A company has been asked to provide a quotation for an engineering project that will take one year to complete. An analysis of the project has already been completed and the following resource requirements have been identified: (i) A specialised machine will be required for a total of 10 weeks. Two of these weeks are at the start of the project and three of them are at the end. The machine could be hired from a reputable supplier, who would guarantee its availability when it is required, for ₦40,000 per week. Alternatively it could be purchased at a cost of ₦2,500,000. If it was purchased, it could be sold in one year’s time for ₦1,500,000. If the machine was purchased, it could be hired out to other companies for ₦25,000 per week and it is believed that it would be hired out for a total of 30 weeks. (ii) The machine has a running cost of ₦7,200 per week. This cost is incurred by the user of the machine. (iii) It is the company’s policy to depreciate non-current assets by 25% per year on a reducing balance basis. (iv) Skilled labour would be required for a total of 9,000 hours during the year. The labour required could be recruited at an hourly rate of ₦120. Alternatively some of the employees currently working on other projects within the company could be transferred to this project. The hourly rate is ₦100 per hour. If these existing employees were to be transferred to this project, replacement will be needed on the existing project work. Replacements on the existing project work would cost ₦110 per hour. (v) Unskilled labour would be required for a total of 12,000 hours during the year. These employees would need to be recruited on a one year contract at a cost of ₦80 per hour. (vi) The project would need to be supervised and it is estimated that there would be a total of 500 hours of supervision required during the year. One of the existing supervisors could undertake this work, but will require a total of 300 hours overtime during the year to carry out the supervision on this project as well as his existing duties. The supervisor earns a salary of ₦500,000 per year 61 for working 2,000 hours and is not paid for overtime work. If this project goes ahead, the supervisor will be paid a bonus of ₦5,000, which would not be paid if the project is not undertaken. (vii) The direct materials required for the project are as follows: Material A The total amount required for the project would have to be purchased at a cost of ₦150,000. Material B The total quantity required would be 10,000 square metres. The company purchased 25,000 square metres of this material for a project two years ago at a total cost of ₦1,000,000. The earlier project used 20,000 square metres of the material and the remainder is currently held in inventory. The company does not foresee any other use for this material in the future and could sell it for ₦20 per square metre. The current purchase price of the material is ₦50 per square metre. (viii) The company has already incurred expenditure of ₦250,000 in analysing the resource requirements of the project. (ix) It is the company’s policy to attribute overhead costs to projects using an absorption rate of 40% of prime costs. (x) It is the company’s policy to add a 25% profit mark-up to total costs when setting its prices. Required:
Prepare a statement that shows the relevant cost of the project. For each of the resources indicated in notes (1) to (10) you must clearly explain the reason for the cost value that you have used. Ignore the time value of money and taxation.
Assume that: (i) The company used your calculations as the basis of the quotation and added ₦1,250,000 for profit. (ii) All costs incurred were the same as forecast. Explain why the financial profit reports at the end of the year would not show a profit of ₦1,250,000 for the engineering project.
Explain why contribution margin theory is used as a basis for providing information relevant to decision making.
Explain the relevance of opportunity costs in decision making. (4 Marks) 62
Revise this question
Relevant costs and revenues, and opportunity cost › LayoutsRelevant costs for specific decisions: materials, labour, equipment and overheads › LayoutsOne-off contracts, shutdown and further processing of joint products › Layouts for the three decisionsSuggested answer
a) Product Machine hours required A B C Total Type 1 180 315 180 675 Type 2 120 175 120 415 Machine utilisation rate: Machine type 1 = 675/600 = 112.5% Machine type 2 = 415/500 = 83.0% Machine type 1 has the highest utilisation rate and the rate is above 100. Therefore, machine type 1 is the bottleneck/limiting factor. b) 73
(a) i. The relevant cost is the lower cost option. This is to buy the machine and rent it out when it is not being used. (wka) 250,000
ii. Machinery running cost 10 weeks x ₦7,200 per week The relevant cost is the running cost to be incurred in the future if the project is undertaken. 72,000
iii. Depreciation This is not relevant as it is not a cash cost.
