In: Accounting
Littleton Medical Center (LMC) has three service departments (accounting, HR, and Janitorial/maintenance) and two patient units: hospital and an outpatient clinic. The following table summarizes the Operations of LMC for the last fiscal year.
Service Dept | Service Dept Cost |
HR | $1,750,000 |
Accounting | $1,450,000 |
Janitorial/Maintenance | $2,500,000 |
These Department Costs are allocated to the two patient units (hospital and clinic). The following table summarized the allocation based used to allocate each service department and the utilization of each allocation base.
Service Departments Patient Units
Service Depts HR Acctg Jan/Maint Clinic Hospital Allocation Base
HR | 50 | 150 | 2,000 | 3,000 | Employees | |
Accounting | 50 | 100 | 6,000 | 4,000 | Transactions (000) | |
Janitorial/Maintenance | 8,000 | 9,000 | 150,000 | 400,000 | Square Feet |
A. Allocate the three service departments' costs (HR, Accounting, and Janitorial/Maintenance) to the two patient units (clinic and hospital) using the direct allocation method.
B. Allocate the three service departments costs (HR, Accounting and Janitorial/Maintenance) to the two patient units (Clinic and Hospital) using the step-down allocation method.
C. What are the primary advantages of the step=down method compared to the direct allocation method?