1. What is activity-based management and how can it be used to improve the profitability of a company? 2. How can the need for a more refined costing system be identified? 3. Do activity-based costing systems always provide more accurate product costs than conventional cost systems? Why or why not? 4. How are cost drivers selected in activity-based costing systems? 5. Scenario: Hammond and Jarrett provide tax consulting for estates and trusts. Their job-costing system has a single direct-cost category (professional labor) and a single indirect-cost pool (research support). The indirect-cost pool contains all the costs except direct personnel costs. All budgeted indirect costs are allocated to individual jobs using actual professional labor-hours. Question 1: Discuss the reasons a consulting firm might use a normal costing system rather than an actual costing system. Question 2: What might be some reasons for the firm to change from a one-pool to a multiple-pool allocation concept