读趣百科

A manufacturing company, Man Co, has two divisions: Division L and Division M. Both divisions make a single standardised product. Division L makes component L, which is supplied to both Division M and external customers.

Division M makes product M using one unit of component L and other materials. It then sells the completed

product M to external customers. To date, Division M has always bought component L from Division L.

The following information is available:

Division L charges the same price for component L to both Division M and external customers. However, it does not incur the selling and distribution costs when transferring internally.

Division M has just been approached by a new supplier who has offered to supply it with component L for $37 per unit. Prior to this offer, the cheapest price which Division M could have bought component L for from outside the group was $42 per unit.

It is head office policy to let the divisions operate autonomously without interference at all.

Required:

(a) Calculate the incremental profit/(loss) per component for the group if Division M accepts the new supplier’s

offer and recommend how many components Division L should sell to Division M if group profits are to be

maximised. (3 marks)

(b) Using the quantities calculated in (a) and the current transfer price, calculate the total annual profits of each division and the group as a whole. (6 marks)

(c) Discuss the problems which will arise if the transfer price remains unchanged and advise the divisions on a suitable alternative transfer price for component L. (6 marks)

Glove Co makes high quality, hand-made gloves which it sells for an average of $180 per pair. The standard cost of labour for each pair is $42 and the standard labour time for each pair is three hours. In the last quarter, Glove Co had budgeted production of 12,000 pairs, although actual production was 12,600 pairs in order to meet demand.

37,000 hours were used to complete the work and there was no idle time. The total labour cost for the quarter was $531,930.

At the beginning of the last quarter, the design of the gloves was changed slightly. The new design required workers to sew the company’s logo on to the back of every glove made and the estimated time to do this was 15 minutes for each pair. However, no-one told the accountant responsible for updating standard costs that the standard time per pair of gloves needed to be changed. Similarly, although all workers were given a 2% pay rise at the beginning of the last quarter, the accountant was not told about this either. Consequently, the standard was not updated to reflect these changes.

When overtime is required, workers are paid 25% more than their usual hourly rate.

Required:

(a) Calculate the total labour rate and total labour efficiency variances for the last quarter. (2 marks)

(b) Analyse the above total variances into component parts for planning and operational variances in as much detail as the information allows. (6 marks)

(c) Assess the performance of the production manager for the last quarter. (7 marks)

(a) The following information relates to Crosswire a publicly listed company.

Summarised statements of financial position as at:

The following information is available:

(i) During the year to 30 September 2009, Crosswire embarked on a replacement and expansion programme for its non-current assets. The details of this programme are:

On 1 October 2008 Crosswire acquired a platinum mine at a cost of $5 million. A condition of mining the

platinum is a requirement to landscape the mining site at the end of its estimated life of ten years. The

present value of this cost at the date of the purchase was calculated at $3 million (in addition to the

purchase price of the mine of $5 million).

Also on 1 October 2008 Crosswire revalued its freehold land for the first time. The credit in the revaluation

reserve is the net amount of the revaluation after a transfer to deferred tax on the gain. The tax rate applicable to Crosswire for deferred tax is 20% per annum.

On 1 April 2009 Crosswire took out a finance lease for some new plant. The fair value of the plant was

$10 million. The lease agreement provided for an initial payment on 1 April 2009 of $2·4 million followed

by eight six-monthly payments of $1·2 million commencing 30 September 2009.

Plant disposed of during the year had a carrying amount of $500,000 and was sold for $1·2 million. The

remaining movement on the property, plant and equipment, after charging depreciation of $3 million, was

the cost of replacing plant.

(ii) From 1 October 2008 to 31 March 2009 a further $500,000 was spent completing the development

project at which date marketing and production started. The sales of the new product proved disappointing

and on 30 September 2009 the development costs were written down to $1 million via an impairment

charge.

