Throughout this text, we have emphasized cost allocations only in the operating departments of a company. These operating departments perform the primary purpose of the company—to produce goods and services for consumers. Examples of operating departments are the assembly departments of manufacturing firms and the departments in hotels that take and confirm reservations. Show
The costs of service departments are allocated to the operating departments because they exist to support the operating departments. Examples of service departments are maintenance, administration, cafeterias, laundries, and receiving. Service departments aid multiple production departments at the same time, and accountants must allocate and account for all of these costs. It is crucial that these service department costs be allocated to the operating departments so that the costs of conducting business in the operating departments are clearly and accurately reflected. Accountants allocate service department costs using some type of base. When the companies’ managers choose bases to use, they consider such criteria as the types of services provided, the benefits received, and the fairness of the allocation method. Examples of bases used to allocate service department costs are number of employees, machine-hours, direct labor-hours, square footage, and electricity usage. There are three methods for allocating service department costs:
Next, we will look at each method. 60% found this document useful (10 votes) 28K views 35 pages Copyright© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC) Available FormatsDOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd Share this documentDid you find this document useful?60% found this document useful (10 votes) 28K views35 pages Chapter18.Allocation of Support Activity Costs and Joint CostsYou're Reading a Free Preview You're Reading a Free Preview You're Reading a Free Preview Chapter 18Responsibility Accounting and Transfer Pricing in Decentralized Organizations18–2174.The allocation of general overhead control costs to operating departments can beleastjustified in determininga.income of a product or functional unit.b.costs for making management’s decisions.c.costs of products sold.d.costs for government’s “cost-plus” contracts.ANSWER:bMEDIUM Use the following information for questions 75–84.Gates Co. has three production departments A, B, and C.Gates also has two servicedepartments, Administration and Personnel.Administration costs are allocated based on valueof assets employed, and Personnel costs are allocated based on number of employees.Assumethat Administration provides more service to the other departments than does the PersonnelDepartment.Dept.Direct CostsEmployeesAsset ValueAdmin.$900,00025$450,000Personnel350,00010600,000A700,00015300,000B200,0005150,000C250,00010800,000 What is the only method of allocating service department cost to producing departments that considers reciprocal services?Answer: D. Step-down method. The allocation of cost using the step-down process can be described as a sequential process.
Which method can be used to allocate service department costs to other departments?The sequential method (also known as the step-down method), allocates costs to operating departments and other service departments sequentially, but only in one direction.
Which service department allocation method provides reciprocal allocation of service costs as well as to the revenue production departments?The direct method of service department cost allocation allows a partial recognition of reciprocal relationships among service departments before assigning costs to revenue-producing areas.
What is reciprocal method of cost allocation?What is the Reciprocal Method? The reciprocal method uses simultaneous equations to allocate the costs incurred by service departments to other departments; allocations are also made between the service departments. This method results in an accurate distribution of costs.
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