Question

“This is really an odd situation,” said Jim Carter, general manager of Highland Publishing Company. “We get most of the jobs we bid on that require a lot of press time in the Printing Department, yet profits on those jobs are never as high as they ought to be. On the other hand, we lose most of the jobs we bid on that require a lot of time in the Binding Department. I would be inclined to think that the problem is with our overhead rates, but we’re already computing separate overhead rates for each department. So what else could be wrong?”

Highland Publishing Company is a large organization that offers a variety of printing and binding work. The Printing and Binding departments are supported by three service departments. The costs of these service departments are allocated to other departments in the order listed below. The Personnel cost is allocated based on number of employees. The Custodial Services cost is allocated based on square feet of space occupied and the Maintenance cost is allocated based on machine-hours.

Department	Total Labor-Hours	Square Feet of Space Occupied	Number of Employees	Machine-Hours	Direct Labor-Hours
Personnel	16,900	12,900	21
Custodial Services	8,100	3,400	42
Maintenance	14,500	10,600	68
Printing	30,000	40,300	110	168,000	18,000
Binding	105,000	20,700	308	47,000	73,000
	174,500	87,900	549	215,000	91,000

Budgeted overhead costs in each department for the current year are shown below:

Personnel	$	310,000
Custodial Services		65,300
Maintenance		93,600
Printing		418,000
Binding		163,000
Total budgeted cost	$	1,049,900

Because of its simplicity, the company has always used the direct method to allocate service department costs to the two operating departments.

Required:

1. Using the step-down method, allocate the service department costs to the consuming departments. Then compute predetermined overhead rates in the two operating departments. Use machine-hours as the allocation base in the Printing Department and direct labor-hours as the allocation base in the Binding Department.

2. Repeat (1) above, this time using the direct method. Again compute predetermined overhead rates in the Printing and Binding departments.

3. Assume that during the current year the company bids on a job that requires machine and labor time as follows:

	Machine-Hours	Direct Labor-Hours
Printing Department	2,200	1,100
Binding Department	700	13,300
Total hours	2,900	14,400

a. Determine the amount of overhead cost that would be assigned to the job if the company used the overhead rates developed in (1) above. Then determine the amount of overhead cost that would be assigned to the job if the company used the overhead rates developed in (2) above.

Answer 1

1. Using the step-down method, allocate the service department costs to the consuming departments. Then compute predetermined overhead rates in the two operating departments. Use machine-hours as the allocation base in the Printing Department and direct labor-hours as the allocation base in the Binding Department.

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2. Repeat (1) above, this time using the direct method. Again compute predetermined overhead rates in the Printing and Binding departments.

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3.

Step down method:

Printing Department:
$3.86 per machine hours × 2,200 machine hours	$8,492
Binding department:
$5.51 per direct labor hour × 13,300 direct labor hours	$73,283
Total overhead cost	$81,775

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Direct method:

Printing Department:
$3.67 per machine hours × 2,200 machine hours	$8,074
Binding department:
$5.95 per direct labor hour × 13,300 direct labor hours	$79,135
Total overhead cost	$87,209

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