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Activity-Based Costing

CHAPTER 12
Activity-Based Costing
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Discuss the limitations of using only unit-based drivers to assign costs.

Provide a detailed description of activity-based product costing.
Describe how homogeneous cost pools can be used to reduce the number of activity rates.
Describe activity-based system concepts including an ABC relational database and ABC
software.

C H A P T E R S U M M A RY
This chapter explains how activity-based costing systems produce more accurate product cost
information than traditional costing systems that use unit-based drivers. Potential users of ABC
systems are those companies that produce multiple products, have high degree of product
diversity, and have a significant percentage of nonunit-level overhead costs. This chapter also
outlines the essential steps in designing an ABC system in order for it to be implemented
successfully. The chapter concludes by describing an ABC relational database and ABC software.

CHAPTER REVIEW
I.

Unit-Based Product Costing

A.

Learning Objective #1

Functional-based costing uses only unit-based drivers to assign overhead costs to

products.
a. Functional-based costing first assigns overhead costs to a functional unit, creating
plant or departmental cost pools. Next, these pooled costs are assigned to
products using only unit-based drivers.
b. Unit-based drivers are factors that cause changes in cost as the units
produced change.
Functional-based costing uses only unit-based drivers because it assumes that
overhead consumed by products is highly correlated with the units produced.
Review textbook Exhibit 12-1, which provides a model
of the functional-based product costing system.

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B.

Plantwide and Departmental Rates

1. Both plantwide rates and departmental rates are used to assign overhead costs to
products using unit-based cost drivers.
2. A plantwide rate uses a single cost pool for the entire plant.
3. Departmental rates use separate cost pools for the different departments.
Review textbook Exhibits 12-3 and 12-4, which show product unit cost
computations using plantwide rates and departmental rates, respectively.

C.

The Failure of Plantwide and Departmental Rates

Using plantwide or departmental rates to assign overhead costs will produce
inaccurate product costs when:
1. The proportion of nonunit-related overhead costs to total overhead costs is large
(e.g., reaching more than 40 or 50 percent of the total).
a. Using only unit-based activity drivers to assign nonunit-based costs can create
cost distortions.
b. Nonunit-related overhead costs refer to those costs that are unrelated to the
number of units produced but more logically relate to nonunit-based drivers.

Nonunit-based drivers are factors, other than the number of units

produced, that measure the demands that cost objects place on activities.
c. Examples:
(1) Setup costs relate to the number of batches of products produced.
(2) Product engineering costs
engineering work orders.

depend

on

the

number

of

different

(3) Material-moving costs relate to the number of moves required, not to

the number of units produced.
2. The degree of product diversity is great.
a. Product diversity means that products consume overhead activities in
different proportions because of their differences in product size, product
complexity, setup time, and size of batches.
b. The consumption ratio measures the proportion of each activity consumed by
a product.
D.

Potential users of ABC systems can be identified when these companies:

1. Produce multiple products,
2. Have a high degree of product diversity, and
3. Have a significant percentage of nonunit-level overhead in production costs.

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Review textbook Exhibit 12-5, which provides examples of

consumption ratios of various activities by different products.
Note that the special product (scented cards) uses
more setup and material-moving activities.

II.

Activity-Based Costing System

Learning Objective #2

A. An activity-based costing (ABC) system first assigns costs to activities and then
traces costs from activities to products.
1.

ABC assumes that activities consume resources, and products and

other cost objects consume activities.

2.

ABC cost assignment is made possible through the identification of

activities, their costs, and the use of cost drivers. Thus, it better reflects the pattern
of overhead consumption and is more accurate than functional-based costing.

Review textbook Exhibit 12-8, which provides an activity-based costing model.

B. Six essential steps in designing an ABC system include:
Step 1:

Identify, define, and classify activities and key attributes.

Step 2:

Assign the cost of resources to activities.

Step 3:

Assign the cost of secondary activities to primary activities.

Step 4:

Identify cost objects and specify the amount of each activity consumed
by specific cost objects.

Step 5:

Calculate primary activity rates.

Step 6:

Assign activity costs to cost objects.

