Cost Accounting (14th Edition)

NORMAL COSTING 109
INDIRECT-COST
POOL
All Manufacturing
Overhead Costs
$1,120,000
Exhibit 4-4
Job-Costing Overview
for Determining
Manufacturing Costs of
Jobs at Robinson
Company
COST-ALLOCATION
BASE
28,000
Direct
Manufacturing
Labor-Hours
$40 per
direct manufacturing
labor-hour
COST OBJECT:
SPECIALIZED
MACHINERY
Allocated Manufacturing Overhead Costs
Direct Costs
DIRECT COSTS
Direct
Materials
Direct
Manufacturing
Labor
cost, a rectangle represents the indirect-cost pool, and an octagon describes the costallocation
base.) Note the parallel between the overview diagram and the cost of the
WPP 298 job described in Step 7. Exhibit 4-4 shows two direct-cost categories (direct
materials and direct manufacturing labor) and one indirect-cost category (manufacturing
overhead) used to allocate indirect costs. The costs in Step 7 also have three dollar amounts,
each corresponding respectively to the two direct-cost and one indirect-cost categories.
Decision
Point
How do you
implement a normalcosting
system?
The Role of Technology
To improve the efficiency of their operations, managers use costing information about
products and jobs to control materials, labor, and overhead costs. Modern information
technology provides managers with quick and accurate product-cost information, making
it easier to manage and control jobs. For example, in many costing systems, source
documents exist only in the form of computer records. Bar coding and other forms of
online information recording reduce human intervention and improve the accuracy of
materials and labor time records for individual jobs.
Consider, for example, direct materials charged to jobs for product-costing purposes.
Managers control these costs as materials are purchased and used. Using Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) technology, companies like Robinson order materials from their suppliers
by clicking a few keys on a computer keyboard. EDI, an electronic computer link
between a company and its suppliers, ensures that the order is transmitted quickly and
accurately with minimum paperwork and costs. A bar code scanner records the receipt of
incoming materials. The computer matches the receipt with the order, prints out a check
to the supplier, and records the material received. When an operator on the production
floor transmits a request for materials via a computer terminal, the computer prepares a
materials-requisition record, instantly recording the issue of materials in the materials and
job-cost records. Each day, the computer sums the materials-requisition records charged
to a particular job or manufacturing department. A performance report is then prepared