iv. Skilled Labour External project labour: 9,000 hours x ₦120 The existing hourly rate is irrelevant as the company would continue to pay its existing employees regardless of the decision. The relevant cost is the lower cost option External replacement labour 9,000 hours x ₦110 990,000
v. Unskilled labour would have to be recruited for the project. This is the relevant cost because it is only incurred if the project goes ahead: 12,000 hours x ₦80 960,000
vi. Supervision Existing salary would be unchanged so this is irrelevant. Overtime would be worked but this is unpaid so this is also irrelevant. The bonus is only paid if the project goes ahead so it is a relevant cost 5,000
vii. Material A The relevant cost that would have to be purchased 150,000 Material B The current inventory can be used on this project, the relevant cost is its resale value of ₦20 per square metre: 5,000 square metres x ₦20 = 100,000 5,000 square metres x ₦50 The original cost of the inventory is irrelevant as it is a past (sunk) cost. 250,000 350,000 74 Viii. Analysis cost This is not relevant because it is a past (sunk) cost.
ix. Overhead costs These are not relevant unless they are specific to the project. Overheads that are absorbed are non-specific to the project. They are not incremental costs.
x. Profit This is not relevant because it is not a cost. Total relevant cost 2,777,000
Workings The relevant cost of the project is as follows:
(i) Specialised machine Hire cost ₦40,000 x 10 weeks = (₦) 400,000 Net cost if purchased Original cost₦2,500,000 Residual value ₦1,500,000 1,000,000 Less Rental income: ₦25,000 x 30 weeks (750,000) 250,000
(b) Explanation of why the financial profit reports will not show a profit of N1,250,000 for the engineering project at the end of the year The financial profit reports will not show a profit of N1,250,000 for the following reasons:
i. Financial profit calculation will consider depreciation whereas the analysis above did not;
ii. Financial profit will consider the project’s share of general overheads, absorbing them at 40% of prime cost, but the calculation above did not;
iii. Financial profit will not consider the principle of relevant costing when determining the cost of materials for the job, but will charge them using the company’s inventory valuation policy;
iv. The salary cost for unskilled, skilled and supervisor will be considered for the proportion of time they spent on the engineering project. 75
(c) Contribution is the difference between sales and variable costs, both of which are dependent on activity. Fixed costs, which tend to be independent of activity, are ignored. Since most decisions involve changes in the level of activity the relevant costs and revenues are those affected by changes in the level of activity. Thus the net effect of these relevant costs and revenues is contribution.
(d) An opportunity cost is the value which represents the cost of the next best alternative or the benefit forgone by accepting one course of action in preference to others when allocating scarce resources. If there is only one scarce resource, decisions can be made by ranking alternatives according to their contributions per unit of the scarce resource. However, in reality there will be many scarce resources, and different alternatives will use alternative combinations of those scarce resources. In these situations opportunity costs are used to identify the optimum use of those resources.
Examiner’s report This is a compulsory question that dwells on relevant costing and contribution margin theory. The question being a compulsory question was attempted by almost all the candidates. Performance of the candidates was average. The major pitfalls were the inability of most candidates to determine relevant costs of various cost elements including relevant cost of machine as it relates to hiring and outright purchase; relevant cost of skilled labour and unskilled labour and other relevant costs of materials for the purpose of determining minimum cost of a project. It is hereby recommended that candidates use ICAN Study Text and other Performance Management text-books in preparing for future Institute’s examination.
Marking guide Q1 a. Relevant costs (20 ticks @ 1 mark = 20 marks) 20
b. Profit maximisation quantity using Marginal and contribution analysis (Any 2 points @ 2 marks = 4 marks) 4
c. Importance of contribution margin theory (2 points @ 1mark per point) = 2 marks) 2
d. Relevance of opportunity costs in decision making (1 point @ 4 marks per point = 4 marks) 4 30 Total 30 76