5.1. Ash County's organizational structure includes one county manager and three deputy county managers. Each of the deputies oversees a handful of departments and provides human resource support and information technology support to each of those departments. Table 5.3 shows the data for the deputy county manager overseeing the public works departments (transportation, facilities, solid waste, and stormwater control). Allocate the cost of the deputy's organization based on full-time equivalent employees (FTEs).(a) What is the pool?(b) What is the base?(c) How much should be allocated to each department?

5.2. In the scenario in assignment 1, the deputy county manager wants the cost allocation to be redone using expenditures as the base. What are the new cost allocations?

5.3. In the scenario in assignment 1, the deputy county manager is still concerned with creating equity in the distribution of the costs of the organization. Additional information has been collected to increase the accuracy of the allocation. Each area under the supervision of the deputy county manager has tracked the time it spent providing services to each of the departments during the most recent month, as shown in Table 5.4. Use this additional information to produce a direct allocation for the deputy's organization.

5.4. The deputy county manager asks you to create a simple table showing the total cost allocation to each department using the three models you have developed. Prepare a one-page memo to the deputy county manager explaining the differences among the models, your recommended method, and why you recommend it.

5.5. Boomtown is preparing a cost analysis of three departments: Parks, Fire, and Water. To comply with accuracy standards in allocating indirect costs, Boomtown will employ the step-down method of cost allocation. There are two indirect cost groups that are allocated: city administration and facilities. Costs for facilities are allocated first, and then costs for city administration are allocated. Using the data in Table 5.5, prepare the cost allocation using direct cost as the base and determine the full cost of the departments.