Accounting Exam 1

Financial Vs. Managerial Accounting:
Reports are provided outside the organization to external investors and creditors.

Financial

Financial Vs. Managerial Accounting:
Reports past activities from a historical perspective

Financial

Financial Vs. Managerial Accounting:
Emphasizes reliability of data

Financial

Financial Vs. Managerial Accounting:
Summarizes data for the entire company as a whole

Financial

Financial Vs. Managerial Accounting:
Must follow GAAP which have specific required external reports

Financial

GAAP

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

Financial Vs. Managerial Accounting:
Provide reports for internal use only. There is no required format. Information based on management needs.

Managerial

Financial Vs. Managerial Accounting:
Relevance of data is emphasized over reliability

Managerial

Financial Vs. Managerial Accounting:
Focus on timeliness of information

Managerial

Financial Vs. Managerial Accounting:
Analysis is detailed and related to various parts of the organization such as departments or divisions and not for the organization as a whole

Managerial

Financial Vs. Managerial Accounting:
Reports do not follow formats required by GAAP. Common formats developed over the years and are typically used for analysis.

Managerial

General ledger

financial summary of all transactions of the company
relied on by both Financial and Managerial Accounting

organization chart

picture of the structure of responsibility and accountability in the organization
ex. pg. 11

service companies

paid to provide a service to companies and do not manufacture products
70% of all businesses are service companies

IMA

institute of management accountants
goal is to assist those working in managerial accounting positions to develop professionally
provides general guidelines and assistance for managerial accountants
sponsors CMA certification

CMA

certified managerial accountant
certification test sponsored by IMA

managerial accountants goal

provide information and analysis necessary to help management make decisions

projections

estimate that consist of a combination of many opinions of what is expected to occur in the future

standards for ethical conduct for practitioners of management accounting and financial management

IMA developed this code of ethics to assist accountant with making ethical decisions
summary pg. 10

cost

sacrifice of an economic resource
assets, inventory, expensed...

Product Costs - def

all costs required to make a product
DM (direct materials)
DL (direct labor)
OH (manufacturing overhead)

Product costs are recorded...

first as inventory and reported on the balance sheet until the product is sold

Products costs are "matched"...

to the sales revenue and reported on income statements as cost of goods sold when the product is sold
no expense is recorded when the cost initially occurs

Period Costs - definition

all costs incurred during the period to support the operations of the business, other than costs to make the product, are period costs

period costs are/are not related to making the product

period costs are NOT related to making the product

Examples of period costs

corporate HQ
selling the product
warehousing and shipping the product to customers

prime costs

DM and DL

conversion costs

DL and OH
(cost to take DM and convert them into a finished product)

direct costs

Costs that CAN be easily and conveniently traced to one product.
DM and DL

indirect costs

Costs that CAN NOT be easily and conveniently traced to one product.
OH and most period costs

DM

direct materials
become part of the finished product and are easy to track and determine how much is used to make one product
cost significant enough you want to keep track of what is used to make each product

indirect material

when the cost (or quantity) of material to make one product is not cost beneficial to determine, it is considered indirect material and is part of manufacturing overhead (OH)
low cost material that is part of the product or used to make the product that i

DL

direct labor
workers that TOUCH the product or operate machinery during production

indirect labor

ex. management and supervisors
manages the production process
in the plant, not "touching" the product

OH

manufacturing overhead
costs incurred at the manufacturing facility to make the product that are NOT DM or DL
cost of the facility and managing the production process
cost must be incurred AT the manufacturing facility
Key Words: factory, plant, manufactu

variable cost

changes in total in direct proportion to changes in volume (number of units)
per unit cost does not change
DM, DL, variable OH, sales costs you pay only when you sell a product - all variable costs

fixed cost

total cost does not change with changes in volume of activity (can be different than expected, but not due to changes in volume)
as long as you stay within the relevant range
cost per unit will change as volume changes

relevant range

range of activity (volume of units produced or sold) where the assumptions about cost behavior are valid

mixed costs (semi-variable)

contains both variable and fixed component
total fixed cost + total variable cost = total mixed cost
total variable cost (variable cost per activity x quantity of activity)
fixed = minimum cost of having a service ready and available for use
variable = co