(iii) During the year ended 30 September 2009, $4 million of the 10% convertible loan notes matured. The

loan note holders had the option of redemption at par in cash or to exchange them for equity shares on the

basis of 20 new shares for each $100 of loan notes. 75% of the loan-note holders chose the equity option.

Ignore any effect of this on the other equity reserve.

All the above items have been treated correctly according to International Financial Reporting Standards.

(iv) The finance costs are made up of:

Required:

(i) Prepare a statement of the movements in the carrying amount of Crosswire’s non-current assets for the

year ended 30 September 2009; (9 marks)

(ii) Calculate the amounts that would appear under the headings of ‘cash flows from investing activities’

and ‘cash flows from financing activities’ in the statement of cash flows for Crosswire for the year ended

30 September 2009.

Note: Crosswire includes finance costs paid as a financing activity. (8 marks)

(b) A substantial shareholder has written to the directors of Crosswire expressing particular concern over the

deterioration of the company’s return on capital employed (ROCE)

Required:

Calculate Crosswire’s ROCE for the two years ended 30 September 2008 and 2009 and comment on the

apparent cause of its deterioration.

Note: ROCE should be taken as profit before interest on long-term borrowings and tax as a percentage of equity plus loan notes and finance lease obligations (at the year end). (8 marks)

(b) Calculate the value of the closing stocks of finished goods at the end of the three-month period, and the value

of cost of sales for the period. (3 marks)

(a) An assistant of yours has been criticised over a piece of assessed work that he produced for his study course for giving the definition of a non-current asset as ‘a physical asset of substantial cost, owned by the company, which will last longer than one year’.

Required:

Provide an explanation to your assistant of the weaknesses in his definition of non-current assets when

compared to the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) view of assets. (4 marks)

(b) The same assistant has encountered the following matters during the preparation of the draft financial statements of Darby for the year ending 30 September 2009. He has given an explanation of his treatment of them.

(i) Darby spent $200,000 sending its staff on training courses during the year. This has already led to an

improvement in the company’s efficiency and resulted in cost savings. The organiser of the course has stated that the benefits from the training should last for a minimum of four years. The assistant has therefore treated the cost of the training as an intangible asset and charged six months’ amortisation based on the average date during the year on which the training courses were completed. (3 marks)

(ii) During the year the company started research work with a view to the eventual development of a new

processor chip. By 30 September 2009 it had spent $1·6 million on this project. Darby has a past history

of being particularly successful in bringing similar projects to a profitable conclusion. As a consequence the

assistant has treated the expenditure to date on this project as an asset in the statement of financial position.

Darby was also commissioned by a customer to research and, if feasible, produce a computer system to

install in motor vehicles that can automatically stop the vehicle if it is about to be involved in a collision. At

30 September 2009, Darby had spent $2·4 million on this project, but at this date it was uncertain as to

whether the project would be successful. As a consequence the assistant has treated the $2·4 million as an

expense in the income statement. (4 marks)

(iii) Darby signed a contract (for an initial three years) in August 2009 with a company called Media Today to

install a satellite dish and cabling system to a newly built group of residential apartments. Media Today will

provide telephone and television services to the residents of the apartments via the satellite system and pay

Darby $50,000 per annum commencing in December 2009. Work on the installation commenced on

1 September 2009 and the expenditure to 30 September 2009 was $58,000. The installation is expected

to be completed by 31 October 2009. Previous experience with similar contracts indicates that Darby will

make a total profit of $40,000 over the three years on this initial contract. The assistant correctly recorded

the costs to 30 September 2009 of $58,000 as a non-current asset, but then wrote this amount down to

$40,000 (the expected total profit) because he believed the asset to be impaired.

The contract is not a finance lease. Ignore discounting. (4 marks)

Required:

For each of the above items (i) to (iii) comment on the assistant’s treatment of them in the financial

statements for the year ended 30 September 2009 and advise him how they should be treated under

International Financial Reporting Standards.

Note: the mark allocation is shown against each of the three items above.