for Doctor Mitch only Please do not contact if you are not Doctor Mitch

for_doctor_mitch_only.docx

Home >Business & Finance homework help >Management homework help >for Doctor Mitch only Please do not contact if you are not Doctor Mitch

Assignment 3: Benefits of Cost Accounting

Due Feb 16th Remember I would like URLs in reference section on all assignments.

You are a consultant for Blue Sky Consulting in the small town of Centervale. After 30 years of saving for retirement you discuss with your boss the possibility of early retirement. Your boss is open to the idea but he is finding that cost accountants are hard to find. You decide to be proactive and place a call to the local university. While lunching with Lindsey Michaels, Dean of the Accounting Department, she invites you to talk to the accounting club. You thank Dr. Michaels for the opportunity and begin planning your talk. You also realize your replacement might be sitting in the audience.

Use the AU library to conduct research on the benefits of cost accounting as a career. Reference at least one resource in your response.

Your paper should include the following information:

· Discuss cost management as a profession

· Name three professional cost management organizations and explain their roles.

· Where in the corporate, not for profit, areas would cost accountants work and what types of work would they do?

· Differentiate between financial and cost accounting as well as its opportunities and applications.

· Discuss and explain how cost management information is developed and used within the organizations information value chain.

· Explain how cost management fits into a corporate strategy given the global competitive environment? What role does the Internet play in the information gathered by cost management?

Assignment 2: Company Description

Due Feb 23rd

Locate six web sites for six different companies using the following criteria:

· Two of the companies should be more likely to use job costing.

· Two other companies should be more likely to use process costing.

· The final two companies should be likely to use activity-based costing.

For each of the companies, write a one paragraph description of the business of the company. Write an additional paragraph for each of the six companies explaining why it is likely they use your suggested method of cost accounting. Be sure to include a link to the company’s web site.

Present your work in MS Word format. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M2_A2_Task3.doc.

Assignment 2: LASA 1: Executive Report

Due March 1st

You have just been hired by Gracie Faye International (GFI) as a cost accountant. The company was named for the internationally popular Toka player, Gracie Faye. The company was started by John Smith who, in his basement, crafted a toka ball and beautifully strong toka stick for his daughter, Tresha, who played on a local team.

Tresha’s team saw the benefit of Tresha’s well-crafted equipment, and soon after, John was asked to equip the whole team. After the team won the championship, he was taking orders for the whole league and soon the whole toka world was knocking on John Smith’s door.

From simple beginnings, GFI has branched out to other sports, taking their brand of solid construction to new heights. Their ping pong table is known as the elephant’s dancing table, since ping-pong star Kevin “The Elephant” Pelinsky leapt onto a GFI table to dance across the net after he won a championship.

Founder Smith was quoted soon after saying, “all of our products have elephant dancing quality.” Their bleachers sales skyrocketed after the collapse of a competitor in the early ‘90s, and a Department of Parks and Recreation remodeled all their baseball fields with GFI electronic scoreboards and their batting cages with GFI automatic pitching machines.

The CFO (your new department head) has asked you to prepare a report to submit to the top management of the company. It would seem that the CFO did not do a very good job justifying your position and what you can do for the company.

The CFO would like for you to explain cost accounting, as well as present information to the management team on product costs for the production of toka balls, specific job order costs for special order products and provide costing information for two models of pitching machines currently offered.

You will present all of this information in a management report divided up into four separate sections as described below.

PART 1: In this section of the report, your job is to explain cost accounting and what skills you can bring to the company. The CFO feels you should include an overview of what cost management is and some of its applications. Be sure to discuss the opportunities available in the cost accounting and how it relates to corporate strategy. This section of your report should be approximately two pages in length.

PART 2: In this section of the report, you are asked to classify the product costs for the production of toka balls. Classify each cost as:

· fixed or variable

· direct or indirect

Complete the table and include it in your report. The management team will require justification for each cost (i.e. why you classified the costs as you did).

Product Cost	Variable	Fixed	Direct	Indirect
Electricity
Real Estate Taxes
Wood for toka sticks
Leather to tie wood together
Manufacturing Labor
Water
Lubricants for Machinery
Equipment depreciation

PART 3: The third section of the report should contain your computations for the month of July based on the information given below. The following information is available for a GFI division that produces electronic scoreboards. These are special order products that use a job order cost accounting system. The management team wants to see your calculations in your responses.

