Fresh Inc. is a manufacturer of vacuums and uses standard costing. Manufacturing overhead (both variable and fixed) is allocated to products on the basis of budgeted machine-hours. In 2015, budgeted fixed manufacturing overhead cost was $18,000,000. Budgeted variable manufacturing overhead was $9 per machine-hour. The denominator level was 1,000,000 machine-hours.
Required
1. Prepare a graph for fixed manufacturing overhead. The graph should display how Fresh Inc.'s fixed manufacturing overhead costs will be depicted for the purposes of (a) planning and control and (b) inventory costing.
2. Suppose that 875,000 machine-hours were allowed for actual output produced in 2015, but 950,000 actual machine-hours were used. Actual manufacturing overhead was $9,025,000, variable, and $18,050,000, fixed. Calculate (a) the variable manufacturing overhead rate and efficiency variances and (b) the fixed manufacturing overhead rate and production-volume variances. Use the columnar presentation illustrated in Exhibit 8-11.
3. What is the amount of the under allocated or over allocated variable manufacturing overhead and the under allocated or over allocated fixed manufacturing overhead? Why are the flexible-budget variance and the under allocated or over allocated overhead amount always the same for variable manufacturing overhead but rarely the same for fixed manufacturing overhead?
4. Suppose the denominator level were 750,000 rather than 1,000,000 machine-hours. What variances in requirement 2 would be affected? Recalculate them.