Question

Fixed and Variable Cost Allocation

Welcome Inns is a chain of motels serving business travelers in New Mexico and southwest Texas. The chain has grown from one motel several years ago to five motels. In 20x1, the owner of the company decided to set up an internal Accounting Department to centralize control of financial information. (Previously, local CPAs handled each motel’s bookkeeping and financial reporting.) The accounting office was opened in January 20x1 by renting space adjacent to corporate headquarters in Ruidoso, New Mexico. All motels have been supplied with personal computers and internet access to transfer information to central accounting on a daily basis.

The Accounting Department has budgeted fixed costs of $135,000 per year. Variable costs are budgeted at $20 per hour. In 20x1, actual cost for the Accounting Department was $223,000. Further information is as follows:

	Actual Revenues			Actual Hours of Accounting
	20x0	20x1		20x1
Ruidoso	$405,000	$420,000		1,475
Roswell	540,000	588,000		410
Santa Rosa	432,000	364,000		620
El Paso	648,000	728,000		890
Albuquerque	675,000	700,000		450

Required:

1. Suppose that Welcome Inns views 20x0 sales figures as a proxy for budgeted capacity of the motels. Thus, fixed Accounting Department costs are allocated on the basis of 20x0 sales, and variable costs are allocated according to 20x1 usage multiplied by the variable rate. How much Accounting Department cost will be allocated to each motel?

	Total
Ruidoso	$
Roswell	$
Santa Rosa	$
El Paso	$
Albuquerque	$

Answer 1