	June 30	July 31
Inventories
Raw materials	62,000	75,000
Goods in process	85,000	95,000
Finished goods	103,000	58,000

Activities and information for July
Raw materials purchases by cash		510,000
Factory payroll by cash		745,000
Factory overhead
Indirect materials		24,000
Indirect labor		132,000
Other overhead costs		220,000
Sales in cash		3,500,000
Predetermined overhead rate based on direct labor cost		52%

Compute the following amounts for the month of July.

1. Cost of direct materials used.

2. Cost of direct labor used

3. Cost of goods manufactured.

4. Cost of goods sold. (Do not consider any underapplied or overapplied overhead.)

5. Gross profit.

6. Overapplied or underapplied overhead.

PART 4: In the last section of the report, the management team would like to know the profits they can expect from the two models of pitching machines they currently manufacture. The softball pitching machine and the hardball machine make up the entire product line. To help determine the profit of each individual product, the CFO wants overheads to be allocated back to the products. Total inspection costs are $40,000.

The estimated production budget is as follows.

Softball pitching machine
Units	20 units
Direct labor hours per unit	200 hours per unit
Number of inspections	5 per unit

Hardball pitching machine
Units	20 units
Direct labor hours per unit	200 hours per unit
Number of inspections	15 per unit

1. Under a costing system that uses direct labor hours as a driver for the allocation, how much of the inspection costs would be allocated to softball machine?

2. Repeat the same question for hardball machine.

3. Using ABC and the number of inspections as a driver for allocation, recalculate the allocation for the softball machine.

4. Repeat the activity mentioned in question 3 for hardball machine.

Use Microsoft Excel to calculate your answers to the four questions and cut and paste the results into your report.

You know that your report will be shared with senior level managers and eventually to the board of directors. However, you are uncertain whether or not you will be allowed to present your work at a later time or in a different manner. Therefore it is important that your report is well written, professional, includes an introduction and a conclusion, and follows APA standards.

Assignment 2 Grading Criteria	Maximum Points
Part 1: Explained cost accounting and the skills a cost accountant brings to a company.	28
Part 1: Provided an overview of cost management and some of its applications	24
Part 1:Discussed the opportunities in cost accounting and how it relates to corporate strategy	28
Part 2: Classified production costs as fixed/variable and direct/indirect	16
Part 3: Computed cost amounts, gross profit, and overhead.	20
Part 4: Explained the inspection costs of hardball and softball machines.	20
Part 4: Re-calculated the allocation for hardball and softball machines.	20
Written Components: Organization (12) usage and mechanics (12) APA elements (16) Style (4)	44
Total:	200

Assignment 2: Strategic Budgeting

Due March 8th 5 pages “Times New Roman “12pt

A newspaper publishing company produces and distributes a magazine to its subscribers once each month. Although the company performs the entire publishing and distributing of the newspaper in-house, they have contacted with another magazine publisher to perform the printing and binding function for the magazine.

The contract for outside printing and binding of the magazine will soon expire and the newspaper company is reviewing its options. A member of the budgeting committee has reviewed the company’s financial reports and believes that the variable costs of producing the magazine could be significantly reduced by purchasing equipment to print and bind the magazine in house. However, in-house production would result in an increase in the company’s fixed costs.

Because of your background in cost accounting and cost management, the committee is looking to you for guidance in this decision. You have decided that helping the committee understand the types of analysis that should be employed in this situation will gain support for the action you recommend.

Prepare a report in which you:

· Explain the value of preparing a contribution income statement.

· Describe the concept of sensitivity analysis and explain the value of applying it during any budgeting process.

· Define operating leverage and explain how analysis of operating leverage alternatives would be applied to this decision.

· Describe strategic reasons why the company should bring printing and binding of their magazine in house.

· Describe strategic reasons for not bringing printing and binding of their magazine in house.

· Illustrate application of the five steps of strategic decision making for CVP analysis to this decision scenario.

Write a 3–5-page report in Microsoft Word format. Apply APA standards to your work.

