Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company has no sales force of its own; rather, it relies completely on independent sales agents to market its products. These agents are paid a sales commission of 15% for al items sold Barbara Cheney, Pittman's controller, has just prepared the company's budgeted income statement for next year. The statement follows: Pittman Company Budgeted Income Statement For the Year Ended December 31 Sales Manufacturing expenses: S 20,500,000 S 7,950,000 Fixed overhead 2,940,000 10,890,000 9,610,000 Gross margin Selling and administrative expenses: 3,075,000 270,000 Commissions to agents Fixed marketing expenses Fixed administrative expenses 2,550,000 5,895,000 Net operating income Fixed interest expenses S 3,715,000 690,000 Income before income taxes Income taxes (30%) 3,025,000 907,500 Net income 2,117,500 Primarily depreciation on storage facilities. As Barbara handed the statement to Karl Vecci, Pittman's president, she commented. went ahead and used the agents, 15% commission rate in completing these statements, but we've just learned that they refuse to handle our products next year unless we increase the commission rate to 17%." That's the last straw, Karl replied angriy. "Those agents have been demanding more and more, and this time they've gone too far. How can they possibly defend a 17% commission rate?" They claim that after paying for advertising, travel, and the other costs of promotion, there's nothing left over for profit, replied Barbara. "l say its just plain robbery," retorted Karl. "And I also say it's time we dumped those guys and got our own sales force. Can you get your people to work up some cost figures for us to look at? We've already worked them up," said Barbara-Several companies we know about pay a 7.9% commission to their own salespeople, along with a small salary. Of course, we would have to handle al promotion costs, too. We figure our fixed expenses would increase by $3,075,000 per year, but that would be more than offset by the $3.485.000 (17% x S20, 500,000) that we would avoid on agents' commissions. The breakdown of the $3,075,000 cost follows: Sales manager S 250,000 1,350,000 1,000,000 475,000 Travel and entertainment Total 3,075,000 Super," replied Karl. "And I noticed that the $3,075,000 is just what we're paying the agents under the old 15% commission rate "It's even better than that," explained Barbara. "We can actually save $150,000 a year because thats what were having to pay the auditing firm now to check out the agents' reports. So our overal administrative costs would be less. Pull al of these numbers together and we'll show them to the executive committee tomorrow," said Karl. With the approval of the committee, we can move on the matter immediately Required: 1. Compute Pittman Company's break-even point in dollar sales for next year assuming: (Enter your answer in whole dollars and not in thousands. Round CM ratio to 3 decimal places and final answer to the nearest dollar amount.) a. The agents' commission rate remains unchanged at 15% t in dollar sales b. The agents' commission rate is increased to 17% reak-even t in dollar sales
