Question: This is really an odd situation, said Jim Carter, general manager of Highland Publishing Company. We get most of the jobs we bid on that

This is really an odd situation, said Jim Carter, general manager of Highland Publishing Company. We get most of the jobs we bid on that require a lot of press time in the Printing Department, yet profits on those jobs are never as high as they ought to be. On the other hand, we lose most of the jobs we bid on that require a lot of time in the Binding Department. I would be inclined to think that the problem is with our overhead rates, but were already computing separate overhead rates for each department. So what else could be wrong?

Highland Publishing Company is a large organization that offers a variety of printing and binding work. The Printing and Binding departments are supported by three service departments. The costs of these service departments are allocated to other departments in the order listed below (For each service department, use the allocation base that provides the best measure of service provided, as discussed in the chapter.)

Department Total Labor-Hours Square Feet of Space Occupied Number of Employees Machine- Hours Direct Labor- Hours
Personnel 16,800 12,300 28
Custodial Services 8,000 3,500 48
Maintenance 14,800 10,400 61
Printing 30,600 40,600 108 165,000 15,000
Binding 102,000 20,300 310 50,000 73,000
172,200 87,100 555 215,000 88,000

Budgeted overhead costs in each department for the current year are shown below:

Personnel $ 300,000
Custodial Services 65,700
Maintenance 93,800
Printing 415,000
Binding 162,000
Total budgeted cost $ 1,036,500

Because of its simplicity, the company has always used the direct method to allocate service department costs to the two operating departments.

Required:
1.

Using the step-down method, allocate the service department costs to the consuming departments. Then compute predetermined overhead rates for the current year using machine-hours as the allocation base in the Printing Department and direct labor-hours as the allocation base in the Binding Department.(Please enter allocations from a department as negative and allocations to a department as positive. The line should add across to zero. Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answers to the nearest dollar amount.)

2.

Repeat (1) above, this time using the direct method. Again compute predetermined overhead rates in the the Printing and Binding departments. (Please enter allocations from a department as negative and allocations to a department as positive. The line should add across to zero. Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answers to the nearest dollar amount.)

3.

Assume that during the current year the company bids on a job that requires machine and labor time as follows:

Machine-Hours Direct Labor-Hours
Printing Department 2,200 1,300
Binding Department 500 13,700
Total hours 2,700 15,000

a.

Determine the amount of overhead that would be assigned to the job if the company uses the overhead rates developed in (1) step-down method and (2) direct method. (Round your intermediate calculation to 2 decimal places and round your answers to the nearest dollar amount.)

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