Roletter Company makes and sells artistic frames for pictures of weddings, graduations, and other special events. Bob Anderson, the controller, is responsible for preparing Roletter’s master budget and has accumulated the following information for 2020:

In addition to wages, direct manufacturing labor-related costs include pension contributions of $0.50 per hour, worker’s compensation insurance of $0.20 per hour, employee medical insurance of $0.30 per hour, and Social Security taxes. Assume that as of January 1, 2020, the Social Security tax rates are 7.5% for employers and 7.5% for employees. The cost of employee benefits paid by Roletter on its employees is treated as a direct manufacturing labor cost.
Roletter has a labor contract that calls for a wage increase to $13 per hour on April 1, 2020. New laborsaving machinery has been installed and will be fully operational by March 1, 2020. Roletter expects to have 17,500 frames on hand at December 31, 2019, and it has a policy of carrying an end-of-month inventory of 100% of the following month’s sales plus 50% of the second following month’s sales.

Required

1. Prepare a production budget and a direct manufacturing labor budget for Roletter Company by month and for the first quarter of 2020. You may combine both budgets in one schedule. The direct manufacturing labor budget should include labor-hours and show the details for each labor cost category.
2. What actions has the budget process prompted Roletter’s management to take?
3. How might Roletter’s managers use the budget developed in requirement 1 to better manage the company?

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Estimated sales in units Selling price Direct manufacturing labor-hours per unit Wage per direct manufacturing labor-hour January February 10,000 14,000 $ 54.00 $ 50.50 2.0 2.0 $12.00 $12.00 2018 March 7,000 $50.50 1.5 $11.00 April 8,000 $ 50.50 1.5 $ 13.00 May 8,000 $50.50 1.5 $13.00