Heartland Bank & Trust operates in a very competitive marketplace, using a traditional labor-hour-based system to determine
Question:
Heartland Bank & Trust operates in a very competitive marketplace, using a traditional labor-hour-based system to determine the cost of processing its mortgage loans. Recently, the firm explored a switch to activity-based costing to determine the wisdom of its previous ways. The following information is available:
Two loan applications, among many others, were originated and closed during the year. No. 7439 consumed 3.5 hours in loan underwriting and 1.5 hours in loan closure, for a total of 5.0 hours. No. 7809 also required 5.0 hours of time, subdivided as follows: 2.0 hours in loan underwriting and 3.0 hours in loan closure.Required:A. Use an activity-based-costing system and determine the cost of processing, underwriting, and closing the two loan applications.B. Determine the cost of processing the two loans if Heartland uses the traditional labor-hour-based system. Conversations with management found that, on average, each application took nine labor hours of processing time, excluding underwriting and closure.C. Is Heartland making a mistake by continuing to use a traditional system that is based on an average labor cost per hour? Why?
Step by Step Answer:
Managerial Accounting
ISBN: 978-1118385388
2nd edition
Authors: Ramji Balakrishnan, Konduru Sivaramakrishnan, Geoff B. Sprinkle