Step 1:Identify, define, and classify activities and key attributes.

1. To identify an activity means to describe the work performed by people or
equipment.
a. Use an action verb and an object that receives the action to name the activity.
b. An activity inventory is a list of the activities that are performed within the
organization.
Review textbook Exhibit 12-10, which provides a sample
activity inventory for an electronics manufacturer.
2. To define an activity means to use activity attributes to describe it.
Activity attributes are nonfinancial and financial information items that
describe individual activities (for example, description of the tasks that make up

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the activity, resources consumed by the activity, amount or percentage of time

spent on the activity, the cost objects, and the activity driver.)
An activity dictionary lists the activities in an organization along with
desired attributes.
3. To classify an activity means to recognize the difference between it and other
activities for different purposes.
a. For product costing purposes, activities can be classified as primary or
secondary.
(1) A primary activity is consumed by a final cost object (e.g., a product or
customer).
(2) A secondary activity is consumed by intermediate cost objects (e.g.,
primary activities, materials, or other secondary activities).
b. Many other useful activity classifications exist. For example, activities can be
classified as value-added or nonvalue-added, as quality-related or
environmental-related.
4. Methods to be used to gather activity information include interviews, surveys, and
observations.
Review textbook Exhibit 12-11, which provides an example of an activity dictionary.
Note that the activity dictionary names the activity, describes
the tasks that make up the activity, classifies the activity as primary or
secondary, lists the cost object(s), and identifies the activity driver.
Step 2:Assign the cost of resources to activities.
1. Costs may be assigned to activities using:
a. Direct tracing, when resources are exclusive to the activity.
b. Driver tracing, when resources are shared by several activities.
2. Resource drivers are the factors that measure the consumption of resources by
activities.
a. Resource driver data can be collected using interviews, survey forms,
questionnaires, and timekeeping systems.
b. A work distribution matrix helps identify the amount of labor consumed by each
activity. It is a means of collecting the data required to assign labor resource
costs to activities.
Step 3:Assign the cost of secondary activities to primary activities.
If there are secondary activities, then the costs of those must be assigned to the primary
activities.
Review textbook Exhibit 12-13, which provides an example of the cost of a
secondary activity (supervising nurses) being reassigned to the primary activities.

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Compare the costs of the primary activities after the reassignment

(Exhibit 12-13) with those before the reassignment (Exhibit 12-12).
Step 4:Identify cost objects and specify the amount of each activity consumed by
specific cost objects.
1. Costs can be assigned to products or other cost objects in proportion to their
usage of the activity by:
a. Identifying the cost objects.
b. Measuring the demand that cost objects place on the activities.
2. Activity drivers measure the demands that cost objects place on activities.
3. Most ABC system designs choose between two types of activity drivers:
a. Transaction drivers measure the number of times an activity is performed.

Examples:Number of treatments, number of requests

b. Duration drivers measure the time it takes to perform an activity.

Duration drivers should be used when the time required to perform

an activity varies from transaction to transaction.

Examples:Hours of hygienic care, monitoring hours

4. A bill of activities can be created to specify the product, expected product quantity,
activities, and amount of each activity expected to be consumed by each product.
Review textbook Exhibit 12-14, which provides an example of a bill of activity for a
cardiology
ward. It includes activities, activity drivers, and types of services that consume activities.
Step 5:Calculate primary activity rates.
Primary activity rates are computed by dividing the budgeted activity costs by practical
activity capacity.
Step 6:Assign activity costs to cost objects.
Using the primary activity rates, costs are assigned to the cost objects.
Review textbook Exhibit 12-15, which illustrates the final assignment of costs to cost
objects.
C.

Materials as an Intermediate Cost Object

1. Material-related activities, such as purchasing, inspecting, and moving materials,
are secondary activities because they are not directly consumed by the final cost
objects.
2. The cost of material-related secondary activities will be first assigned to materials
(an intermediate cost object) and then to the final cost objects through direct tracing.
Learning Objective #3

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III.

