Backflush Costing, Conversion Rate

Southward Company has implemented a JIT flexible manufacturing system. John Richins, controller of the company, has decided to reduce the accounting requirements given the expectation of lower inventories. For one thing, he has decided to treat direct labor cost as a part of overhead and to discontinue the detailed direct labor accounting of the past. The company has created two manufacturing cells, each capable of producing a family of products: the radiator cell and the water pump cell. The output of both cells is sold to a sister division and to customers who use the radiators and water pumps for repair activity. Product-level overhead costs outside the cells are assigned to each cell using appropriate drivers. Facility-level costs are allocated to each cell on the basis of square footage. The budgeted direct labor and overhead costs are as follows:

	Radiator Cell		Water Pump Cell
Direct labor costs		$195,160		$103,950
Direct overhead		785,400		383,130
Product sustaining		285,600		109,890
Facility level		209,440		80,190
Total conversion cost		$1,475,600		$677,160

The predetermined conversion cost rate is based on available production hours in each cell. The radiator cell has 47,600 hours available for production, and the water pump cell has 29,700 hours. Conversion costs are applied to the units produced by multiplying the conversion rate by the actual time required to produce the units. The radiator cell produced 87,800 units, taking 0.50 hour to produce one unit of product (on average). The water pump cell produced 100,900 units, taking 0.25 hour to produce one unit of product (on average).

Other actual results for the year are as follows:

Direct materials purchased and issued	$1,627,000
Direct labor costs	299,110
Overhead	1,853,650

All units produced were sold. Any conversion cost variance is closed to Cost of Goods Sold.

1-) Assuming that the second trigger point is the sale of the goods, prepare your entries in the following order: (a) purchase of raw materials, (b) incurrence of direct labor and overhead costs, (c) completion and sale of goods, and (d) recognition of the variance between applied and actual production costs. Round amounts to the nearest dollar if rounding is required. For a compound transaction, if an amount box does not require an entry leave it blank.

2-) Suppose that the only trigger point for recognizing manufacturing costs occurs when the goods are sold. How would the entries be listed here? Round amounts to the nearest dollar if rounding is required. For a compound transaction, if an amount box does not require an entry leave it blank. Prepare your entries in the following order: (a) incurrence of direct labor and overhead costs, (b) completion and sale of goods, and (c) recognition of the variance between applied and actual production costs.