Question

  The Personnel Department at Hernandez Bros. is centralized and provides services to the two operating units: Miami and New York. The Miami unit is the original unit of the company and is well established. The New York unit is new, much like a start-up company. The costs of the Personnel Department are allocated to each unit based on the number of employees in order to determine unit profitability. The current rate is $560 per employee. Data for the fiscal year just ended show the following:

	Miami		New York
Number of employees	1,260		360
Number of new hires	16		26
Number of employees departing	14		24

Orlando, the manager of the New York unit, is unhappy with the results of the controller’s study. He asks the controller to develop separate rates for fixed and variable costs in the Personnel Department. The controller reports back to Orlando that the rates would be as follows:

Allocation based on	Variable Rate				Fixed Rate				Total Rate
Employees	$	80	per employee		$	180	per employee		$	260	per employee
Transitions	$	2,060	per transition		$	4,015	per transition		$	6,075	per transition

Required:

a. Orlando argues that New York should only be allocated the variable costs from this system, because the company would have to pay the fixed costs even if New York did not exist. Compute the cost allocated to each unit using the approach Orlando prefers.

Answer 1

a) Allocation on new basis

	Miami	New York	Total Allocation
Routine (Employees)	$100,800 (1,260 * $80 per employee)	$ 28,800 (360* $80 per employee)	$129,600
Transition (New Hires and Departing)	$61,800 (30* $2,060)	$103,000 (50 * $2,060)	$164,800
Total Allocation	$162,600	$131,800	$294,400