Question

You have just been hired by FAB Corporation, the manufacturer of a revolutionary new garage door opening device. The president has asked that you review the company’s costing system and “do what you can to help us get better control of our manufacturing overhead costs.” You find that the company has never used a flexible budget, and you suggest that preparing such a budget would be an excellent first step in overhead planning and control. After much effort and analysis, you determined the following cost formulas and gathered the following actual cost data for March: Cost Formula Actual Cost in March Utilities $16,400 + $0.16 per machine-hour $ 21,880 Maintenance $38,300 + $1.20 per machine-hour $ 59,700 Supplies $0.40 per machine-hour $ 9,000 Indirect labor $94,800 + $1.40 per machine-hour $ 127,900 Depreciation $67,800 $ 69,500 During March, the company worked 21,000 machine-hours and produced 15,000 units. The company had originally planned to work 23,000 machine-hours during March. Required: 1. Calculate the activity variances for March. 2. Calculate the spending variances for March.

Answer 1

1.

	Flexible budget	Planning budget	Activity variances
Machine hours	21,000	23,000
Utilities	$19,760 [(21,000*$0.16)+$16,400]	$20,080 [(23,000*$0.16)+$16,400]	$320	F
Maintenance	63,500 [(21,000*$1.20)+$38,300]	65,900 [(23,000*$1.20)+$38,300]	2,400	F
Supplies	8,400 (21,000*$0.40)	9,200 (23,000*$0.40)	800	F
Indirect labor	124,200 [(21,000*$1.40)+$94,800]	127,000 [(23,000*$1.40)+$94,800]	2,800	F
Depreciation	67,800	67,800	0	None
Total	$283,660	$289,980	$6,320	F

2.

	Actual budget	Flexible budget	Spending variance
Machine hours	21,000	21,000
Utilities	$21,880	$19,760 [(21,000*$0.16)+$16,400]	$2,120	U
Maintenance	59,700	63,500 [(21,000*$1.20)+$38,300]	3,800	F
Supplies	9,000	8,400 (21,000*$0.40)	600	U
Indirect labor	127,900	124,200 [(21,000*$1.40)+$94,800]	3,700	U
Depreciation	69,500	67,800	1,700	U
Total	$287,980	$283,660	$4,320	U