? And if so, how much can we expect to save? KIT: Actually, I am ahead of the game here. Lee and Jeannie have both been in contact with me and have provided me with some estimates on how these actions would affect different activities. I have prepared a handout that includes an activity table revealing what I think are the key activities affected. I have also assembled some tentative information about activity costs. The table gives the current demand and the expected demand after the changes are implemented. With this information, we should be able to assess the expected cost savings. Additionally, the following activity cost data are provided: Purchasing parts: Variable activity cost: 30 per part number; 20 salaried clerks, each earning a 45,000 annual salary. Each clerk is capable of processing orders associated with 100 part numbers. Inspecting parts: Twenty-five inspectors, each earning a salary of 40,000 per year. Each inspector is capable of 2,000 hours of inspection. Reworking products: Variable activity cost: 25 per unit reworked (labor and parts). Warranty: Twenty repair agents, each paid a salary of 35,000 per year. Each repair agent is capable of repairing 500 units per year. Variable activity costs: 15 per product repaired. Required: 1. Compute the total savings possible as reflected by Kits handout. Assume that resource spending is reduced where possible. 2. Explain how redesign and supplier evaluation are linked to the savings computed in Requirement 1. Discuss the importance of recognizing and exploiting internal and external linkages. 3. Identify the organizational and operational activities involved in the strategy being considered by Maxwell Company. What is the relationship between organizational and operational activities?arrow_forwardPosavek is a wholesale supplier of building supplies building contractors, hardware stores, and home-improvement centers in the Boston metropolitan area. Over the years, Posavek has expanded its operations to serve customers across the nation and now employs over 200 people as technical representatives, buyers, warehouse workers, and sales and office staff. Most recently, Posavek has experienced fierce competition from the large online discount stores. In addition, the company is suffering from operational inefficiencies related to its archaic information system. Posavek revenue cycle procedures are described in the following paragraphs. Revenue Cycle Posaveks sales department representatives receive orders via traditional mail, e-mail, telephone, and the occasional walk-in customer. Because Posavek is a wholesaler, the vast majority of its business is conducted on a credit basis. The process begins in the sales department, where the sales clerk enters the customers order into the centralized computer sales order system. The computer and file server are housed in Posaveks small data processing department. If the customer has done business with Posavek in the past, his or her data are already on file. If the customer is a first-time buyer, however, the clerk creates a new record in the customer account file. The system then creates a record of the transaction in the open sales order file. When the order is entered, an electronic copy of it is sent to the customers e-mail address as confirmation. A clerk in the warehouse department periodically reviews the open sales order file from a terminal and prints two copies of a stock release document for each new sale, which he uses to pick the items sold from the shelves. The warehouse clerk sends one copy of the stock release to the sales department and the second copy, along with the goods, to the shipping department. The warehouse clerk then updates the inventory subsidiary file to reflect the items and quantities shipped. Upon receipt of the stock release document, the sales clerk accesses the open sales order file from a terminal, closes the sales order, and files the stock release document in the sales department. The sales order system automatically posts these transactions to the sales, inventory control, and cost-of-goods-sold accounts in the general ledger file. Upon receipt of the goods and the stock release, the shipping department clerk prepares the goods for shipment to the customer. The clerk prepares three copies of the bill of lading. Two of these go with the goods to the carrier and the third, along with the stock release document, is filed in the shipping department. The billing department clerk reviews the closed sales orders from a terminal and prepares two copies of the sales invoice. One copy is mailed to the customer, and the other is filed in the billing department. The clerk then creates a new record in the accounts receivable subsidiary file. The sales order system automatically updates the accounts receivable control account in the general ledger file. CASH RECEIPTS PROCEDURES Mail room clerks open customer cash receipts, reviews the check and remittance advices for completeness, and prepares two copies of a remittance list. One copy is sent with the checks to the cash receipts department. The second copy of the remittance advices are sent to the billing department. When the cash receipts clerk receives the checks and remittance list, he verifies the checks received against those on the remittance list and signs the checks For Deposit Only. Once the checks are endorsed, he records the receipts in the cash receipts journal from his terminal. The clerk then fills out a deposit slip and deposits the checks in the bank. Upon receipt of the remittances, the billing department clerk records the amounts in the accounts receivable subsidiary ledger from the department terminal. The system automatically updates the AR control account in the general ledger Posavek has hired your public accounting firm to review its sales order procedures for internal control compliance and to make recommendations for changes. Required a. Create a data flow diagram of the current system. b. Create a system flowchart of the existing system. c. Analyze the physical internal control weaknesses in the system. d. (Optional) Prepare a system flowchart of a redesigned computer-based system that resolves the control weaknesses that you identified. Explain your solution.arrow_forward
