Portland Company’s Ironton Plant produces precast ingots for industrial use. Carlos Santiago, who was recently appointed general manager of the Ironton Plant, has just been handed the plant%u2019s contribution format income statement for October. The statement is shown below:

Budgeted Actual
Sales (3,000 ingots) $ 175,000 $ 175,000




Variable expenses:
Variable cost of goods sold* 24,300 58,310
Variable selling expenses 10,000 10,000




Total variable expenses 34,300 68,310




Contribution margin 140,700 106,690




Fixed expenses:
Manufacturing overhead 50,000 50,000
Selling and administrative 65,000 65,000




Total fixed expenses 115,000 115,000




Net operating income (loss) $ 25,700 $ (8,310)









*Contains direct materials, direct labor, and variable manufacturing overhead.

Mr. Santiago was shocked to see the loss for the month, particularly because sales were exactly as budgeted. He stated, “I sure hope the plant has a standard cost system in operation. If it doesn’t, I won’t have the slightest idea of where to start looking for the problem.”

The plant does use a standard cost system, with the following standard variable cost per ingot:

Standard Quantity or Hours Standard Price
or Rate
Standard Cost
Direct materials 3.0 pounds $ 2.00 per pound $ 6.00
Direct labor 0.3 hours $ 6.00 per hour 1.80
Variable manufacturing overhead 0.2 hours* $ 1.50 per hour 0.30


Total standard variable cost $ 8.10





*Based on machine hours.

During October the plant produced 3,000 ingots and incurred the following costs:
a.

Purchased 23,000 pounds of materials at a cost of $3.20 per pound. There were no raw materials in inventory at the beginning of the month.

b.

Used 8,800 pounds of materials in production. (Finished goods and work in process inventories are insignificant and can be ignored.)

c. Worked 2,000 direct labor hours at a cost of $5.70 per hour.
d.

Incurred a total variable manufacturing overhead cost of $1,710 for the month. A total of 900 machine hours was recorded.

It is the company%u2019s policy to close all variances to cost of goods sold on a monthly basis.

Required:
1. Compute the following variances for October:

a.

Direct materials price and quantity variances. (Input all amounts as positive values. Leave no cells blank be certain to enter “0” wherever required. Indicate the effect of each variance by selecting “F” for favorable, “U” for unfavorable, and “None” for no effect (i.e., zero variance). Omit the “$” sign in your response.)

Materials price variance $ (Click to select) None F U
Materials quantity variance $ (Click to select) U None F

b.

Direct labor rate and efficiency variances. (Input all amounts as positive values. Leave no cells blank be certain to enter “0” wherever required. Indicate the effect of each variance by selecting “F” for favorable, “U” for unfavorable, and “None” for no effect (i.e., zero variance). Omit the “$” sign in your response.)

Labor rate variance $ (Click to select) U F None
Labor efficiency variance $ (Click to select) F None U

c.

Variable overhead rate and efficiency variances. (Input all amounts as positive values. Do not round your intermediate calculations. Leave no cells blank be certain to enter “0” wherever required. Indicate the effect of each variance by selecting “F” for favorable, “U” for unfavorable, and “None” for no effect (i.e., zero variance). Omit the “$” sign in your response.)

Variable overhead rate variance $ (Click to select) U None F
Variable overhead efficiency variance $ (Click to select) None F U

2a.

Summarize the variances that you computed in (1) above by showing the net overall favorable or unfavorable variance for October. (Input the amount as a positive value. Leave no cells blank be certain to enter “0” wherever required. Indicate the effect of each variance by selecting “F” for favorable, “U” for unfavorable, and “None” for no effect (i.e., zero variance). Omit the “$” sign in your response.)

Net variance $ (Click to select) F None U

3.

Pick out the two most significant variances that you computed in (1) above. (You may select more than one answer. Single click the box with the question mark to produce a check mark for a correct answer and double click the box with the question mark to empty the box for a wrong answer.)

Materials price variance
Labor efficiency variance
Variable overhead efficiency variance
Labor rate variance
Variable overhead rate variance
Materials quantity variance