Picard Landscaping plants grass seed as the basic landscaping for business campuses. During a recent month, the company worked on three projects (Remington, Chang, and Wyco). The company is interested in controlling the materials costs, namely the grass seed, for these plantings projects.

In order to provide management with useful cost control information, the company uses standard costs and prepares monthly variance reports. Analysis reveals that the purchasing agent mistakenly purchased poor-quality seed for the Remington project. The Chang project, however, received higher-than-standard-quality seed that was on sale. The Wyco project received standard-quality seed. However, the price had increased and a new employee was used to spread the seed.

Shown below are quantity and cost data for each project.

Instructions
(a) Prepare a variance report for the purchasing department with the following columns: (1) Project, (2) Actual Pounds Purchased, (3) Actual Price, (4) Standard Price, (5) Price Variance, and (6) Explanation.
(b) Prepare a variance report for the production department with the following columns: (1) Project, (2) Actual Pounds, (3) Standard Pounds, (4) Standard Price, (5) Quantity Variance, and (6)Explanation.

Actual Standard Costs Remington 500 lbs. $1,200 460 lbs. $1,150 1,025 1,200 Total Variance $ 50 U 105 F 230 U $175 U Project Quantity Costs Quantity Chang Wyco 920 410 1,430 480 550 Total variance