Question

1. Keep-or-Drop, Services, Qualitative Aspects

   Jem Dawson owns Jem’s Special Event Planning Service, a full-service event planner. Jem does much of the work herself and hires additional help as needed. She plans corporate events, weddings, and special occasion parties. Each of these is considered a separate line of business due to the specialized aspects of each type of event. Last year, Jem’s accountant provided the following segmented income statement:

   		Corporate		Wedding		Special Occasion		Total
   Revenue		$55,300		$195,000		$168,000		$418,300
   Less variable costs		(22,120)		(97,500)		(50,400)		(170,020)
   Contribution margin		$33,180		$97,500		$117,600		$248,280
   Less common fixed expenses:
   Fixed operating expense								(175,000)
   Fixed selling								(55,000)
   Operating income								$18,280

   Jem was not pleased with last year’s results; corporate events were down considerably from the previous few years. In addition, she thinks that dealing with the corporate party-throwers may be more work than it is worth. Two important aspects of event planning are negotiating with vendors (e.g., caterers, florists, bands and orchestras, and venues) on price and setting up for and being present at the event itself. The corporate negotiating seemed to consume extra time, and their restrictions on the price they would pay made the negotiations particularly difficult. She decided to gather some data on the negotiation and setting-up activities:

   	Corporate	Wedding	Special Occasion
   Negotiating hours	400	1,200	400
   Setting-up hours	100	400	500
   Total cost of negotiating	$40,000
   Total cost of setting up	$60,000

   Required:

   1. Prepare a segmented income statement using the activity data for negotiating and setting up. The total cost of these two activities can be subtracted from the fixed operating expense. The remaining fixed operating expense will be the common fixed operating expense.

   Jem's Special Event Planning Service
   Segmented Income Statement
   	Corporate	Wedding	Special Occasion	Total
   	$	$	$
   Contribution margin	$	$	$	$
   Less direct fixed expenses:
   Product margin	$	$	$	$
   Less common fixed expenses:
   				$

   2. Jem believes that next year will be even worse. Her hunch is that corporate business will be down and that these clients will be especially intent on saving money by reducing the rate paid to Jem. She believes total corporate revenue may decrease by 25 percent overall, while the variable costs associated with those events will only decrease by 20 percent. On the other hand, Jem expects weddings to increase. Her reputation is growing and she thinks she can raise her revenues in this area by 15 percent even if the number of weddings does not increase. As a result, she expects variable costs of weddings to remain static. The special occasions (wedding anniversary parties, bar and bat mitzvahs, and so on) line is also expected to increase—with revenue and variable costs expected to increase by 10 percent. Jem does not know quite what to expect with respect to the negotiating and setting-up activities, so she thinks she’ll just keep those constant for planning purposes. Prepare a segmented income statement using the activity data and these assumptions.

   Jem's Special Event Planning Service
   Segmented Income Statement
   	Corporate	Wedding	Special Occasion	Total
   	$	$	$	$
   Contribution margin	$	$	$	$
   Less direct fixed expenses:
   Product margin	$	$	$	$
   Less common fixed expenses:
   				$

   What does this income statement suggest about dropping the corporate segment?

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Answer 1

Answer :

(1). Preparing the segmented income statement using the activity date for Negotiating and setting up :

	Corporate	Wedding	Special occasion	Total
Revenues	$55,300	$195,000	$168,000	$418,300
Less :Variable costs	($22,120)	($97,500)	($50,400)	($170,020)
Contribution margin	$33,180	$97,500	$117,600	$248,280
Less ; Direct fixed expense
Negotiating	($8,000)	($24,000)	($8,000)	($40,000)
Setting up	($6,000)	($24,000)	($30,000)	($60,000)
Production margin	$19,180	$49,500	$79,600	$148,280
Less : Common fixed expenses
Operating expenses				($75,000)
Selling expenses				($55,000)
Operating income				$18,280

Jem has to find out the way to increase the profitability in the corporate line because it has the lesser contribution margin when compared to the other lines

(2). Preparing the segmented income statement using the activity date and these assumption

	Corporation	Wedding	Special occasion	Total
Revenues	$41,475	$224,250	$184,800	$450,525
Less Variable cost	($17,696)	($97,500)	($55,400)	($170,636
Contribution margin	$23,779	$126,750	$129,360	$279,889
Less : Direct fixed expenses
Negotiating	($8,000)	($24,000)	($8,000)	($40,000)
Setting up	($6,000)	($24,000)	($30,000)	($60,000)
Product margin	$9,779	$78,750	$91,360	$179,889
Less Common fixed expenses
Operating Expenses				($75,000)
Selling Expenses				($55,000)
Operating income				$49,889

Corporate line is declining the profitability when compared to the wedding and special occasion lines Jem does not have to think about the corporate line situation to improve. So, Jem has to drop this corporate line and concentrate on the other two lines to make profit

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