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Chapter 21: Q31PGA (page 1175)

Using variable costing, service company

Professional Pool Cleaning Service provides pool cleaning services to residential customers. The company has three employees, each assigned to specific customers. The company considers each employee’s territory as a business segment. The company incurs variable costs that include the employees’ wages, pool chemicals, and gas for the service vans. Fixed costs include depreciation on the service vans. Following is the income statement for the month of July:

Requirements

  1. Calculate the contribution margin ratio for each business segment.
  2. The business segments had the following numbers of customers: Birman, 60; Meech, 70; and Frond, 40. Compute the service revenue per customer, variable cost per customer, and contribution margin per customer for each business segment.
  3. Which business segment was most profitable? List some possible reasons why this segment was most profitable. How might the various reasons affect the company in the long term?

Short Answer

Expert verified
  1. The Contribution Margin ratio for Birman, Meech, and Frond is 50%, 30%, and 40%.
  2. Service revenue per customer for each business segment is $50.Variable cost per customer for Birman, Meech, and Frond is $25, $35, and $30 respectively.The contribution margin per customerfor Birman, Meech, and Frond is $25, $15, and $20.
  1. Birman's business segment is most profitable because of its lower variable cost. It may affect the organization in both positive or negative manner depending on the reason of low variable cost.

Step by step solution

01

Calculation of the contribution margin ratio for each business segment (1) 

Particulars

Birman

Meech

Frond

Service revenue

$3,000

$3,500

$2,000

Variable cost

$1,500

$2,450

$1,200

Contribution Margin

$1,500

$1,050

$800

Contribution margin ratio

50%

30%

40%

02

Calculation of average service revenue per customer, average variable cost per customer, and, average contribution margin per customer.(2) 

Particulars

Birman

Meech

Frond

Service revenue

$3,000/60 =$50

$3,500/70 =$50

$2,000/40 =$50

Variable cost

$1,500/60 =$25

$2,450/70 =$35

$1,200/40 =$30

Contribution Margin

$1,500/60 =$25

$1,050/70 =$15

$800/40

=$20

03

Profitability analysis (3)

Birman is the most profitable business segment because it has the highest contribution margin. It is the most profitable segment because it has the lowest variable cost per unit.The lowest variable cost may be because of low wages, poor quality of chemicals used for cleaning, etc. This leads to high employee turnover and dissatisfied customers which cause both financial and reputational loss. If it is because of efficient utilization of resources whether it's human resources or others it leads to high profitability.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Analyzing profitability Refer to Short Exercise S21-10. Which business segment provided the greatest total contribution margin? Which

business segment had the highest contribution margin ratio?

Camden Company has divided its business into segments based on sales territories: East Coast, Midland, and West Coast. Following are financial data for 2018:

East Coast

Midland

West Coast

Units sold

71

69

53

Sales price per unit

\(10,300

\)13,600

$12,000

Variable cost per unit

6,283

7,072

7,080

Calculating contribution margin and operating income, variable costing

Calculate the contribution margin and operating income for June using variable costing.

Use the following information for Short Exercises S21-4 and S21-5.

Dracut Company reports the following information for June:

Net Sales Revenue $ 755,000 Variable Cost of Goods Sold 240,000 Fixed Cost of Goods Sold 198,000 Variable Selling and Administrative Costs 168,000 Fixed Selling and Administrative Costs 79,000

Question: Computing variable costing operating income Refer to the information for Concord, Inc.

Requirements:

  1. Using variable costing, calculate the unit product cost.
  2. Prepare an income statement using the contribution margin format.

Use the following information for Exercises E21-14 and E21-15.

Concord, Inc. has collected the following data for November (there are no beginning inventories):

Units produced and sold 500 units Sales price $ 450 per unit Direct materials 64 per unit Direct labor 68 per unit Variable manufacturing overhead 26 per unit Fixed manufacturing overhead 7,500 per month Variable selling and administrative costs 15 per unit Fixed selling and administrative costs 4,400 per month

Question: The Hurley Hat Company manufactures baseball hats. Hurley’s primary customers are sporting goods stores that supply uniforms to youth baseball teams. Following is Hurley’s income statement for 2018:

In 2018, Hurley produced and sold 200,000 baseball hats. Of the Cost of Goods Sold, \(150,000 is fixed; 80% of the Selling and Administrative Expenses are fixed. There were no beginning inventories on January 1, 2018. The company is considering two options to increase sales.

Option 1: The company is operating at 100,000 hats below full production capacity and is considering increasing advertising to increase sales to the production capacity level in 2019. The marketing director predicts that an additional \)100,000 expenditure for advertising would increase sales to 300,000 hats per year.

Option 2: The sales manager has been negotiating with buyers for several national sporting goods retailers and recommends the company expand production capacity to 400,000 hats in order to secure long-term contracts beginning in 2019. The expansion is expected to increase fixed manufacturing costs by \(200,000 per year. Additionally, the retailers are requesting a higher-quality hat, and the changes to the hat materials and manufacturing process would increase variable manufacturing costs by \)1 per hat for the additional 200,000 hats. (The original 200,000 hats manufactured and sold would not be affected by this change.)

Requirements

1. Use the data from the 2018 income statement to prepare an income statement using variable costing. Assume no beginning or ending inventories. Calculate the contribution margin ratio. Round to two decimal places.

2. Prepare an absorption costing income statement assuming the company pursues Option 1 and increases advertising and production and sales increase to 300,000 hats.

3. Refer to the original data. Prepare an absorption costing income statement assuming the company pursues Option 2 and increases capacity and sales and production increases to 400,000 total hats.

4. Which option should the company pursue? Explain your reasoning.

In the long run, all costs are controllable. Is this statement true? Why or why not?
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