Chapter 20: Q2021RQ (page 1120)
What effect does an increase in sales price have on contribution margin? An increase in fixed costs? An increase in variable costs?
Answer
There is an inverse relationship between variable cost and contribution margin.
Over 30 million students worldwide already upgrade their learning with Vaia!
All the tools & learning materials you need for study success - in one app.
Get started for free
Question: Computing contribution margin, units and required sales to break even, and units to achieve target profit
Compute the missing amounts for the following table.
A B C Sales price per unit \( 200 \) 4,000 $ 5,220 Variable costs per unit 80 1,000 2,088 Total fixed costs 73,200 660,000 3,758,400 Target profit 266,760 3,000,000 3,132,000 Calculate:
Contribution margin per unit
Contribution margin ratio
Required units to break even
Required sales dollars to break even
Required units to achieve target profit
What is sensitivity analysis? How do managers use this tool?
Analyzing a cost-volume-profit graph
Nolan Rouse is considering starting a Web-based educational business, e-Prep MBA. He plans to offer a short-course review of accounting for students entering MBA programs. The materials would be available on a password-protected Web site; students would complete the course through self-study. Rouse would have to grade the course assignments, but most of the work would be in developing the course materials, setting up the site, and marketing. Unfortunately, Rouse’s hard drive crashed before he finished his financial analysis. However, he did recover the following partial CVP chart:
Requirements
1. Label each axis, the sales revenue line, the total costs line, the fixed costs line, the operating income area, and the breakeven point.
2. If Rouse attracts 300 students to take the course, will the venture be profitable? Explain your answer.
3. What are the breakeven sales in students and dollars?
Use the following information to complete Short Exercises S20-10 through S20-15.
Funday Park competes with Cool World by providing a variety of rides. Funday Park sells tickets at \(70 per person as a one-day entrance fee. Variable costs are \)42 per person, and fixed costs are $170,800 per month.
S20-14 Computing margin of safety
Refer to the original information (ignoring the changes considered in Short Exercises S20-12 and S20-13). If Funday Park expects to sell 8,100 tickets, compute the margin of safety in tickets and in sales dollars.
You have just begun your summer internship at Omni Instruments. The company supplies sterilized surgical instruments for physicians. To expand sales, Omni is considering paying a commission to its sales force. The controller, Matthew Barnhill, asks you to compute: (1) the new breakeven sales figure, and (2) the operating profit if sales increase 15% under the new sales commission plan. He thinks you can handle this task because you learned CVP analysis in your accounting class.
You spend the next day collecting information from the accounting records, performing the analysis, and writing a memo to explain the results. The company president is pleased with your memo. You report that the new sales commission plan will lead to a significant increase in operating income and only a small increase in breakeven sales.
The following week, you realize that you made an error in the CVP analysis. You overlooked the sales personnel’s $2,800 monthly salaries, and you did not include this fixed selling cost in your computations. You are not sure what to do. If you tell Matthew Barnhill of your mistake, he will have to tell the president. In this case, you are afraid Omni might not offer you permanent employment after your internship.
Requirements
1. How would your error affect breakeven sales and operating income under the proposed sales commission plan? Could this cause the president to reject the sales commission proposal?
2. Consider your ethical responsibilities. Is there a difference between (a) initially making an error and (b) subsequently failing to inform the controller?
3. Suppose you tell Matthew Barnhill of the error in your analysis. Why might the consequences not be as bad as you fear? Should Barnhill take any responsibility for your error? What could Barnhill have done differently?
4. After considering all the factors, should you inform Barnhill or simply keep quiet?
What do you think about this solution?
We value your feedback to improve our textbook solutions.