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Homogeneous Pools of Activities

In the final stage of ABC, homogeneous cost pools can be used to reduce the number of
activity rates because fewer rates may
Produce more readable and manageable product cost reports.
Reduce the perceived complexity of an ABC system and increase its likelihood of
managerial acceptance.
Increase the accuracy of cost assignments.
A.

Activity Classification:The Key for Reducing the Number of Rates

1. Activities can be grouped in homogeneous sets if
a. They are logically related, and
b. They have the same consumption ratios for all products.
2. A homogenous cost pool is the collection of overhead costs associated with a set
of activities that has the same process, the same activity level, and can use the
same driver to assign cost to products.
The pool rate is the cost per unit of the chosen activity driver that can be
computed as:
Pool rate =

Homogeneous pool costs

Activity driver s practical capacity

3. Attributes that are useful for grouping activities into homogeneous cost pools
include process, activity-level, and activity-driver classifications.
a. Using process classification to create homogeneous cost pools.
(1) A process is a series of activities that are linked to perform a specific
objective.
(2) The key to grouping activities is the notion of sharing a common
objective or purpose.
(3) Example:The procurement process common objective is to obtain parts
for production. Activities that can be linked together include purchasing,
receiving, and paying suppliers.
Review textbook Exhibit 12-17, which illustrates process classification.
b. Using activity-level classification to create homogeneous cost pools.
(1) Activities can be grouped together if they are performed at the same
general activity level (same activity-level attribute).
(2) Classifying activities by the activity level helps management identify the
appropriate activity drivers because the costs of activities associated with
the different levels respond to different types of activity drivers.
(3) Four general activity categories include:
Unit-level activities are those that are performed each time a unit is
produced.

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Batch-level activities are those that are performed each time a batch
is produced.
Examples:Setup, inspections (if done by sampling units from a
batch), purchasing, material handling
Product-level activities are those performed that enable the various
products of a company to be produced.
Examples:Engineering changes to products, developing producttesting procedures, introducing new products, expediting goods
Facility-level activities are those that sustain a factorys general
manufacturing processes.
Examples:Providing facilities, maintaining grounds, providing plant
security
Review textbook Exhibit 12-18, which illustrates activity-level classification.
c. Using activity-driver classification to create homogeneous cost pools.
(1) The unit-level, batch-level, and product-level activities can be grouped
together if they have the same consumption ratio and share the same
activity driver.
(2) Facility-level activities do not undergo the driver classification because they
are common to a variety of products.
Review textbook Exhibit 12-19, which illustrates activity driver
classification and the formation of homogeneous cost pools.
B.

Comparison with Functional-Based Costing

1. In a functional-based system, the consumption of overhead is assumed to be
explained only by unit-level activity drivers.
This may not reflect the activities actually being consumed by the products.
Many of the costs being assigned in the functional-based fixed overhead
category are really batch-level, product-level, and facility-level costs that vary
with drivers other than unit-based drivers.
2. ABC systems recognize nonunit-based drivers and by better tracing costs to
individual products will:
Improve product costing accuracy and decision making.
Allow managers to exert more control over the activities that cause the costs.
Allow managers to identify which of the activities add value and which do
not.

IV.

ABC System Concepts

Learning Objective #4

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Advances in information technology facilitate the development of an ABC database and

ERP systems.
A.

An ABC database is the collected data sets that are organized and interrelated for
use by an organizations activity-based costing information system.
A data set is a grouping of logically related data.

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1. Creating an ABC database involves the following steps:

a. Define and model the entities that are involved in ABC.
b. Develop a conceptual view of the entities and the logical relationships between
the entities.
c. Identify the attributes associated with each entity.
d. Select a model that reflects the data structure implied by the entities and
attributes, such as relational structure.
A relational structure uses a table to represent the overall logical view
within a database.
ABC software typically uses a relational structure for data.
2. Activity relational table in an ABC database
a. The activity relational table provides important
homogeneous cost pools and calculate pool rates.

information

to

form

b. Each activity is identified by an activity number, which serves as the unique

primary key.
A primary key is the attribute that uniquely identifies each row of data in
the table, i.e., a record.
Review textbook Exhibit 12-20, which provides an example of an activity relational table.
3. Product relational table in an ABC database
a. The product relational table is used to assign costs to products based on the
activity demands specified in the table.
b. The product number or name that uniquely identifies each product is used as
the primary key.
c. The use of concatenated keys helps assign costs to individual products.
Concatenated keys are two or more keys that uniquely identify a record.
Example:The product number and activity driver number are both used to
assign costs to individual products.
Review textbook Exhibit 12-22, which provides an example of a product relational table.
B.