Present your work in MS Word format. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M4_A2.doc.

Assignment 1: LASA 2: Executive Presentation

Due March 13th

The management team was so impressed with the report you submitted a couple of weeks ago, that they have asked you to prepare another report in the form of a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation which addresses additional questions they have about some of their products.

They would like to use this information at the next Board meeting so they have asked you to prepare a PowerPoint presentation using the information below. They want to make sure they have talking points available when they deliver the presentation so they have asked you to use the notes section of PowerPoint to clearly explain the information presented on each of the slides.

They would like for you to design a title slide which captures the audience’s attention, an introduction slide(s) which contains executive summary information, slides which support each of the four sections below including talking points, and a solid conclusion.

They have asked that you contain your presentation to approximately 15 slides. The management team may be asked to justify the information you present so it is imperative that you show your calculations. You may want to compute your calculations in Excel and copy that information into your PowerPoint.

PART 1: The following information is available for GFI’s maintenance cost over the last seven months. Use the high low method to estimate the fixed and variable components of its maintenance cost. Would this be an effective way to estimate these costs? Justify your answer by explaining why this is an effective way or why it is not.

Month	Operating Hours	Maintenance cost
February	27	11,000
March	54	13,800
April	36	10,200
May	45	12,000
June	63	13,800
July	72	18,000
August	19	7,400

PART 2: In 2001, Ms. Kelle, the head of aerobic equipment sales, started a fitness magazine called the Dancing Elephant. The magazine sells 50,000 copies a month. The total variable costs at that volume are $40,000 and fixed costs are $20,000. An additional storage cost of $2,000 will be incurred if production exceeds 55,000 units.

You have been asked to forecast the following costs for two possible production runs of (a) 52,000 units and (b) 57,000 units:

· Total variable costs

· Variable cost per unit

· Total fixed cost

· Fixed cost per unit

	Budget	Forecast A	Forecast B
Production	50,000	52,000	57,000
Total variable costs
Variable cost per unit
Total fixed cost
Fixed cost per unit

PART 3: GFI manufacturers ping pong tables and has a JIT policy that ending inventory must equal 10 percent of the next month’s sales. It is estimated that April’s actual ending inventory will consist of 40,000 ping pong tables. May and June sales are estimated to be 400,000 and 350,000 tables respectively. Compute the number of tables to be produced that would appear on GFI’s production budget for the month of May.

Good management includes good budgeting. Explain why the bottom-up approach to budgeting is considered a more successful management technique then a top down approach. Provide an example of implementation of the bottom-up approach to budgeting.

PART 4: Computer A has a book value of $1,500 and a current resale value of $800. The computer is needed to fulfill a client order, but if it's used on this project then its resale value will be zero. The project contract is valued at $5,000. $2,000 has already been spent on specialized software, which will be used on the project and which has no value for any other use. A printer costing $400 is needed for a separate project.

Comment on and determine the costs which are relevant to the decision regarding whether or not to commit to complete the project. Based upon the information at hand, determine whether this project is profitable. Show your calculations.

Submission:

The presentation must be submitted as a Microsoft Power Point presentation adhering to the instructions provided in the opening paragraph.

Assignment 1 Grading Criteria	Maximum Points
Part 1: Used the high low method to estimate the fixed and variable components of its maintenance cost.	36
Part 1: Explained how this would be an effective way to estimate these costs. Justified answer by explaining why this is an effective way.	36
Part 2: Forecasted the following costs about which production run to use, based upon a production run of (a) 52,000 units and (b) 57,000 units: · Total variable costs · Variable cost per unit · Total fixed cost · Fixed cost per unit	32
Part 3: Computed the number of tables to be produced that would appear on GFI’s production budget for the month of May.	32
Part 3: Explained why the bottom up approach to budgeting is considered a more successful management technique then a top down approach. Provided an example of implementation of the bottom up approach to budgeting.	36
Part 4: Discussed and determined the costs relevant for the project. Stated whether this project is profitable based upon the information at hand.	36
Part 4: Showed your cost calculation	28
Presentation Components: Organization (16) Style (16) usage and mechanics (24) APA elements (8)	64
Total:	300
Best judgment