Why is the use of departmental overhead allocation rates considered a refinement over the use of a single plantwide overhead allocation rate?

Short Answer

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Departmental overhead allocation rates is not based on only one allocation base

Step by step solution

01

Meaning of Departmental Overhead cost

A department's overhead rate reflects the proportion of estimated overhead of a given department and the level of activities within that department.The conventional cost allocation strategy is to duplicate a standard departmental overhead rate by the number of units of action expended if the departmental costing approach strategy is employed.

02

Uses of departmental overhead allocation

As departmental allocation rates are not dependent on a single allocation basis, they are considered an enhancement over plantwide allocation rates. Overhead is distributed to the merchandise that is worked on in each department employing departmental allocation rates. The allocation basis chosen for each department better represents how products truly employ each department's assets.

Using departmental overhead allocation rates is considered a refinement over using a single plantwide allocation rate.

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Most popular questions from this chapter


Darrel & Co. makes electronic components. Chris Darrel, the president, recently instructed Vice President Jim Bruegger to develop a total quality control program. “If we don’t at least match the quality improvements our competitors are making,” he told Bruegger, “we’ll soon be out of business.” Bruegger began by listing various “costs of quality” that Darrel incurs. The first six items that came to mind were:

a. Costs incurred by Darrel customer representatives traveling to customer sites to repair defective products, \(13,000.

b. Lost profits from lost sales due to reputation for less-than-perfect products, \)35,000.

c. Costs of inspecting components in one of Darrel’s production processes, \(40,000.

d. Salaries of engineers who are redesigning components to withstand electrical overloads, \)65,000.

e. Costs of reworking defective components after discovery by company inspectors, \(50,000.

f. Costs of electronic components returned by customers, \)70,000.

Classify each item as a prevention cost, an appraisal cost, an internal failure cost, or an external failure cost. Then determine the total cost of quality by category.

Harcourt Pharmaceuticals manufactures an over-the-counter allergy medication. The company sells both large commercial containers of 1,000 capsules to health care facilities and travel packs of 20 capsules to shops in airports, train stations, and hotels. The following information has been developed to determine if an activity-based costing system would be beneficial:

Activity Estimated Estimated Quantity

Indirect Cost Allocation Base of Allocation Base

Materials handling \( 96,000 Number of kilos 24,000 kilos

Packaging 210,000 Number of machine hours 3,000 hours

Quality assurance 114,000 Number of samples 1,900 samples

Total indirect costs \) 420,000

Other production information includes the following:

Commercial Containers Travel Packs

Units produced 2,800 containers 51,000 packs

Weight in kilos 9,800 5,100

Machine hours 1,960 510

Number of samples 560 765

Requirements

3. Use the predetermined overhead allocation rates to compute the activity-based costs per unit of the commercial containers and the travel packs. Round to two decimal places. (Hint: First compute the total activity-based costs allocated to each product line, and then compute the cost per unit.)

Martin, Inc. manufactures bookcases and uses an activity-based costing system. Martin’s activity areas and related data follow:

Activity

Budgeted Cost of Activity

Allocation Base

Predetermined Overhead Allocation Rate

Materials handling

\( 230,000

Number of parts

\)1.50

Assembly

3,200,000

Number of assembling direct labor hours

16.00

Finishing

150,000

Number of finished units*

3.00

*Refers to the number of units receiving the finishing activity, not the number of units transferred to Finished Goods Inventory

Martin produced two styles of bookcases in April: the standard bookcase and an unfinished bookcase, which has fewer parts and requires no finishing. The totals for quantities, direct materials costs, and other data follow:

Product

Total Units Produced

Total Direct materials Costs

Total Direct Labor Costs

Total Number of Parts

Total Assembling Direct Labor Hours

Standard bookcase

3,000

\(54,000

\)67,500

9,000

4,500

Unfinished bookcase

3,500

56,000

52,500

7,000

3,500

Requirements

4. What price should Martin’s managers set for unfinished bookcases to earn a net profit of $19 per bookcase?

Clancy’s Carpet Cleaning Services uses ABC to allocate overhead costs and has computed the following predetermined overhead allocation rates:

Activity Allocation Base Allocation Rate

Supplies Number of square feet \( 0.05 per square foot

Travel Number of customer sites \) 20.00 per site

Clancy cleans the carpets for an apartment management firm. When a renter moves out, the apartment management firm contacts Clancy to clean the carpets in preparation for a new tenant. During the past month, Clancy cleaned the carpets of 23 apartments with 1,200 square feet each. What amount of indirect costs should Clancy allocate to the apartment firm for the month?

Stegall, Inc. manufactures motor scooters. For each of the following examples of quality costs, indicate which of the following quality cost categories each example represents: prevention costs, appraisal costs, internal failure costs, or external failure costs.

1. Preventive maintenance on machinery

2. Direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead incurred to rework a defective scooter that is detected in-house through inspection

3. Lost profits from lost sales if the company’s reputation is hurt because customers previously purchased a poor-quality scooter

4. Cost of inspecting raw materials, such as chassis and wheels

5. Working with suppliers to achieve on-time delivery of defect-free raw materials

6. Cost of warranty repairs on a scooter that malfunctions at a customer’s location

7. Costs of testing durability of vinyl

8. Cost to reinspect reworked scooters

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