Question

Nova Company’s total overhead cost at various levels of activity are presented below:

Month	Machine- Hours			Total Overhead Cost
April		46,000		$	199,200
May		36,000		$	173,200
June		56,000		$	225,200
July		66,000		$	251,200

Assume that the total overhead cost above consists of utilities, supervisory salaries, and maintenance. The breakdown of these costs at the 36,000 machine-hour level of activity is:

Utilities (variable)	$	54,000
Supervisory salaries (fixed)		60,000
Maintenance (mixed)		59,200
Total overhead cost	$	173,200

Nova Company’s management wants to break down the maintenance cost into its variable and fixed cost elements.

Required:

1. Estimate how much of the $251,200 of overhead cost in July was maintenance cost. (Hint: to do this, it may be helpful to first determine how much of the $251,200 consisted of utilities and supervisory salaries. Think about the behavior of variable and fixed costs.)

2. Using the high-low method, estimate a cost formula for maintenance in the form Y = a + bX.

3. Express the company’s total overhead cost in the form Y = a + bX.

4. What total overhead cost would you expect to be incurred at an activity level of 41,000 machine-hours?

Answer 1