P 5–6: Metal Press Your firm uses return on assets (ROA) to evaluate investment centers and is considering changing the valuation basis of assets from historical cost to current value. When the historical cost of the asset is updated, a price index is used to approximate replacement value. For example, a metal fabrication press, which bends and shapes metal, was bought seven years ago for $522,000. The company will add 19 percent to this cost, representing the change in the wholesale price index over the seven years. This new, higher cost figure is depreciated using the straight-line method over the same 12-year assumed life (no salvage value).
Required:
a. Calculate depreciation expense and book value of the metal press under both historical cost and price-level-adjusted historical cost.
b. In general, what is the effect on ROA of changing valuation bases from historical cost to current values?
c. The manager of the investment center with the metal press is considering replacing it because it is becoming obsolete. Will the manager’s incentives to replace the metal press change if the firm shifts from historical cost valuation to the proposed price-level adjusted historical cost valuation?
P 5–15: U.S. Pump Systems
U.S. Pump is a multidivisional firm that manufactures and installs chemical piping and pump systems. The valve division makes a single standardized valve. The valve division and the installation division are currently involved in a transfer pricing dispute. Last year, half of the valve division’s output was sold to the installation division for $40 and the remaining half was sold to outsiders for $60. The existing transfer price has been set at $40 per pump through a process of negotiation between the two divisions, with the involvement of senior management. The installation division has received a bid from an outside valve manufacturer to supply it with an equivalent valve for $35 each.
The manager of the valve division has argued that if it is forced to meet the external price of $35, it will lose money on selling internally. The operating data for last year for the valve division are as follows:
Analyze the situation and recommend a course of action. What should installation division managers do? What should valve division managers do? What should U.S. Pump’s senior managers do?
P 6–4: Budget Lapsing versus Line-Item Budgets
a. What is the difference between budget lapsing and line-item budgets?
b. What types of organizations would you expect to use budget lapsing?
c. What types of organizations would you expect to use line-item budgets?
P 6–17: Panarude Airfreight
Panarude Airfreight is an international air freight hauler with more than 45 jet aircraft operating in the United States and the Pacific Rim. The firm is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, and is organized into five geographic areas: Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and the United States. Sup-porting these areas are several centralized corporate function services (cost centers): human resources, data processing, fleet acquisition and maintenance, and telecommunications. Each responsibility center has a budget, negotiated at the beginning of the year with the vice president of finance. Funds unspent at the end of the year do not carry over to the next fiscal year. The firm is on a January-to-December fiscal year.
After reviewing the month-to-month variances, Panarude senior management became concerned about the increased spending occurring in the last three months of each fiscal year. In particular, in the first nine months of the year, expenditure accounts typically show favorable variances (actual spending is less than budget), but in the last three months, unfavorable variances are the norm. In an attempt to smooth out these spending patterns, each responsibility center is reviewed at the end of each calendar quarter and any unspent funds can be deleted from the budget for the remainder of the
year. The accompanying table shows the budget and actual spending in the telecommunications department for the first quarter of this year.
At the end of the first quarter, telecommunications’ total annual budget for this year can be reduced by $7,000, the total budget underrun in the first quarter. In addition, the remaining nine monthly budgets for telecommunications are reduced by $778 (or $7,000 / 9). If, at the end of the second quarter, telecommunications’ budget shows an unfavorable variance of, say, $8,000 (after the original budget is reduced for the first-quarter underrun), management of telecommunications is held responsible for the entire $8,000 unfavorable variance. The first-quarter underrun is not restored. If the second quarter budget variance is also favorable, the remaining six monthly budgets are each reduced further by one-sixth of the second-quarter favorable budget variance.
Required:
a. What behavior would this budgeting scheme engender in the responsibility center managers?
Required:
a. Calculate depreciation expense and book value of the metal press under both historical cost and price-level-adjusted historical cost.
b. In general, what is the effect on ROA of changing valuation bases from historical cost to current values?
c. The manager of the investment center with the metal press is considering replacing it because it is becoming obsolete. Will the manager’s incentives to replace the metal press change if the firm shifts from historical cost valuation to the proposed price-level adjusted historical cost valuation?
P 5–15: U.S. Pump Systems
U.S. Pump is a multidivisional firm that manufactures and installs chemical piping and pump systems. The valve division makes a single standardized valve. The valve division and the installation division are currently involved in a transfer pricing dispute. Last year, half of the valve division’s output was sold to the installation division for $40 and the remaining half was sold to outsiders for $60. The existing transfer price has been set at $40 per pump through a process of negotiation between the two divisions, with the involvement of senior management. The installation division has received a bid from an outside valve manufacturer to supply it with an equivalent valve for $35 each.
The manager of the valve division has argued that if it is forced to meet the external price of $35, it will lose money on selling internally. The operating data for last year for the valve division are as follows:
Analyze the situation and recommend a course of action. What should installation division managers do? What should valve division managers do? What should U.S. Pump’s senior managers do?
P 6–4: Budget Lapsing versus Line-Item Budgets
a. What is the difference between budget lapsing and line-item budgets?
b. What types of organizations would you expect to use budget lapsing?
c. What types of organizations would you expect to use line-item budgets?
P 6–17: Panarude Airfreight
Panarude Airfreight is an international air freight hauler with more than 45 jet aircraft operating in the United States and the Pacific Rim. The firm is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, and is organized into five geographic areas: Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and the United States. Sup-porting these areas are several centralized corporate function services (cost centers): human resources, data processing, fleet acquisition and maintenance, and telecommunications. Each responsibility center has a budget, negotiated at the beginning of the year with the vice president of finance. Funds unspent at the end of the year do not carry over to the next fiscal year. The firm is on a January-to-December fiscal year.
After reviewing the month-to-month variances, Panarude senior management became concerned about the increased spending occurring in the last three months of each fiscal year. In particular, in the first nine months of the year, expenditure accounts typically show favorable variances (actual spending is less than budget), but in the last three months, unfavorable variances are the norm. In an attempt to smooth out these spending patterns, each responsibility center is reviewed at the end of each calendar quarter and any unspent funds can be deleted from the budget for the remainder of the
year. The accompanying table shows the budget and actual spending in the telecommunications department for the first quarter of this year.
At the end of the first quarter, telecommunications’ total annual budget for this year can be reduced by $7,000, the total budget underrun in the first quarter. In addition, the remaining nine monthly budgets for telecommunications are reduced by $778 (or $7,000 / 9). If, at the end of the second quarter, telecommunications’ budget shows an unfavorable variance of, say, $8,000 (after the original budget is reduced for the first-quarter underrun), management of telecommunications is held responsible for the entire $8,000 unfavorable variance. The first-quarter underrun is not restored. If the second quarter budget variance is also favorable, the remaining six monthly budgets are each reduced further by one-sixth of the second-quarter favorable budget variance.
Required:
a. What behavior would this budgeting scheme engender in the responsibility center managers?
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