Question

Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company has no sales force of its own; rather, it relies completely on independent sales agents to market its products. These agents are paid a sales commission of 15% for all items sold.

Barbara Cheney, Pittman’s controller, has just prepared the company’s budgeted income statement for next year as follows:

Pittman Company Budgeted Income Statement For the Year Ended December 31
Sales				$	16,500,000
Manufacturing expenses:
Variable	$	7,425,000
Fixed overhead		2,310,000			9,735,000
Gross margin					6,765,000
Selling and administrative expenses:
Commissions to agents		2,475,000
Fixed marketing expenses		115,500	*
Fixed administrative expenses		1,820,000			4,410,500
Net operating income					2,354,500
Fixed interest expenses					577,500
Income before income taxes					1,777,000
Income taxes (30%)					533,100
Net income				$	1,243,900

*Primarily depreciation on storage facilities.

As Barbara handed the statement to Karl Vecci, Pittman’s president, she commented, “I went ahead and used the agents’ 15% commission rate in completing these statements, but we’ve just learned that they refuse to handle our products next year unless we increase the commission rate to 20%.”

“That’s the last straw,” Karl replied angrily. “Those agents have been demanding more and more, and this time they’ve gone too far. How can they possibly defend a 20% commission rate?”

“They claim that after paying for advertising, travel, and the other costs of promotion, there’s nothing left over for profit,” replied Barbara.

“I say it’s just plain robbery,” retorted Karl. “And I also say it’s time we dumped those guys and got our own sales force. Can you get your people to work up some cost figures for us to look at?”

“We’ve already worked them up,” said Barbara. “Several companies we know about pay a 7.5% commission to their own salespeople, along with a small salary. Of course, we would have to handle all promotion costs, too. We figure our fixed expenses would increase by $2,475,000 per year, but that would be more than offset by the $3,300,000 (20% × $16,500,000) that we would avoid on agents’ commissions.”

The breakdown of the $2,475,000 cost follows:

Salaries:
Sales manager	$	103,125
Salespersons		618,750
Travel and entertainment		412,500
Advertising		1,340,625
Total	$	2,475,000

“Super,” replied Karl. “And I noticed that the $2,475,000 equals what we’re paying the agents under the old 15% commission rate.”

“It’s even better than that,” explained Barbara. “We can actually save $75,900 a year because that’s what we’re paying our auditors to check out the agents’ reports. So our overall administrative expenses would be less.”

“Pull all of these numbers together and we’ll show them to the executive committee tomorrow,” said Karl. “With the approval of the committee, we can move on the matter immediately.”

1. Determine the dollar sales at which net income would be equal regardless of whether Pittman Company sells through agents (at a 20% commission rate) or employs its own sales force.

2. Compute the degree of operating leverage that the company would expect to have at the end of next year assuming:

a. The agents’ commission rate remains unchanged at 15%.

b. The agents’ commission rate is increased to 20%.

c. The company employs its own sales force.

Use income before income taxes in your operating leverage computation.

Answer 1

Income statemnt
	15% commission	20% Commission	Owns sales force
Sales	16,500,000	16,500,000	16,500,000
Variable expenses
Manufacturing	7,425,000	7,425,000	7,425,000
Commissions ( 15% , 20%, 7.5%)	2475000	3300000	1237500
Total variable expenses	9,900,000	10,725,000	8,662,500
Contribution margin	6,600,000	5,775,000	7,837,500
Fixed expenses
Manufacturing overhead	2,310,000	2,310,000	2,310,000
Marketing	115,500	115,500	2,590,500
Administrative	1,820,000	1,820,000	1,744,100
interest	577,500	577,500	577,500
Total fixed expenses	4,823,000	4,823,000	7,222,100
Income before income tax	1,777,000	952,000	615,400
income taxes(30%)	533,100	285,600	184,620
Net income	1,243,900	666,400	430,780
Contribution margin ratio (contributioin / sales)	40%	35%	48%

1.

to determine the volume of sales at which net income would be equal either the 20% commisision plan or the company own sales force plan, we find the volume of sales where cost before income tax under two plans are equal

Let A = total sales revenue
.65 X A + 4823000 = .52 X A + 7222100
A = 1,84,54,615

2.

Particulars	Commission
	15%	20%	own sales force
Contribution margin (see income satement) (a)	6,600,000	5,775,000	7,837,500
Income before tax (see income statement ) (b)	1,777,000	952,000	615,400
Degree of operating leverage (a/b)	3.71	6.07	12.74