Question

Hannibal Steel Company has a Transport Services Department that provides trucks to haul ore from the company’s mine to its two steel mills—the Northern Plant and the Southern Plant. Budgeted costs for the Transport Services Department total $311,100 per year, consisting of $0.18 per ton variable cost and $261,100 fixed cost. The level of fixed cost is determined by peak-period requirements. During the peak period, the Northern Plant requires 57% of the Transport Services Department’s capacity and the Southern Plant requires 43%.

During the year, the Transport Services Department actually hauled the following amounts of ore for the two plants: Northern Plant, 121,000 tons; Southern Plant, 63,400 tons. The Transport Services Department incurred $362,000 in cost during the year, of which $52,900 was variable cost and $309,100 was fixed cost.

Required:

1. How much of the $52,900 in variable cost should be charged to each plant?

2. How much of the $309,100 in fixed cost should be charged to each plant?

3. How much of the $362,000 in the Transport Services Department cost should be treated as a spending variance and not charged to the plants?

Answer 1

1	Variable cost charged=Tons in the plant*Variable cost per ton
	Northern plant:
	Variable cost charged=121000*0.18=$ 21780
	Southern plant:
	Variable cost charged=63400*0.18=$ 11412
2	Fixed cost charged=Budgeted fixed cost*peak-period requirement
	Northern plant:
	Fixed cost charged=261100*57%=$ 148827
	Southern plant:
	Fixed cost charged=261100*43%=$ 112273
3	Actual cost incurred=$ 362000
	Cost charged=21780+11412+148827+112273=$ 294292
	Spending variance and not charged to the plants=362000-294292=$ 67708
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