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Background: O’Neill Auto Company incurred $20,000 of indirect advertising costs

ID: 2465658 • Letter: B

Question

      Background: O’Neill Auto Company incurred $20,000 of indirect advertising costs for its operations. The following 2011 data have been collected for its three departments:

New Cars

Used Cars

Parts and Service

Direct advertising costs

$20,000

$16,000

$4,000

Newspaper ad space

60%

30%

10%

Sales

$200,000

$150,000

$50,000

Requirements: Determine the indirect advertising costs allocated to each department using the following allocation bases and comment on your allocation preference.

a.   Direct advertising costs

b.   Newspaper ad space

c.   Sales

New Cars

Used Cars

Parts and Service

Total

Method a: allocation based on direct advertising costs:


Method b: allocation based on newspaper ad space:


Method c: allocation based on sales:


Describe your preference. Which of these 3 methods of
allocation do you prefer and why?



New Cars

Used Cars

Parts and Service

Direct advertising costs

$20,000

$16,000

$4,000

Newspaper ad space

60%

30%

10%

Sales

$200,000

$150,000

$50,000

Explanation / Answer

Method a: Calculation of allocation based on direct advertising costs:

Details

New Cars

Used Cars

Parts and Service

Total

Direct advertising costs

$      20,000

$        16,000

$                            4,000

Ratio

5

4

1

Overhead cost

$      10,000

$          8,000

$                            2,000

$ 20,000

Under this method, overhead of new cars is $10,000 and Parts and service is $2,000 it low amount and equal to compare to other methods. New cars and Parts and service point of view this method is preferable.

Method b: Calculation of allocation based on newspaper ad space:

Details

New Cars

Used Cars

Parts and Service

Total

Newspaper ad space

60%

30%

10%

Ratio

60

30

10

Overhead cost

$      12,000

$          6,000

$                            2,000

$ 20,000

Under this method, overhead of used cars is $6,000 it low amount compared to other methods. Used cars point of view this method is preferable.

Method c: Calculation of allocation based on sales:

Details

New Cars

Used Cars

Parts and Service

Total

Sales

$200,000

$150,000

$50,000

Ratio

4

3

1

Overhead cost

$      10,000

$          7,500

$                            2,500

$ 20,000

Under this method, overhead of new cars is $10,000 and used cars are $7,500 it low amount and equal to compare to other methods. New cars and used cars point of view this method is preferable.

Details

New Cars

Used Cars

Parts and Service

Total

Direct advertising costs

$      20,000

$        16,000

$                            4,000

Ratio

5

4

1

Overhead cost

$      10,000

$          8,000

$                            2,000

$ 20,000