Answer FOUR questions: THREE from Section A and ONE from Section B

Transcription

1 UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA Norwich Business School Main Series UG Examination MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING NBS-5007Y Time allowed: 3 hours Answer FOUR questions: THREE from Section A and ONE from Section B All questions carry equal marks Notes are not permitted in this examination Do not turn over until you are told to do so by the Invigilator NBS-5007Y Module Contact: Susan Wheeler NBS Copyright of the University of East Anglia Version 1

2 Page 2 SECTION A: Answer THREE questions from this section Question 1: Target costing Enterprise Ltd are developing a new type of raincoat for cyclists. Market research has indicated that customers would be willing to pay 100 for the product. The company usually expect a profit margin of 15% on products. Fixed costs for enhancements to production machinery are expected to be 200,000 per year. The company currently has orders for 8000 units this year. Materials are expected to cost 45 per unit. Each product requires 45 minutes of specialist labour to manufacture. The personnel department are having difficulty in recruiting these specialist staff and report that the expected rate of pay is per hour. Required: a) Calculate the maximum hourly rate that Enterprise Ltd could pay to achieve the Target Cost. b) A reduction in the fixed costs of 50,000 could be achieved but this would result in increased labour time to 1 hour per unit. Explain whether Enterprise Ltd should consider doing this? c) Alternatively, cheaper materials costing only 42 could be used but this would also result in each unit taking 1 hour to make. Should Enterprise consider this? Give reasons for your answer. d) Alternatively, each member of specialist staff could be provided with an apprentice to assist them. The apprentice will cost 8 per hour and this would enable the specialist staff to spend only half an hour on each unit of the product. Should Enterprise consider this? e) Suggest other possible actions that Enterprise could take to enable them to pay the expected rate of pay per hour. Total: 25 marks

3 Page 3 Question 2: Variable costing and absorption costing Details of a company's first two years of operations are shown: Year 1 Year ,000,000 1,250,000 Opening stock in units Units produced Units sold Fixed selling and administrative expenses 110, ,000 The company's unit product cost is computed as follows: Direct materials 4 Direct labour 7 Variable manufacturing overhead 1 Fixed manufacturing overhead 4 ( 180,000/45,000 units) Unit product cost 16 Required: a) Prepare a profit and loss account for each year using Absorption costing. (15 marks) b) Using the profit under Absorption costing, calculate what the profit would be each year if the company used Marginal costing. c) Why is Marginal costing which is used by Management accounting incompatible with Financial accounting? Total: 25 marks TURN OVER

4 Page 4 Question 3: Flexible Budgets Paine Ltd makes and sells a single product. Annual sales in units for 2017 are expected to be 200,000, and standard cost and selling price per unit is: Selling price 35 Variable costs: Materials 8 Labour 8 Overheads 2 Annual fixed overheads for 2015 are budgeted at: Manufacturing: 600,000 Non-manufacturing 250,000 Actual production and sales for the first quarter was 45,000 units. The actual revenue and expenditure for the quarter was as follows: Sales revenue 1,720,000 Expenditure: Materials 365,500 Labour 375,500 Variable overhead 97,200 Fixed overheads Manufacturing 135,000 Non-manufacturing 75,000 Paine Ltd divides the annual budget by 4 in order to produce quarterly variance analysis reports.

5 Page 5 Required: a) Prepare the first quarter variance analysis report showing the fixed budget, flexible budget and flexible budget variances. (16 marks) b) Suggest how this report could be improved in terms of variable costs variance analysis, describing any extra information you would need in order to do so. Question 4: Life cycle costing (9 marks) Total 25 marks The production manager of a company is considering two mutually exclusive alternative proposals for investing in new machinery. They both involve an initial outlay of 275,000, but will yield different levels of savings over the life of the machinery, which is estimated at five years, after which they will have no residual value. The savings will give rise to increased cash flows as follows: Year Machine A Cash flows B Cash flows TURN OVER

6 Page 6 REQUIRED: a) What is meant by Life Cycle costing? How does this differ from other costing methods? (8 marks) b) Appraise each project, using Payback and Net present value, at the company s cost of capital of 10% (8 marks) c) Based on your results from (a), explain which machine the Manager is likely to choose and discuss the potential conflict between measures. (9marks) Total 25 marks Present value of 1 Years hence 6% 8% 10% 12% 14%

7 Page 7 SECTION B: Answer ONE question from this section Question 5: Stock Control Explain the traditional methods of stock control and the calculations required for each control. How does this compare to the Just in Time principles of stock management. Discuss the reasons why Just in Time may not always produce the desired outcome. (25 marks) Question 6: Budgeting Critically evaluate budgeting as a management tool for planning and control. (25 marks) Question 7: Standard Costing Does the increase in influence of the service sector mean that Standard Costing is now irrelevant to Management Accountants? (25 marks) END OF PAPER

8 Exam Feedback NBS 5007Y 2017/ students sat this exam on June 5 th 2018 and the average mark was 63.5%. This is slightly better than last year where the average was 61.5%. However, there was a huge spread of marks ranging from 10 to 97%. 93% of students passed the exam achieving a mark of at least 40%, but sadly 7% failed. 65% of students were awarded a mark consistent with a first or upper second degree. The questions were fairly equally popular in section A but in section B most students answered the budgeting question. The main issue with those gaining low marks was the failure to practice similar questions and the inability to interpret the answers. Susan Wheeler