Several years ago, Shipley Corporation developed a comprehensive budgeting system for profit planning and control purposes. While departmental supervisors have been happy with the system, the factory manager has expressed considerable dissatisfaction with the information being generated by the system.
A typical departmental cost report for a recent period follows:
| Assembly Department | ||||
| Cost Report | ||||
| For the Month Ended March 31 | ||||
| Planning Budget | Actual Results | Variances | ||
| Machine-hours | 34,000 | 29,000 | ||
| Variable costs: | ||||
| Supplies | 6,800 | 6,200 | 600 | F |
| Scrap | 13,600 | 12,600 | 1,000 | F |
| Indirect materials | 56,100 | 50,600 | 5,500 | F |
| Fixed costs: | ||||
| Wages and salaries | 50,000 | 51,900 | 1,900 | U |
| Equipment depreciation | 86,000 | 86,000 | – | |
| Total cost | 212,500 | 207,300 | 5,200 | F |
After receiving a copy of this cost report, the supervisor of the Assembly Department stated, “These reports are super. It makes me feel really good to see how well things are going in my department. I can’t understand why those people upstairs complain so much about the reports.”
For the last several years, the company’s marketing department has chronically failed to meet the sales goals expressed in the company’s monthly budgets.
The company’s president is uneasy about the cost reports, what can be the reason?
a. Cost reports are effective as budgeted costs at one level of activity are compared to actual costs at another level of activity.
b. Cost reports are ineffective as budgeted costs at one level of activity are compared to actual costs at another level of activity.
c. Cost reports show whether fixed costs and variable costs are controlled.
d. Cost reports show whether fixed costs are controlled and do not show whether variable costs are controlled.
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