In: Accounting
Houston Corporation considers materials and labor to be completely variable costs. Expected production for the year is 50,000 units.
Show the analysis in a table format. Write a one-paragraph interpretation of the information presented in the table.
Assume that in the previous exercise the actual production was 60,000 units, materials cost was $247,000, and labor cost was $510,000. What are the budget variances?
Solution:
PARTICULARS |
UNITS |
RATE/UNIT |
TOTAL |
|||||
Direct Material Cost |
60,000.00 |
$4.12 |
$247,000.00 |
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Direct Labour Cost |
60,000.00 |
$8.50 |
$510,000.00 |
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Total Actual Production Cost |
$757,000.00 |
|||||||
Particulars |
Formula |
Variance |
Favourable/Adverse |
Working |
||||
a) Material Cost Variance |
Budgeted cost - Actual Cost |
-$9,400.00 |
Adverse |
237,600 - 247,000 |
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b) Labour Cost Variance |
Budgeted cost - Actual Cost |
$30,000.00 |
Favourable |
540,000-510,000 |
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There can be several reasons for an adverse material usage variance. It can be that inferior quality materials have been purchased by the company at a lower price; or there was more wastage. There could be another possibility that due to the changes to the production process or that increased quality controls have been introduced, leading a rejection to more items. Whatever the reason is, it needs to be investigated after separate material usage variances have been calculated for each type of material used and then allocated to a responsibility centre. A favorable labor rate variance reflects cost efficient employment of direct labor by the company which can be due to decline in the overall wage rates or hiring of more un-skilled or semi-skilled labor.