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Kolbec Community College [KCCJ has 4,000 full-time students and offers a variety of academic programs in three areas: professional studies, arts, and technology. The professional
Kolbec Community College [KCCJ has 4,000 full-time students and offers a variety of academic programs in three areas: professional studies, arts, and technology. The professional studies programs prepare students for administrative and clericaljobs in a variety of professional settings, including accounting, medicine, and law. The arts program's offerings are wide ranging and include graphic design, digital animation, culinary arts, cosmetology, and music arts. The technology programs are also varied, including information technology, medical laboratory technology, electrical engineering technology, pharmacy technology, and natural resources technology. The chief financial ofcer of KCC, Lynn Jones, has consistently emphasized to other members of the senior management team the importance of understanding the costs of delivering the various academic programs. To that end, the costing system used at KCC tracks the direct costs of each program, which are shown below on an annual basis, along with the number of full-time students: Professional Item Studies Arts To: hnology Total Pull-time students 2,000 1,000 1,000 4,000 Professors' salaries $1,215,000 $ 632,000 $ 762,000 $2,609,000 Administrative salaries 96,000 65,500 65,500 227,000 Supplies 31,000 141,000 45,500 217,500 Teaching support 151,000 95,500 71,000 317,500 Facilities 25?,000 141,000 166,000 564,000 Total direct cost $1,750,000 $1,075,000 $1,110,000 $3,935,000 It is very important to understand the overhead costs consumed by each academic program at KCC in determining the full cost of operating the programs. Central administration at KCC allocates financial resources to academic programs based on the estimated full cost per student of delivering the program. The overhead costs at KCC are signicant, totalling over 60% of direct costs. Total annual overhead costs at KCC are as follows: Cost Administrative salaries $ 060,000 Facility costs 1,250,000 Office expenses 290,000 Total overhead costs 52.400.000 Traditionally. KCC has allocated overhead costs to academic programs on the basis of the number of full-time students in each program. This approach was deemed appropriate since Jones reasoned that increasing the number of students at KCC would result in higher overhead costs [e.g., more facilities would be needed, more indirect support costs would be incurred, etc.]. However, Jones is beginning to question the accuracy of the traditional approach since it results in a similar full cost per student for the arts and technology programs. which she feels doesn't make sense. Based on her knowledge of the programs, Jones feels that the technology program is probably more expensive to deliver than the arts program, but this does not come through in the traditional costing approach. Jones recently attended a seminar on management techniques being used by leading educational institutions that. among other topics, covered the basics of the ABC approach. She likes the idea of being able to assign indirect costs to academic programs on the basis of how much of the support activity resources are consumed by each program. If Jones's instincts are correct in that some programs consume more resources of certain activities than others. this could have a signicant impact on the overhead costs assigned to each under the ABC approach. Upon returning to KCC, Jones decides to implement ABC. She. along with Assistant CFO James West, begins by identifying the key activities used to support the teaching programs. Rather than getting too detailed with respect to identifying activities in the initial implementation, Jones decides to keep the process manageable and comes up with six key activities. Next, based on a series of interviews with various KCC employees who work in the departments covered by the identied activities, Jones and West estimate the percentage of the total administrative, facility, and office expense resources consumed by each activity. Again, to keep the process efcient, Jones rounds all percentages to the nearest 5%, guring that a \"close enough" approach will sufce for this initial implementation and recognizing that the estimates are subjective to begin with. The results are shown below: Rnsouxoe Distribution across Activities Activity Administrative Facilities Office Central administration 20% 5% 15% Information systems technology 20% 15% 15% Student counselling services 5% 5% 10% Human resources 5% 5% 15% Library operations 20% 60% 25% Registrar's office 30% 10% 20% Total 100% 100% 100% Working with key personnel from each of the six activities shown above, Jones and West then identify the activity measure and the quantity of that measure used for each teaching program. Fortunately, KCC implemented an enterprise resource planning system a few years ago, which is already tracking much of the information needed regarding the activity measures and the specific quantities for each academic program: Activity Measure Professional Arts Technology Central administration Hours spent on program 6,000 7,000 7,000 Information systems technology Processing hours 7, 600 3,500 14,900 Student counselling services Number of students counselled 175 110 215 Human resources Number of admin. staff and faculty members 21 17 12 Library operations Number of library circulations 6,500 3, 250 3, 250 Registrar's office Full-time students 2,000 1, 000 1, 000 Required. 1. Using the traditional approach to assigning overhead costs to academic programs: a. Calculate the predetermined overhead rate. Predetermined overhead rate per student b. Assign the overhead costs to each academic program using the predetermined rate. Professional studies Arts Technologyc. Calculate the total cost per student (direct costs plus overhead) of operating each academic program. Professional Arts Studies Technology Cost per student 2. Using ABC, complete the following requirements: a. Complete the first-stage allocation of overhead costs to academic programs. Student Human Library Registrar's Central Admin Info Systems Total Counseling Resources Operations Office $ Administrative 0 0 Facilities 0 Office Total cost $ 0 $ $ o 0 $ 0 $ 0 $ 0b. Calculate the activity rates for each of the activity cost pools. (Round your answers to 3 decimal places.) Central administration Information systems technology Student counselling services per student Human resources Library operations Registrar's ofce circulation c. Using the activity rates calculated in (b), complete the second-stage allocation of overhead to academic programs. Central administration Information systems technology Student counselling services Human resources Library operations Registrar's office
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