ABC and ERP Systems

1. ABC software selection is very important because:
It should have the features that correlate with the functional capabilities of a
firms ABC system design.
It should have at least three distinct modules: resources, activities, and cost
objects.
2. ABC software selection must consider the firms ERP systems because ABC and
ERP should be integrated so that they can exchange vital information.

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a. ERP systems are a major source of data for the ABC model by providing much
of the input data, including resource drivers, activity drivers, and resource
costs.
b. ABC supports the ERP system as the operational control system by:

Supplying accurate costs for products, customers, activities, and

processes.

Sending signals for directing continuous improvement efforts.

Providing key information to support tactical and strategic decisions.

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KEY TERMS TEST

From the list that follows, select the term that best completes each statement and write it in the
space provided.

ABC database
activity attributes
activity dictionary
activity drivers
activity inventory
activity-based costing system
batch-level activities
bill of activities
concatenated keys
consumption ratio
data set
duration drivers
facility-level activities
homogeneous cost pool

nonunit-based drivers
pool rate
primary activity
primary key
process
product diversity
product-level activities
relational structure
resource drivers
secondary activity
transaction drivers
unit-based drivers
unit-level activities

1. The costing system that first traces costs to activities and then traces costs from
activities to products is a(n) ____________________________________________.
2. ___________________________ provide descriptive labels for individual activities.
3. ____________________________________ are performed each time a batch is produced;
____________________________________ are performed to enable the production of
each different type of product.
4. __________________________________ are factors that cause changes in cost as the
units produced change; __________________________________ are factors other than
the number of units produced.
5. The listing of the activities performed within the organization is the ____________
_______________.
6. Factors that measure the demand placed on overhead activities by individual products are
called ________________________.
7. The data structure that uses a table to represent the logical connections of a database is
called a(n) ______________________________.
8. The proportion of an overhead
____________________ ________.

activity

consumed

by

product

is

9. A(n) ______________ is a grouping of logically related data.

10. Activities that are performed each time a unit is produced are __________________.
11. A(n) ___________ is a series of activities that are linked to perform a specific objective.

the

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12. If the collection of overhead costs associated with activities has the same process, the same
level, and can use the same driver to assign costs to products, it is a(n) ________
_____________________________________.
13. When products consume overhead in different proportions, there is _____________
_____________.
14. The collected data sets that are organized and interrelated for use by an organizations
activity-based costing information system is the _________________________.
15. The homogeneous pool costs divided by the activity drivers practical capacity is the
________________.
16. ____________________________
process.

sustain

facilitys

general

manufacturing

17. The attribute that uniquely identifies each row of data in a table is the
____________________ ________; two or more needed to uniquely identify a record are
____________________ ________.

M U LTI P L E - C H O I C E Q U I Z
Complete each of the following statements by circling the letter of the best answer.

1. The activities that are performed each time a batch is produced are:
a. batch-level activities.
b. facility-level activities.
c. process-level activities.
d. product-level activities.
e. unit-level activities.
2. In a functional-based cost accounting system, which of the following activity drivers is used
to assign fixed overhead costs to products?
a. batch-level activities
b. facility-level activities
c. process-level activities
d. product-level activities
e. unit-level activities

