To: Main Street Books and Café Management Team<br>From: Cost Analyst<br>Re: Costing System<br>The current accounting system allocates indirect costs (S,G, & A) to product lines based on the Cost of Merchandise sold. Using this method, the S, G, & A costs are assigned 54%, 35%, 11%, to the Books, CDs, and Café product lines, respectively.<br>I recommend that the organization switch to an activity-based costing (ABC) method. With ABC, the product lines are assigned indirect costs based on their consumption of the activities that give rise to the costs. An ABC analysis reveals that the Café consumes considerably more than 11% of indirect costs. Instead, the café generally requires 2535% of the purchasing, receiving, and stocking activity and 60% of the customer support.<br>The current accounting technique masks the losses being produced by the café because it assumes all indirect costs are driven by the dollar amount of merchandise sold. By adopting ABC, management can evaluate the costs of operating the three product lines and make more informed pricing and product mix decisions. For example, management may want to consider increasing prices of the food and drinks served in the café. Before deciding whether to increase prices or to close the café, management must consider the beneficial effect that having a cafe has on the other product lines.
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