1. How is the material standard developed? Why are the quantities shown in the bill of materials not always the same quantities should in the standard cost card?
2. The overhead spending and overhead efficiency variances are said to be controllable, but the volume variance is said to be non-controllable. Explain.
3. How are insignificant variances closed at the end of an accounting period? How are significant variances closed at the end of an accounting period? Why is there a difference in treatment?
4. Why do managers care about capacity utilization? Are managers controlling costs when they control utilization?
5. Distinguish between a strategic plan and a tactical plan. How are these plans related?
6. After a master budget has been prepared, what is its role in managerial control?
7. Differentiate between the operating and financial budgets that are contained in a master budget. Why are both types needed?
8. Discuss the sequence in which major components of the master budget are prepared. Why is it necessary to prepare the components in such a sequence?
9. The cash budget and the budgeted statement of cash flows both provide information about cash. What information about cash is common to these two sources, and what information is unique to these two sources?
10. Why is continuous (rolling) budgeting becoming more popular than it was in the past for organizational managers?
11. Appendix- Why is it helpful for a company to prepare a budget manual?
12. Why is CVP analysis generally used as a short run tool? Would CVP ever be appropriate as a long run model?
13. Define and explain the relationship between margin of safety and degree of operating leverage.
14. (break-even point) Llano Lamps has the following revenue and cost functions:
i. Revenue = $70 per unit
ii. Cost = $90,000 + $40 per unit
A. What is the break-even point in units?
B. What is the break-even point in dollars?
15. What does the term relevance mean in the context of making management decisions?
The term relevance represents the relevant cost that is associated with the management decisions. It may be relevant to one management decision but not to the others. So they are the particular, specified costs.
16. What are opportunity costs, and why are they often the most difficult cost to analyze in decision making?
17. What is outsourcing? Why the practice is fervently debated in the United States?
18. (Relevant Costs) Assume that you are about to graduate from your university and are deciding whether to apply for graduate school or enter the job market. To Help make the decision, you have gathered the following data:
19. By what criteria would management determine whether to proceed with processing at each decision point in a joint production process?
20. Compare the advantages & disadvantages of the two primary methods used to allocate joint cost to joint products.
21. Which of the two common approaches used to account for by product/scrap provides better information to management? Discuss the rationale for your answer.
22. (By-product and cost allocation) Georgia fresh raises peaches that, at harvest, are separated into three grades: premium, good and fair. Joint cost is allocated to products based on bushels of output. The $337,500 joint cost for one harvest yielded the following output
23. Why does a cost management system necessarily have both a short and long term focus?
24. Why is it not possible simply to take a cost management system "off the shelf"?
25. How could an organization's culture be used as a control mechanism?
26. How does a product's life cycle stage influence the nature of information required to successfully manage costs of that product?
27. In the present highly competitive environment, why has cost management risen to such a high level of concern, where as price management has declined in importance?
28. How strategic planning is related to budgeting?
29. What is cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis and how do companies use CVP information in decision making? Explain
30. Why are responsibility reports prepared? Is it appropriate for a single responsibility report to be prepared for a division of a major company? Why or Why not?
31. What is business process reengineering? Does it lead to radical or modest changes in business practices? Discuss.
32. What is business process reengineering? Does it lead to radical or modest changes in business practices? Discuss.