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257

3. In a pure ABC system, which of the following would not be assigned to products?
a. batch-level activities
b. facility-level activities
c. process-level activities
d. product-level activities
e. unit-level activities
4. Which of the following would be classified as a product-level activity?
a. plant management
b. production scheduling
c. engineering changes
d. material handling
e. machine hours
5. Which of the following would be classified as a batch-level activity?
a. plant management
b. process engineering
c. engineering changes
d. material handling
e. machine hours
6. Which of the following is a true statement?
a. If nonunit-based overhead costs are a large proportion of overhead costs, the use of
nonunit-based drivers will cause large distortions in product costs.
b. If nonunit-based overhead costs are a small proportion of overhead costs, the use of
nonunit-based drivers will cause large distortions in product costs.
c. Nonunit-based activity drivers are factors that are proportional to the number of
units produced.
d. If products consume the nonunit overhead activities in the same proportion as unit
overhead activities, using a traditional overhead assignment method will cause costs
to be distorted.
e. If products consume the nonunit overhead activities in the same proportion as unit
overhead activities, using a traditional overhead assignment method will not cause costs
to be distorted.
7. Consumption ratios are:
a. the activities performed every time a batch is produced.
b. the proportion of each activity consumed by a product.
c. necessary for unit-level activities but not for batch- or product-level activities.
d. factors that cause costs to change as the level of activities change.
e. none of the above.

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8. An activity-based costing system is one that:

a. traces costs to activities and then to products.
b. traces costs to resources and then to activities.
c. traces activities to costs and then to resources.
d. traces products to activities and then to resources.
e. uses a single plantwide rate for allocating overhead costs to products.
9. A homogeneous cost pool is one that:
a. does not change over time.
b. needs many activity drivers to be allocated to a cost object.
c. has only one type of material assigned to it.
d. can be explained with a single activity driver.
e. can be used only by the dairy industry.
10. Which of the following statements is incorrect regarding ABC and service industries?
a. Since service organizations do not have inventories, product costing (and thus ABC)
will not be necessary.
b. The output is more easily defined for a service organization than for a
manufacturing organization.
c. Activities in a service organization tend to be more standardized than activities in a
manufacturing organization.
d. Since the output of a service organization is consumed when produced, there will be no
batch-level activities.
e. None of the above statements are correct.
11. Inspection of the first unit produced is what type of activity?
a. batch-level
b. facility-level
c. process-level
d. product-level
e. unit-level
12. Extruding plastic parts is what type of activity?
a. batch-level
b. facility-level
c. process-level
d. product-level
e. unit-level

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PRACTICE TEST
EXERCISE 1
XYZ Company has identified the following overhead activities, costs, and activity drivers for the
coming year:
Activity

Material-handling costs.........
Machine costs.......................
Order costs...........................
Receiving costs.....................
Setup costs...........................

Expected Cost

$45,000
80,000
15,000
30,000
50,000

Activity Driver

Activity Capacity

Number of moves................
Machine hours.....................
Number of orders................
Number of parts..................
Number of setups................

450
20,000
750
50,000
250

Assume that each activity corresponds to a process. XYZs normal activity is 5,000 direct labor
hours. The following two jobs were completed during March:
Direct materials.....................................
Direct labor ($15 per hour)...................
Units completed....................................
Number of moves.................................
Machine hours......................................
Number of orders.................................
Number of parts....................................
Number of setups.................................

Job X-1

Job Y-4

$1,500
$750
200
3
125
3
200
1

$2,000
$750
200
6
75
12
800
4

Required:

1. Determine the unit cost for each job using direct labor hours to apply overhead.

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EXERCISE 1(Continued)
2. Determine the unit cost for each job using the activity drivers to apply overhead.

3. Which method produces the more accurate cost assignment? Why?

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Activity-Based Costing

EXERCISE 2
Required:

Classify the following activities as unit-level, batch-level, product-level, or facility-level.

1. Marketing a product
2. Paying rent
3. Drilling a hole
4. Lighting the factory
5. Running the machines
6. Moving a batch
7. Engineering a product
8. Inspecting a machined part when it is completed
9. Ordering a purchased part
10. Setting up a machine
11. Using janitorial services
12. Paying insurance

EXERCISE 3
Acme Enterprises is a custom manufacturer of specialty circuit boards. The boards are produced
in batches in a single manufacturing facility. Each board requires an engineer to prepare the
specifications and schematic drawings. Once this design is complete, the equipment is set up
for the batch production. As each batch is completed, a sample of the units is inspected for
quality and tolerances. Costs have been assigned as follows:
Engineering............................... $75,000
Setups....................................... 60,000
Labor......................................... 50,000
Inspection................................. 75,000
Factory lease............................ 30,000
Factory utilities.......................... 12,000
The following activity drivers have been identified and their capacities determined:
Activity Driver

Practical Capacity

Labor hours...............................
Setup hours..............................
Engineering hours.....................
Inspection hours........................
Machine hours..........................

