Question

Paynesville Corporation manufactures and sells a preservative used in food and drug manufacturing. The company carries no inventories. The master budget calls for the company to manufacture and sell 104,000 liters at a budgeted price of $105 per liter this year. The standard direct cost sheet for one liter of the preservative follows.

Direct materials	(2 pounds @ $6)	$	12
Direct labor	(0.5 hours @ $28)		14

Variable overhead is applied based on direct labor hours. The variable overhead rate is $40 per direct-labor hour. The fixed overhead rate (at the master budget level of activity) is $20 per unit. All non-manufacturing costs are fixed and are budgeted at $1.4 million for the coming year.

At the end of the year, the costs analyst reported that the sales activity variance for the year was $354,000 unfavorable.

The following is the actual income statement (in thousands of dollars) for the year.

Sales revenue	$	10,498
Less variable costs
Direct materials		1,168
Direct labor		1,310
Variable overhead		1,930
Total variable costs	$	4,408
Contribution margin	$	6,090
Less fixed costs
Fixed manufacturing overhead		1,070
Non-manufacturing costs		1,250
Total fixed costs	$	2,320
Operating profit	$	3,770

During the year, the company purchased 180,000 pounds of material and employed 42,400 hours of direct labor.


Required:
a. Compute the direct material price and efficiency variances.
b. Compute the direct labor price and efficiency variances.
c. Compute the variable overhead price and efficiency variances.

(For all requirements, enter your answers in whole dollars. Indicate the effect of each variance by selecting "F" for favorable, or "U" for unfavorable. If there is no effect, do not select either option.)

Answer 1

Solution a:

Budgeted contribution margin per unit = Selling price - Variable cost per unit

= $105 - ($12 + $14 + $20) = $59 per unit

Actual units sold = Budgeted sales units - Unfavorable sales activity variance / Budgeted contribution margin per unit

=  104000 - ($354,000 / $59)

= 98000 liters

Direct Material Cost Variance
Actual Cost					Standard cost for actual quantity					Standard Cost
AQ *	AP =				AQ *	SP =				SQ *	SP =
180000	$6.49	$1,168,000.00			180000	$6.00	$1,080,000.00			196000	$6.00	$1,176,000.00
			$88,000.00	Unfavorable				$96,000.00	Favorable
			Direct Material Price Variance					Direct Material Qty variance
Direct material price variance					$88,000.00	Unfavorable
Direct material quantity variance					$96,000.00	Favorable
Total direct material variance					$8,000.00	Favorable

Solution b:

Direct Labor Cost Variance
Actual Cost					Standard cost for actual quantity					Standard Cost
AH *	AR =				AH *	SR =				SH *	SR =
42400	$30.90	$1,310,000.00			42400	$28.00	$1,187,200.00			49000	$28.00	$1,372,000.00
			$122,800.00	Unfavorable				$184,800.00	Favorable
			Direct Labor rate Variance					Direct Labor Efficiency Variance
Direct Labor Rate variance					$122,800.00	Unfavorable
Direct Labor Efficiency variance					$184,800.00	Favorable
Total direct labor variance					$62,000.00	Favorable

Solution c:

Variable Overhead Cost Variance
Actual Cost					Standard cost for actual quantity					Standard Cost
AH *	AR =				AH *	SR =				SH *	SR =
42400	$45.52	$1,930,000.00			42400	$40.00	$1,696,000.00			49000	$40.00	$1,960,000.00
			$234,000.00	Unfavorable				$264,000.00	Favorable
			Variable overhead spending variance					Variable overhead efficiency variance
Variable overhead Spending variance					$234,000.00	Unfavorable
Variable overhead efficiency variance					$264,000.00	Favorable
Variable overhad cost variance					$30,000.00	Favorable