opportunity cost

potential benefit given up when one alternative is selected over another alternative as an opportunity cost
not recorded or reported because they do no actually occur
"cost" is the benefit not received
ex. opportunity cost of going to college is the amoun

sunk cost

cost that is already paid and can not be recovered by a decision made now or in the future is a sunk cost
ex. tuition for this semester that is already paid that will not be refunded if the class is dropped

committed cost

investments in facilities and equipment used in day to day operations are committed costs
must be incurred or the company cannot operate
1) long-term in nature, difficult to change once a commitment has been made
2)can not be significantly reduced without

discretionary cost

management can decide whether to spend in certain areas for certain things
costs can be eliminated for short periods of time without changing the long-term goals of the company
ex. training, replacing office furniture, travel

step cost

increases incrementally as more units are made or sold
considered to be a variable cost by companies that do not use a method to separate the fixed and variable part of cost and only classify costs as variable or fixed

cost sheet

provides an estimated detail of what is required to make one product or provide one unit of service
included:
direct material that become part of the product
direct labor making the product
all other costs incurred at the manufacturing facility (OH) to ma

Direct Material - on cost sheet

The cost sheet provides the following ESTIMATES related to one product or service:
the different types of DM required
the quantity of each type of DM required
the cost for one quantity of each DM required

Direct Labor - on cost sheet

The cost sheet provides the following ESTIMATES related to one product or service:
the different types of DL required
the quantity of hours required for each DL type
the cost per hour paid for each type of DL

Manufacturing Over head - on cost sheet

The cost sheet provides the following ESTIMATES related to one product or service:
the activity the company does that causes the company to spend the majority of manufacturing overhead costs
the quantity of the activity required to make one product
the av

How does the cost sheet state the quantity and cost for each different type of product cost?

quantity required x cost for 1 quantity = total cost for each

standard

the estimate of what is required to make the product
amount you expect to pay and the quantity you expect to use to make one produce
"standard" is "per each

quantity standard

how much is expected to be used to make one product

cost (price) standard

how much is expected to be paid for one quantity

two most common types of standards

ideal and practical

ideal standards

can be attained only under ideal/perfect circumstances

practical standards

are "tight" but attainable (allow for normal downtime and waste)

pre-determined overhead rate

used to estimate the amount of manufacturing OH cost to allocate to each (one) product
managerial accountant determines the production activity that causes the company to incur the majority of manufacturing OH costs and this activity is used to allocate m

allocate manufacturing OH - allocate the cost on a per unit basis

easiest, most straight forward
total manufacturing OH $ / # total units made = total MOH cost per unit
acceptable method to use IF all products made by the company required the same amount of MOH costs to make each and every product

when is it not the case that all products made by the company required the same amount of MOH costs to make each and every product?

all products are not made using the same steps of production
all products are not the same size
all products do not required the exact amount of time to manufacture
differing amounts of space and supervision are required to make products

cost sheet usage

determine the quantity of DM to purchase
determine how many employees with different skill levels must be hired
value inventory (units on hand x cost per unit = $ value of inventory)
price the product
monitor the efficiency of DL
monitor the cost of mater

contribution margin

difference between total revenues and total variable costs
amount available to "contribute" towards covering fixed costs
once fixed costs are covered, contribution margin adds to profits

contribution margin per unit

difference between the sales price per unit and all variable costs per unit
amount operating income increases when one more unit is sold and decreases when one less unit is sold

contribution margin ratio/percentage

gives the amount (in cents) of every sales dollar that is added to operating incomes when sales dollars decrease

contribution margin income statement

aka a variable cost income statement
used to determine how operating income is expected to change as sales change

break even

occurs when operating profit equals $0, which occurs when total contribution margin is equal to total fixed costs
any sales above the break-even point will result in profit

margin of safety

estimates the amount sales can decrease for a profitable company before the company is no longer profitable
for unprofitable company, it estimates how much sales must increase before the company becomes profitable
often computed in both number of units so

operating leverage

used to estimate how much operating income will change when total sales dollars change

operating leverage factor

absolute value and always a positive number
always multiplied by the % change and is never multiplied by a dollar amount

flexible budget

used by management to determine total estimated sales, costs, and profits at various sales levels

variance

difference in actual and budget at the same volume