Mastery Problem: Evaluating Variances from Standard Costs Sole Purpose Shoe Company Sole Purpose Shoe Company is owned and operated by Sarah Charles. The company manufactures casual shoes, with manufacturing facilities in your state. Sarah began the business this year, and while she has a great deal of experience in manufacturing popular and comfortable shoes, she needs some help in evaluating her results for the year, and asks for your help. Starting Questions Sarah's first questions for you have to do with the general ideas and terminology used to evaluate variances. Provide answers to the following questions (1)-(3). 1. Why might Sarah want to use standard costs to compare with her actual costs? a. Standard costs give management a cost structure for products that is applicable for the entire life of the business. b. Standard costs allow management to motivate employees by comparing their performance to what it would be under perfect conditions. c. Management can evaluate the differences between standard costs and actual costs to focus on correcting the cost variances. 2. What are some possible drawbacks to using standard costs that Sarah might consider? a. Standards limit operating improvements because employees may be discouraged from improving beyond the standards. b. Standards may become "stale" in a dynamic manufacturing environment. c. Employees may focus only on efficiency improvement and their own operations rather than considering the larger objectives of the organization. d. Since standards are impossible to attain, they are a distraction from the work at hand. e. Since standards never change, they do not reflect reality. 3. Sarah wants to be sure she understands the basic definitions involved: Answer the following questions by selecting the correct words. A favorable variance occurs when the actual cost (what the product does cost) is represented by a number, indicating that costs are An unfavorable variance occurs when the actual cost (what the product does cost) is variance is represented by a) number, indicating that costs are the standard cost (what the product should cost). A favorable variance is than expected. the standard cost (what the product should cost). An unfavorable han expected. Direct Materials Under normal conditions, Sarah spends $8.40 per unit of materials, and it will take 3.60 units of material per pair of shoes. During July, Sole Purpose Shoe Company incurred actual direct materials costs of $61,321 for 6,890 units of direct materials in the production of 2,175 pairs of shoes. Complete the following table, showing the direct materials variance relationships for July for Sole Purpose Shoe Company. If required, round your answers to two decimal places. When entering variances, use a negative number for a favorable cost variance, and a positive number for an unfavorable cost variance. Actual Cost Actual Quantity x Actual Price X $ -$ Direct Materials Variance: $ Actual Quantity x Standard Price X $ -$ Total Direct Materials Variance: Direct Materials Variance: Standard Cos Standard Star Quantity x Pi x - $ Direct Labor Under normal conditions, Sarah pays her employees $8.50 per hour, and it will take 2.80 hours of labor per pair of shoes. During August, Sole Purpose Shoe Company incurred actual direct labor costs of $65,340 for 7,260 hours of direct labor in the production of 2,100 pairs of shoes. Complete the following table, showing the direct labor variance relationships for August for Sole Purpose Shoe Company. If required, round your answers to two decimal places. When entering variances, use a negative number for a favorable variance, and a positive number for an unfavorable variance. Actual Cost Actual Actual x Hours Rate Actual Hours x Standard Rate Standard Cost Standard Standard Hours Rate x