Reference no: EM133710236

Management Accounting

Assessment - Report to management

Your Task

Your task is to effectively create spreadsheets or tables relating to Workshops 3, 7, 8 & 10 to support your recommendations in a report to senior management which uses your accumulated understanding of management accounting.

You are required to use spreadsheets or tables to answer some questions.
You are required to show and explain your calculations and work processes.
You are required to provide conclusions and make recommendations to senior management based on your analysis.

Learning Objective 1: Prepare an activity based or variance analysis in a practical scenario to assist with a decision- making scenario.
Learning Objective 2: Relate analysis to organisational budgets, costings, and processes with explanations.
Learning Objective 3: Formulate conclusions and recommendations based on your analysis.
Learning Objective 4: Communicate your findings and suggested courses of action in a persuasive manner.

Question 1:

Fox Books is a bookstore that has a café as well as selling books and stationery. It currently allocates Administration, Selling and Other Operating Expenses using the Cost of Goods Sold of each product department. Fox Books wants to maximise the accurate pricing and cost management of each department. Management is questioning whether the accounting system is providing the best information for making cost decisions.

Fox Books - Department Information for 30 June 2024

	Café	Books	Stationery
Revenues	$1,472,432	$7,440,960	$4,630,720
Cost of Goods Sold	$1,113,370	$5,313,454	$3,444,622
Café Cleaning Expense	$36,500	-	-
Number of Orders Placed	4,000	5,600	5,000
Number of Deliveries Received	3,200	2,800	3,400
Hours of Loading Inventory	20,000	30,000	28,000
Items Sold	736,216	372,048	347,304

The following Administration, Selling & Other Expenses are incurred:

Purchasing Department Expenses	$949,000
Receiving Department Expenses	$864,800
Inventory Loading Expenses	$975,000
Customer Support Expenses	$273,552
	$3,062,352

Required:

• Prepare an income statement for each department using Cost of Goods Sold to allocate Administration, Selling & Other Expenses.
• Identify and explain a better method for allocating Administration, Selling & Other Expenses across the 3 departments. Use your proposed method of allocation to prepare alternative income statements for each department and compare them with the results in a).
• Write a brief report to the management of Fox Books to summarise your recommendations for improvements to the accounting system, and how this information would be useful for management decisions.

Question 2: Nice & Natural manufactures muesli bars for health food stores. The management accountant, Lionel, is unhappy with the standard costing system used by the business. The standard and actual amounts for Direct Materials and Direct Manufacturing Labour for May were as follows:

	Standard	Actual
Muesli Bars Manufactured	12,000	13,464
Direct Material Costs	$60,000	$60,588
Direct Materials-Rice Flakes in Kilograms	360	410
Direct Materials-Carob in Kilograms	24	28
Direct Manufacturing Labour Costs	$54,000	$55,386
Direct Manufacturing Labour Hours	3,000	3,060

The standard costs are based on an independent survey conducted by an external consultant. Lionel had noticed that since the survey, unfavourable variances have been extremely rare. He has also observed that workers seem to have a lot of time to enjoy work breaks at the café nearby. He is concerned that the production manager is aware of the spare time, however, he is unwilling to reduce the standard requirements because his performance looks better at the current standards.

Required:

Calculate the price and efficiency variances for Direct Materials - Rice Flakes and Carob, and Direct Manufacturing Labour in May.

Discuss the types of actions that employees may have taken to reduce the accuracy of the standards set by the external consultant. Why would employees take those actions?

What actions should be taken by Lionel to correct the standards currently being used?

If Lionel can obtain industry benchmarks for the estimated costs, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using industry information to calculate the variances in a).

Question 3: Darylyn Chocolate company produces Rockyroady chocolate squares which are sold in brightly decorated canisters. Cool Canisters' sales manager has approached Darylyn with an offer to supply canisters at $1.50 each. Currently, Darylyn assigns the following costs to production of canisters:

Direct Material		$610,000
Direct Labour	11,000 Hours@$per Hour	$495,000
Variable Overhead	$20 per Direct Labour Hour	$220,000
Fixed Overhead	$50 per Direct Labour Hour	$550,000
Total Cost		$1,875.000
Number of Canisters		750,000

A conventional make-or-buy analysis suggests that Cool Canister's offer should be accepted, as the cost per canister would be more than $1.50. If Darylyn decides to buy the canisters, then $1,475,000 of total costs would be avoided, as $400,000 Fixed Overhead relates to Building Depreciation.

The management accountant has requested that further detailed analysis should be conducted before a decision is made. The management accountant has also provided activity drivers that relate to both Variable and Fixed Overheads in the production of canisters as follows:

Product Specs	10	$600 per Spec
Super visory Hours	2,000	$40 per Hour
Material Handling Hours	6,000	$8 per Hour
Purchase Orders	55	$250 per Order
Inspections	30	$300 per Inspection
Setups	15	$400 per Setup
Machine Hours	70,000	$2.50 per Hour

Required:

Explain how the $1,475,000 of cost savings was calculated using conventional make-or-buy analysis.

Determine the costs that will be saved by purchasing the canisters using the activity drivers.

Finalise the make-or-buy decision using the activity data. Should Darylyn buy the canisters?

If the conventional and activity-based analyses produced different conclusions, explain why.