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	$16,200 plus $0.19 per machine-hour	$	21,610
Maintenance	$38,400 plus $1.40 per machine-hour	$	58,800
Supplies	$0.50 per machine-hour	$	9,300
Indirect labor	$94,300 plus $1.90 per machine-hour	$	131,300
Depreciation	$67,900	$	69,600

During March, the company worked 17,000 machine-hours and produced 11,000 units. The company had originally planned to work 19,000 machine-hours during March.

Required:

1. Calculate the activity variances for March.

2. Calculate the spending variances for March.

Answer 1

1.

Calculation of Activity Variances for March =
FAB Corporation
Activity Variance
For the month ended March 31
		Planning Budget	Flexible Budget	Activity Variance
Machine hours	(q)	19,000	17,000
Utilities	[$16,200 + ($0.19 X q)]	$     19,810	$       19,430	$          380	F
Maintenance	[$38,400 + ($1.40 X q)]	$     65,000	$       62,200	$      2,800	F
Supplies	($0.50 X q)	$       9,500	$         8,500	$      1,000	F
Indirect Labour	[$94,300 + ($1.90 X q)]	$ 1,30,400	$   1,26,600	$      3,800	F
Depreciation		$     67,900	$       67,900	$             -	N
Total		$ 2,92,610	$   2,84,630	$      7,980	F
U=	Unfavourable
F=	Favourable
N=	No effect
2.
Calculation of Spending Variances for March =
FAB Corporation
Activity Variance
For the month ended March 31
		Flexible Budget	Actual results	Spending Variances
Machine hours	(q)	17,000	17,000
Utilities	[$16,200 + ($0.19 X q)]	$     19,430	$       21,610	$      2,180	U
Maintenance	[$38,400 + ($1.40 X q)]	$     62,200	$       58,800	$      3,400	F
Supplies	($0.50 X q)	$       8,500	$         9,300	$          800	U
Indirect Labour	[$94,300 + ($1.90 X q)]	$ 1,26,600	$   1,31,300	$      4,700	U
Depreciation		$     67,900	$       69,600	$      1,700	U
Total		$ 2,84,630	$   2,90,610	$      5,980	U
U=	Unfavourable
F=	Favourable
N=	No effect