Traditional costing system

1. Calculate cost per unit of the two models of sewing machines under the current traditional costing system.

2. Calculate cost per unit of the two models of sewing machines under Activity based Costing.

3. Sewing easy sells the advance model at a price of cost (under the current costing system) plus 20% and is willing to give the same selling price to the overseas buyer. The overseas buyer wants to purchase only the advance model. Prepare December 2017 Profit and Loss Statement for the advance model where (a) traditional costing is used to calculate the product cost (b) Activity Based Costing is used to calculate the product cost. Analyse why the overseas buyer is interested to buy only the advance model. In your discussion you should highlight the importance of accurate product costing.

4. Seldom will we see that the actual overhead and applied overhead is the same. Discuss why and state three ways to deal with under/over applied overhead costs.

5. What are the main benefits and limitations of ABC system?

The company has been using tradition costing system under which cost allocation is not done in a proper manner. The price of the advance model charged by the company is $1230, whereas if the company would have adopted ABC costing they would have charged $1285 per unit. The overseas buyer has noticed this lower price for the given company and is interested in advance model only. Since some portion of expense of advance model has been transferred to basic model, the price of that has increased from $627 to $678. This means that the basic model is overpriced and advance model is under price. This is reason because of which the overseas buyer is interested only in the advance model and not in the basic model or both.

In order to pre determine the unit cost for the manufacturing companies, the managers evaluate and budget the expenses which are likely to be expended in the production process. These expenses are then allocated over the units produced to determine the cost per unit. Based on this data the amount is recovered from the customers (Holtzman, 2013). When the production cycle starts and actual expenses start to incur, then it is found that there are variances between the budgeted and actual rates. Due to this difference the under and over recovery of overheads takes place. No treatment is required if the applied and actual overhead are same. This can be possible only when the budgeted expenses are equal to the actual expenses.

This under and over recovery are to be treated in the books of accounts. There are three common ways in which these are treated. They are as follows:

• Carrying forward the said amount: many companies follow the rule to carry forward the under or over recovered amount to the next financial year. The adjustments are made in the following year and then the balance is carried forward to the next year.
• Writing off in profit and loss account: the simplest ways to treat under or over recovery is to write off the amount in the profit and loss statement for that year.
• Adjustment in the current year with existing units: this is the least commonly used ways. Under this system the under or over recovered amount is adjusted over the remaining units unsold. This is unrealistic as it increases the price of the products.

Therefore, companies can treat under and over recovery of overheads in the manner which is most suitable to them.

Activity based cost, as the name suggest is the type of costing technique under which the cost are allocated based on the activities consumed by the product. This modern costing technique which helps is better allocation of cost, so that correct costing for a product can be done. This system has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are:

• Since the ABC costing requires the cost data to be collected at one place, it gives the mangers a pool of data to work and analyse on. They can process this data and make important decisions.
• Since this system helps allocate cost as per usage, this helps eradicate the system of over and under absorption of expenses. This helps in better recovery and accountability of cast data.
• Just as discussed above, some products are wrongly overpriced while using averages for cost apportionment. This approach helps remove this uneven distribution and helps in correct pricing of the product
• The data collected is too much in this approach, using this data the managers can implement policies which may help them in cost saving techniques. It may also help unnecessary costs.(Menifield, 2014)

These were the advantages. Following are the few disadvantages of activity based costing:

• In order to implement the ABC approach, too much data collection is required which requires extensive labour and time
• This approach may result to be expensive for small manufacturing companies.
• Since this system is most suited to manufacturing units, the service industry do not benefit from them.
• Since the activities are the cost drivers under this approach it is important for the managers to understand the organisational processes properly. This involved too much man power.
• It is very time consuming process.

Therefore we see that the activity based costing has both advantages and disadvantages. The companies should try to make of the system by overcoming the disadvantages. It is important that the enterprises apply the system only if it would help them simplify the processes and not the opposite.

Holtzman, M. (2013). Managerial Accounting For Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Menifield, C. E. (2014). The Basics of Public Budgeting and Financial Management: A Handbook for Academics and Practitioners. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America.