5,000
2,000
2,500
6,000
10,000

The cost of the facility-level activities are assigned using machine hours.

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EXERCISE 3(Continued)
Required:

1. Identify each activity as unit-level, batch-level, product-level, or facility-level.

2. Create homogeneous cost pools. Identify the activities that belong to each pool and the
activity driver that will be used for computing pool rates. (Use machine hours as the activity
driver for the factory lease and factory utilities cost pools.)

3. Compute the pool rate for each pool you have identified in Requirement 2.

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Activity-Based Costing

EXERCISE 4
Alcatraz Company makes two models of an antitheft device. The portable model is relatively
small and is primarily for use in automobiles. The standard model is much larger and is
designed for houses and buildings. The Fabricating Department cuts, bends, and welds sheet
metal to produce the external box of the device. The box is also painted in this department. The
Assembly Department uses purchased parts to produce the internal workings and fits them into
the prepared metal boxes.
Alcatraz has conducted a special study to determine if an activity-based costing system would be
beneficial in determining the costs of the two products. The Fabricating Department is a more
complex department than the Assembly Department and has been chosen for a pilot test of an
ABC system. The following activities have been identified, along with their associated costs:
Depreciation.........................................
Factory lease........................................
Inspection.............................................
Factory maintenance............................
Materials handling................................
Power...................................................
Product engineering changes...............
Setups..................................................
Department manager salaries..............

$250,000
125,000
75,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
25,000
125,000
60,000

The analysts have identified the following potential activity drivers and the capacity of each:
Direct labor($10 per hour)...................
Machine hours......................................
Materials...............................................
Number of moves.................................
Number of products..............................
Number of setups.................................
Units produced.....................................

Portable

Standard

$75,000
4,000
$450,000
1,500
1
150
15,000

$90,000
6,000
$650,000
1,500
1
350
17,500

Required:

1. Classify each activity according to activity level and identify an appropriate driver for each.

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EXERCISE 4(Continued)
2. Create homogeneous cost pools and calculate pool rates. (Use the number of setups as the
activity driver for both inspection and setups costs. Machine hours serve as the activity driver
for depreciation, factory lease, factory maintenance, and department manager salaries.)

3. Use the pool rates to compute per unit overhead costs for the two products.

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C A N YOU ? C H E C K L I S T
Can you explain why functional-based costing systems may produce distorted costs?
Can you explain why departmental rates, although better than plantwide rates, may still be
inadequate?

Can you explain how product diversity can affect overhead costs?
Can you identify the signals that may indicate that functional-based costing is no longer
working?

Can you describe how an activity-based cost accounting system works? What are its
features?

Can you describe the differences between the various classifications or levels of activities
and give several examples of each?

Can you describe how a firms ABC and ERP systems should be integrated and supportive of
each other by exchanging vital information?

ANSWERS
KEY TERMS TEST
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

activity-based costing system

Activity attributes
Batch-level activities, product-level activities
Unit-based drivers, nonunit-based drivers
activity inventory
activity drivers
relational structure
consumption ratio
data set

10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.

unit-level activities
process
homogeneous cost pool
product diversity
ABC database
pool rate
Facility-level activities
primary key, concatenated keys

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MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUIZ
1. a
2. e
3. b

4. c
5. d
6. e

7. b
8. a
9. d

10. e
11. a
12. e

PRACTICE TEST
EXERCISE 1(XYZ Company)
1. Total overhead = $45,000 + $80,000 + $15,000 + $30,000 + $50,000 = $220,000 / 5,000 DL hours = $44 per DL
hour
Materials.....................
Labor...........................
Overhead....................
Total............................
Divided by units..........
Per unit........................

