At a recent board meeting of the Grayson Manufacturing Company, several individuals in attendance expressed concern that they could not understand how the choice of an activity level for determining overhead application rates for the company could affect reported operating profits. The controller, Susanna Wu, who attended the meeting told members of the board that, in fact, companies have some latitude in how overhead application rates are set. For example, she told the board that companies can spread budgeted fixed overhead for the period over budgeted (forecasted) activity, over normal capacity, practical capacity, or even theoretical (maximum) capacity. All of this didn’t resonate well with members of the board who basically saw the discussion as just another example of how accounting can be used to “manage income” (i.e., “cook the books”). The chair of the finance committee of the board asked Susanna to generate a concise report that would illustrate, in concrete terms, the issues involved. In turn, you have been asked to prepare this report, which will be distributed to attendees at the next meeting of the finance committee. These committee members are adept at using spreadsheets and therefore have requested that your report be distributed to them electronically. Based on your subsequent discussions with the controller, you come up with the following information that is pertinent to your task:

Sales Data:
Units sold			11,500
Units selling price			$100.00
Variable Manufacturing Costs			$60.25	per unit
Budgeted Fixed Overhead =			$350,000
Beginning Inventory			$0
Beginning Inventory			0	units
Operating Costs:
Variable (per unit sold) =			$4.95
Fixed (per year)			$65,000
Capacity levels in machine hours):
Theoretical Capacity			30,000	hours
Practical Capacity			27,000	hours
Normal Capacity			25,000	hours
Budgeted Usage			24,000	hours
Number of units produced during the year =					12,250
Standard No. of machine hours per unit produced =					2

Required

1. Develop an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the amount of the production-volume variance under each of the following denominator activity levels that can be used to set the fixed overhead allocation rate:

(a) theoretical capacity; (b) practical capacity; (c) normal capacity; and (d) budgeted capacity usage.

2. Determine the end-of-year balance in the Finished Goods Inventory account (at standard manufacturing cost) under each of the following denominator activity levels for establishing the fixed overhead allocation rate: (a) theoretical capacity; (b) practical capacity; (c) normal capacity; and, (d) budgeted capacity usage.

3. Assume that the practice of the company at the end of the year is to close any standard cost variances to cost of goods sold (CGS). What is the amount of operating profit that would be reported for each of the following choices for defining the denominator activity level for purposes of calculating the fixed overhead allocation rate: (a) theoretical capacity; (b) practical capacity; (c) normal capacity; and, (d) budgeted capacity usage?

4. What conclusions can be drawn based on the preceding analyses you conducted? That is, what is the bottom-line information you would like to convey to members of the finance committee?

5. How does GAAP regarding inventory costing (i.e., FASB ASC 330-10-30, previously SFAS No. 151) affect the decision as to how the production-volume variance (also known as the idle-capacity variance) is handled at the end of a period?