a) Allocate support department cost using step-down method.

b) Rank the support departments based on the percentage of their services provided to other support departments. Use this ranking to allocate the support departments costs to the operating departments based on the step-down method.

15-21step-down allocation. E-books, an online book retailer, has two operating departments- sales-and two support departments-human resources and information corporate sales and consumer systems. Each sales department conducts merchandising and marketing operations independently E-books uses number of employees to allocate human resources costs and processing time to allocate systems costs. The following data are available for September 2012 information Bis Home Insert Page Layout Formulas Data Review View SUPPORT OPERATING DEPARTMENTS Resources Systems S72.700 . S234.400 DEPARTMENTS Sales Sales S998.270$489.860 Human Information Corporate Consumer 2 3 Budgeted costs incurred before any 4 interdepartment cost allocations . Support work supplied by human 5 resources department 6Budgeted number of employees 21 42 28 Support work supplied by information 1,920 ,600 8 Budgeted processing time (n minutes)3201