Job X-1
$1,500
750
2,200 (50 $44)
$4,450
200
$22.25

2. Materials handling
Machine time
Ordering
Receiving
Setup
Materials.....................
Direct labor..................
Moves..........................
Machine.......................
Orders.........................
Parts............................
Setups.........................
Total............................
Divided by units..........
Per unit........................

$45,000
$80,000
$15,000
$30,000
$50,000
Job X-1
$1,500
750
300
500
60
120
200
$3,430
200
$17.15

/
/
/
/
/

450
20,000
750
50,000
250

Job Y-4
$2,000
750
2,200 (50 $44)
$4,950
200
$24.75
=
=
=
=
=

$100 per move

$4 per machine hour
$20 per order
$0.60 per part
$200 per setup

(3 $100)
(125 $4)
(3 $20)
(200 $0.60)
(1 $200)

Job Y-4
$2,000
750
600
300
240
480
800
$5,170
200
$25.85

(6 $100)
(75 $4)
(12 $20)
(800 $0.60)
(4 $200)

3. Costs determined using the activity drivers are more accurate. The consumption ratios of the resources differ
greatly between the two products. The direct labor approach to apply overhead implicitly assumes the two products
consume the overhead resources in the same pattern as direct labor (50%-50%).

EXERCISE 2(Activity Classifications)

1. Marketing a product

product-level

2. Paying rent

facility-level

3. Drilling a hole

unit-level

4. Lighting the factory

facility-level

5. Running the machines

unit-level

6. Moving a batch

batch-level

7. Engineering a product

product-level

8. Inspecting a machined part when it is completed

unit-level

9. Ordering a purchased part

batch-level

10. Setting up a machine

batch-level

11. Using janitorial services

facility-level

12. Paying insurance

facility-level

EXERCISE 3(Acme Enterprises)

1. Engineering......................
Setups..............................
Labor................................
Inspection........................
Factory lease...................
Factory utilities................

Batch-level
Batch-level
Unit-level
Batch-level
Facility-level
Facility-level

2.3. At most, there will be five cost pools. It is possible that the three batch-level activities could be combined into a
single pool. If this were the case, the driver could be setup hours, engineering hours, or inspection hours.
Pool
1
2
3
4
5

Activity
Engineering
Setups
Inspection
Labor
Lease and utilities

Driver
Engineering hours
Setup hours
Inspection hours
Labor hours
Machine hours

Rate
$30.00
30.00
12.50
10.00
4.20

($75,000 / 2,500)
($60,000 / 2,000)
($75,000 / 6,000)
($50,000 / 5,000)
[($30,000 + $12,000) / 10,000]

EXERCISE 4(Alcatraz Company)

1.

Activity
Depreciation
Factory lease
Inspection
Factory maintenance
Materials handling
Power
Product engineering changes
Setups
Department manager salaries

2. Pool
1

Level
Facility
Facility
Batch
Facility
Batch
Unit
Product
Batch
Facility

Driver
Machine hours
Machine hours
Number of setups
Machine hours
Number of moves
Machine hours
Number of products
Number of setups
Machine hours

Activities
Inspection
Setups

Costs
$75,000
125,000
$200,000

Number of setups

500

$400.00

Materials handling

$100,000

Number of moves

3,000

$33.33

Product engineering changes

$ 25,000

Number of products

$12,500.00

Depreciation
Factory lease
Factory maintenance
Power
Department manager salaries

$250,000
125,000
150,000
50,000
60,000
$635,000

Machine hours

10,000

$63.50

3. Pool
Setups.........................
Moves..........................
Products......................
Machine hours............
Total............................
Divided by units..........
Per unit........................

Portable
$60,000
50,000*
12,500
254,000
$376,500
15,000
$25.10

Driver

(150 $400)
(1,500 $33.33)
(1 $12,500)
(4,000 $63.50)

*rounded

267

Standard
$140,000
50,000*
12,500
381,000
$583,500
17,500
$33.34

Quantity

(350 $400)
(1,500 $33.33)
(1 $12,500)
(6,000 $63.50)

Rate