Question

Jackson County Senior Services is a nonprofit organization devoted to providing essential services to seniors who live in their own homes within the Jackson County area. Three services are provided for seniors—home nursing, Meals On Wheels, and housekeeping. Data on revenue and expenses for the past year follow:

		Total		Home Nursing		Meals On Wheels		House- keeping
Revenues	$	921,000	$	267,000	$	402,000	$	252,000
Variable expenses		474,000		112,000		206,000		156,000
Contribution margin		447,000		155,000		196,000		96,000
Fixed expenses:
Depreciation		69,300		8,600		40,600		20,100
Liability insurance		43,800		20,500		7,300		16,000
Program administrators’ salaries		115,200		40,700		39,000		35,500
General administrative overhead*		184,200		53,400		80,400		50,400
Total fixed expenses		412,500		123,200		167,300		122,000
Net operating income (loss)	$	34,500	$	31,800	$	28,700	$	(26,000)

*Allocated on the basis of program revenues.

The head administrator of Jackson County Senior Services, Judith Miyama, considers last year’s net operating income of $34,500 to be unsatisfactory; therefore, she is considering the possibility of discontinuing the housekeeping program.

The depreciation in housekeeping is for a small van that is used to carry the housekeepers and their equipment from job to job. If the program were discontinued, the van would be donated to a charitable organization. None of the general administrative overhead would be avoided if the housekeeping program were dropped, but the liability insurance and the salary of the program administrator would be avoided.

Required:

1-a. What is the financial advantage (disadvantage) of discontinuing the Housekeeping program?

1-b. Should the Housekeeping program be discontinued?

2-a. Prepare a properly formatted segmented income statement.

2-b. Would a segmented income statement format be more useful to management in assessing the long-run financial viability of the various services?

Answer 1

1a		Total		total if house keeping is dropped		difference
Revenues	$	921,000	$	669,000	$	252,000
Variable expenses		474,000		318,000		156,000
Contribution margin		447,000		351,000		96,000
Fixed expenses:
Depreciation		69,300		49,200		20,100
Liability insurance		43,800		27,800		16,000
Program administrators’ salaries		115,200		79,700		35,500
General administrative overhead*		184,200		184,200		0
Total fixed expenses		412,500		290,500		122,000
Net operating income (loss)	$	34,500		10,100		24,400
*Includes pro-rated loss on disposal of the van if it is donated to a charity
Depreciation on the van is a sunk cost and the van has no salvage value since
it would be donated to another organization. The general administrative
overhead is allocated and none of it would be avoided if the program were
dropped; thus it is not relevant to the decision.
1b		No, the housekeeping program should not be discontinued. It is actually
		generating a positive program segment margin and is, of course, providing a
		valuable service to seniors.
2a
		Total		Home Nursing		Meals On Wheels		House-
								keeping
Revenues	$	921,000	$	267,000	$	402,000	$	252,000
Variable expenses		474,000		112,000		206,000		156,000
Contribution margin		447,000		155,000		196,000		96,000
Traceable Fixed expenses:
Depreciation		69,300		8,600		40,600		20,100
Liability insurance		43,800		20,500		7,300		16,000
Program administrators’ salaries		115,200		40,700		39,000		35,500
Total Traceable Fixed expenses:		228,300		69,800		86,900		71,600
Program segment margin		218,700		85,200		109,100		24,400
General administrative overhead		184,200
Net operating income (loss)	$	34,500
2b	yes	management often finds it is important to classify expenses
	as fixed or variable and as direct or indirect to the segment.
	These classifications may be more useful to management than the
	traditional classifications of cost of goods sold, operating expenses, and nonoperating expenses.