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Hull Test Laboratories does heat testing $($HT$)$ and stress testing $($ST$)$ on materials and operates at capacity. Under its current simple costing system, Hull aggregates all operating costs of $$1,275,000$ into a single overhead cost pool. Hull calculates a rate per test$-$hour of total test$-$hours$).$ HT uses $60,000$ test$-$hours, and ST uses $25,000$ test$-$hours. Gary Celeste, Hull's controller, believes that there is enough variation in test procedures and cost structures to establish separate costing and billing rates for HT and ST$.$ The market for test services becoming competitive. Without this information, any miscosting and mispricing of its services could cause Hull to lose business. Celeste divides Hull's costs into four activity$-$cost categories.

$($Click the icon to view the activity$-$cost categories.$)$

Read the requirements.

Requirements

Classify each activity cost as output unit$-$level, batch$-$level, productor service$-$sustaining, or facility$-$sustaining. Explain each answer.

Calculate the cost per test$-$hour for HT and ST$.$ Explain briefly the reasons why these numbers differ from the $$15$ per test$-$hour that Hull calculated using its simple costing system.

Explain the accuracy of the product costs calculated using the simple costing system and the ABC system. How might Hull's management use the cost hierarchy and ABC information to better manage its business?

Data table

a$.$ Direct$-$labor costs, $$418,000.$ These costs can be directly traced to $HT,$$$360,000,$ and ST$,$ $$58,000.$

b$.$ Equipment$-$related costs $($rent$,$ maintenance, energy, and so on$),$ $$340,000.$ These costs are allocated to HT and ST on the basis of test$-$hours.

c$.$ Setup costs, $$396,000.$ These costs are allocated to HT and ST on the basis of the number of setup$-$hours required. HT requires $11,500$ setup$-$hours, and ST requires $5,000$ setup$-$hours.

d$.$ Costs of designing tests, $$270,000.$ These costs are allocated to $HT$ and ST on the basis of the time required for designing the tests. HT requires $2,500$ hours, and ST requires $2,500$ hours.