Question

You have just been hired by FAB Corporation, the manufacturer of a revolutionary new garage door opening device. The president has asked that you review the company’s costing system and “do what you can to help us get better control of our manufacturing overhead costs.” You find that the company has never used a flexible budget, and you suggest that preparing such a budget would be an excellent first step in overhead planning and control.

After much effort and analysis, you determined the following cost formulas and gathered the following actual cost data for March:

	Cost Formula	Actual Cost in March
Utilities	$16,300 + $0.18 per machine-hour	$	20,980
Maintenance	$38,700 + $1.40 per machine-hour	$	54,900
Supplies	$0.80 per machine-hour	$	12,600
Indirect labor	$94,700 + $1.30 per machine-hour	$	116,400
Depreciation	$68,300	$	70,000

During March, the company worked 14,000 machine-hours and produced 8,000 units. The company had originally planned to work 16,000 machine-hours during March.

Required:

1. Calculate the activity variances for March.

2. Calculate the spending variances for March.

Answer 1

FAB Corporation
Flexible Budget
For the Month of March
	Flexible Budget	Planning Budget	Activity Variance
Machine-hours	14,000.00	16,000.00	2,000.00	F
Utilities	$18,820.00	$19,180.00	$360.00	F
	(16300+0.18*14000)	(16300+0.18*16000)
Maintenance	$58,300.00	$61,100.00	$2,800.00	F
	(38700+1.40*14000)	(38700+1.40*16000)
Supplies	$11,200.00	$12,800.00	$1,600.00	F
	(0.80*14000)	(0.80*16000)
Indirect labor	$112,900.00	$115,500.00	$2,600.00	F
	(94700+1.30*14000)	(94700+1.30*16000)
Depreciation	$68,300.00	$68,300.00	$0.00	None
Total	$269,520.00	$276,880.00	$7,360.00	F
FAB Corporation
Spending Variance Report
For the Month Ended March 31
	Actual Results	Spending Variance		Flexible Budget
Machine-hours	14000			14000
Utilities	$20,980.00	$2,040.00	U	$18,820.00
Maintenance	$54,900.00	$2,400.00	F	$58,300.00
Supplies	$12,600.00	$1,400.00	U	$11,200.00
Indirect labor	$116,400.00	$4,500.00	U	$112,900.00
Depreciation	$70,000.00	$1,700.00	U	$68,300.00
Total	$274,880.00	$7,240.00	U	$269,520.00