A major company sells a range of electrical, clothing and homeware products through a chain of department stores. The main administration functions are provided from the company's head office. Each department store has its own warehouse which receives goods that are delivered from a central distribution center.
The company currently measures profitability by product group for each store using an absorption costing system. All overhead costs are charged to product groups based on sales revenue. Overhead costs account for approximately one-third of total costs and the directors are concerned about the arbitrary nature of the current method used to charge these costs to product groups.
A consultant has been appointed to analyses the activities that are undertaken in the department stores and to establish an activity based costing system.
The consultant has identified the following data for the latest period for each of the product groups for the X Town store:

Calculate the total profit for each of the product groups:
.... using the current absorption costing system;

• A. The profit or loss in $ was.... Clothing 85; Electrical 36; Homeware (28)
• B. The profit or loss in $ was.... Clothing 122; Electrical 56; Homeware (178)
• C. The profit or loss in $ was.... Clothing 192; Electrical (56); Homeware 148
• D. The profit or loss in $ was.... Clothing (175); Electrical 86; Homeware 22

A flexible budget is a budget that is:

• A. set prior to the control period and not subsequently changed in response to changes in activity period has expired
• B. continuously updated by adding a further accounting period when the earliest accounting period has expired
• C. changed in response to changes in costs
• D. changed in response to changes in the level of activity

A marketing manager is trying to decide which of four potential selling prices to charge for a new product. The state of the economy is uncertain and may show signs of recession, growth or boom. The manager has prepared a regret matrix showing the regret for each of the possible outcomes depending on the decision made.

If the manager applies the minimax regret criterion to make decisions, which selling price would be chosen?

• A. $40
• B. $50
• C. $45
• D. $55

A company produces trays of pre-prepared meals that are sold to restaurants and food retailers. Three varieties of meals are sold: economy, premium and deluxe.


Discuss the benefits of flexible budgeting for planning and control purposes.
Select all the true statements.

• A. The fixed budget however provides more insight into actual performance.
• B. Reporting against a fixed budget tells management nothing about the efficiency of operations.
• C. A fixed budget will provide meaningful control information when actual activity differs from budget and variable costs are significant.
• D. If a flexible budget is prepared then the budget variances calculated will provide a better indication of performance since actual results will be compared against an appropriate benchmark.
• E. If actual sales revenue is compared to a fixed budget it is possible to tell whether a favourable sales variance is due to an increase in units sold or an increase in sales price.
• F. If sales volumes were well above budget, adverse variable cost variances will probably be reported, against the fixed budget, since more variable costs have to be incurred to support the higher level of activity.

TP makes wedding cakes that are sold to specialist retail outlets which decorate the cakes according to the customers' specific requirements. The standard cost per unit of its most popular cake is as follows:

The general market prices at the time of purchase for Ingredient A and Ingredient B were $23 per kg and $20 per kg respectively.
TP operates a JIT purchasing system for ingredients and a JIT production system; therefore, there was no inventory during the period.
Prepare a statement which reconciles the flexed budget material cost and the actual material cost. Your statement should include the material price planning variances, and the operational variances including material price, material mix and material yield.
What was the material price planning variance for ingredient A?

• A. The Material price planning variance - Ingredient A was $72 000 F
• B. The Material price planning variance - Ingredient A was $75 000 F
• C. The Material price planning variance - Ingredient A was $71 000 F
• D. The Material price planning variance - Ingredient A was $73 000 F