- Bradford Watch Company manufactures luxury and sports watches both for male and female customers. The luxury watches are famous for the high-end design materials while the sports watches are popular for their utilities. The company uses a traditional costing system in assigning overhead costs to the products on the basis of direct labour hours. However, the Production Manager seeks to replace the existing system with the Activity-based Costing (ABC) system to keep control over costs and offer more competitive pricing. After reviewing the existing costing system and interviewing the company’s personnel in relevant departments, the accountant compiled a report highlighting resources and costs involved in manufacturing watches per month: The following table lists out the overhead cost: Activity cost pool Overhead cost (£) Additional Notes Job-order set up 33,000 Procurement and placement 360,000 Installation of winding system 195,000 An auto winding…arrow_forwardBradford Watch Company manufactures luxury and sports watches both for male and female customers. The luxury watches are famous for the high-end design materials while the sports watches are popular for their utilities. The company uses a traditional costing system in assigning overhead costs to the products on the basis of direct labour hours. However, the Production Manager seeks to replace the existing system with the Activity-based Costing (ABC) system to keep control over costs and offer more competitive pricing. After reviewing the existing costing system and interviewing the company’s personnel in relevant departments, the accountant compiled a report highlighting resources and costs involved in manufacturing watches per month: The following table lists out the overhead cost: Activity cost pool Overhead cost (£) Additional Notes Job-order set up 33,000 Procurement and placement 360,000 Installation of winding system 195,000 An auto winding…arrow_forwardPixel Studio, Incorporated, is a small company that creates computer-generated animations for films and television. Much of the company’s work consists of short commercials for television, but the company also does realistic computer animations for special effects in movies. The young founders of the company have become increasingly concerned with the economics of the business—particularly since many competitors have sprung up recently in the local area. To help understand the company’s cost structure, an activity-based costing system has been designed. Three major activities are carried out in the company: animation concept, animation production, and contract administration. The animation concept activity is carried out at the contract proposal stage when the company bids on projects. This is an intensive activity that involves individuals from all parts of the company in creating story boards and prototype stills to be shown to the prospective client. Once a project is accepted by…arrow_forward
- Pixel Studio, Inc., is a small company that creates computer-generated animations for films and television. Much of the company’s work consists of short commercials for television, but the company also does realistic computer animations for special effects in movies. The young founders of the company have become increasingly concerned with the economics of the business—particularly since many competitors have sprung up recently in the local area. To help understand the company’s cost structure, an activity-based costing system has been designed. Three major activities are carried out in the company: animation concept, animation production, and contract administration. The animation concept activity is carried out at the contract proposal stage when the company bids on projects. This is an intensive activity that involves individuals from all parts of the company in creating story boards and prototype stills to be shown to the prospective client. Once a project is accepted by the…arrow_forwardRedwood Company sells craft kits and supplies to retail outlets and through its catalog. Some of the items are manufactured by Redwood, while others are purchased for resale. For the products it manufactures, the company currently bases its selling prices on a product-costing system that accounts for direct material, direct labor, and the associated overhead costs. In addition to these product costs, Redwood incurs substantial selling costs, and Roger Jackson, controller, has suggested that these selling costs should be included in the product pricing structure.After studying the costs incurred over the past two years for one of its products, skeins of knitting yarn, Jackson has selected four categories of selling costs and chosen cost drivers for each of these costs. The selling costs actually incurred during the past year and the cost drivers are as follows: Cost Category Amount Cost Driver Sales commissions $ 829,500 Boxes of yarn sold to retail stores Catalogs 313,000…arrow_forwardRedwood Company sells craft kits and supplies to retail outlets and through its catalog. Some of the items are manufactured by Redwood, while others are purchased for resale. For the products it manufactures, the company currently bases its selling prices on a product-costing system that accounts for direct material, direct labor, and the associated overhead costs. In addition to these product costs, Redwood incurs substantial selling costs, and Roger Jackson, controller, has suggested that these selling costs should be included in the product pricing structure.After studying the costs incurred over the past two years for one of its products, skeins of knitting yarn, Jackson has selected four categories of selling costs and chosen cost drivers for each of these costs. The selling costs actually incurred during the past year and the cost drivers are as follows: Cost Category Amount Cost Driver Sales commissions $ 829,500 Boxes of yarn sold to retail stores Catalogs 313,000…arrow_forward
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