Amy James is a cost accountant and business analyst for Doorknob Design Company (DDC), which manufactures expensive brass doorknobs. DDC uses two direct cost categories: direct materials and direct manufacturing labour. James feels that manufacturing overhead is most closely related to material usage. Therefore, DDC allocates manufacturing overhead to production based upon kilograms of materials used.
At the beginning of 2015, DDC budgeted production of 100,000 doorknobs and adopted the following standards for each doorknob:

Required
1. For the month of April, calculate the following variances, indicating whether each is favourable (F) or unfavourable (U).
a. Direct materials rate variance (based on purchases).
b. Direct materials efficiency variance.
c. Direct manufacturing labour rate variance.
d. Direct manufacturing labour efficiency variance.
e. Variable manufacturing overhead rate variance.
f. Variable manufacturing overhead efficiency variance.
g. Production-volume variance.
h. Fixed manufacturing overhead rate variance.
2. Can James use any of the variances to help explain any of the other variances? Give examples.

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Direct materials (brass) Direct manufacturing labour Manufacturing overhead: Input 0.5 kg @$20/kg 0.25 hours $30/hour Cost/Doorknob S10.00 7.50 5.00 2.50 $25.00 Variable S10/kg x 0.5 kg $5/kg x 0.5 kg Fixed Standard cost per doorknob Actual results for April 2015 were Production Direct materials purchased Direct materials used Direct manufacturing labour Variable manufacturing overhead Fixed manufacturing overhead 95,000 doorknobs 50,000 kg at $22/kg 45,000 kg 20,000 hours for $650,000 S400,000 S350,000