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Product Y Machining

units 2000 1500

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Rm unit
LabourCostunit
50
40
100
30
Research

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100
tTI 100
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4
My 200 600
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6000 10000
 statement using traditionary
I I told
Units 2000 1500

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2600 50
45000
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minor i

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To U Too
Units 2000 1500

Cost unit
to

IT 500
o
250

Inspection Production 100 100 200

Runs

Machining MH 200 600 800

 Acted
R D 266.67 Hour
801
24
500 Inspection
Inspection
121
Macing 2 250 MH
gg
statement Cost
of Using Argy
Units 2000 1500

Rm Cost 1,00000 150000

2600 50
45000
Labourlost 80000
2000 40 1560 30

Prime Cost A 195T

Overhead

ROD 133333
500 266.67
66667
Inspection 500W

Maching
Iggy
5000 150000
200 250 800 25
Total Cost I 46T
Units 2000
Cost
unit 206.67 30k
 Costdistortion
X Y
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CostperTrades 190 3030

Difference 16.67 2 2022

I
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Module
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Units 4000 3000 1600
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Rm Ky 16000 TOO 4800 38,800

price 2 2 2 2

A Rm Cost
J G F G
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A B
Units 4000 3000
C Toth
1600
X Labourhour 0.5 0.75 y
Hour

Labour How T É T 3
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17 LH
 mementos per tray Absorption

A B C
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Labour Cost 200W 22500 16000

E En
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pe
34000 38250 II
zoon 2250 17

II
units 4 I
Cost unit 21059 32.21
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ni Madi
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statement of Cost
using APC
AA BB
DM 32000 360W 9600
DC 2000 22500 16000

F
Overheads

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Storage 10400 5200 15600

28920 9720 3456

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tanto
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CostPool Actively A B C
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22000
No 9 Setup 20 30 75
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3294 15068
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9399 setup

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6918.911mg

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A
940800
B
940800
C
1568000

Setup 116267 145333 174400

order 103784 83027 69189

Tote Cost 11,60,851 11,69T if

 Rate

1535
685.4
139.94
628.96
292.8

g
wages 468500

9it
T6x153578596 M.M
84 68548 57581
Maint 1420 139.94
198719
Step 60 628.96 37738
C 184242.8534371
TC 3314869
Costlant 936.16
Moye 7601

Calmactivity Rate 9,981 80 Kh

power
Inspection 600
6981 Inspection
 I Tote
I I
1600000
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12,00000 36.00.06
1510000 18,09000 54.00.000
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ftp.qq
TC
29g 3G a Go
Costofunused Capacity

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Actual Usage 4500411

Unused Canal 5000 Kroh IF Insp
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Many Doll Traditional
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A B C
Overheads 1125000 108000 11,7900
unit 500W 45000

operate um 22.50 T Y
Ta B C

Rent 275000 247500 3,4100

flectuty 341272 298613 426590
Il lab 4387504212800 456300
Rom 51000 38250 39525

Totton 1106022 56 3 ITE

tut
once I
25
Maya May 0.212
Actuate
1 5 MH

setup 120W setup

Punch 1250 order

j I
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Setup 2400W 5,280W

Pus 2,0700 4.80.000

540001 16,608,010

tub
OH ut
108 80
 750000

E
AAI
Sof statement
of Cost driver P Q R Toth
Acting
Machining
Cost 300W 48000 54000 1,321000

42000
LH 15000 27000
Assembly
950
Setup Noy Runs as adf.io a
Store Ree No ofReauistion 40 30 50 120
1250 1000 1500 3750
Order despatch Custom order
Inspection No 9 Rum 150 120 180 950

Activate
Machine 14 may
Assembly 16 LH
Setup 200 shuns
Store 1000 Reg

order 48 Order
Imp 801 Runs

P Q K

TC 802000 783600 7360400

units
Costlunt 46 65 757
3
 Oof
0.90
1.60
0.60
L
I
40.40
o.jo o

40.40 40.40
41.60 41.60 11166
40.60 110.60 40.00

Cost unit 52.67 42.8 46.6

Pastfed
SI Calgny p a R Toth
Units 3000 5000 20000

µ MHlunity In 28th Tooooo

Gustatimntospyaditgofy
Material Cost 27000 400,000 24.00.000
3000 90

290000
Latour 12,00000 32.00.000

Coprime ÉÉ to sa
180000 54000 1680000
gift
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tenets
Costlunt 239 43 361
ABI
Cat total Overheads
of
Tote MH X Rat How
40006 6
Machusetup

Machopen 301 72000

Inspect 401 96000
Matproer
Statement
lot
28
affair P Q R Tote
Activity
Machusetup Ffsn
prod Run
20
3000 150
10 20 50
Mach app My 300W 90000 28000 400000

Inspect No gasp 40 60 200

20 53 CUNO 3 20
Matpooer Parody 100 160 320
Eoka
ActivityRate
Setup 48801 9600 setup

Mach op 1.8 MH
Iggy
Inspector 96 480 Insp
1
Procurers
750 order
243g
 GststatementasPrpB a
Pine Cost 51000 16.00.000 56.000W

Sgt 192000
20 9600
96000 192000

54000 162000 504000

Machine
off
3000091.8

Inspection 48000 192000 288000

100 4800

Procurement 45000 75000 120000

60 750

To 1 281000 2 670400T
units 301 501 2002
lost ant 335
421 4252 21
 Models

z É
 OH Rate KK 62.125

z
y
Cal often 3125 4
25,913 12500
Cost stole

y 2
Grub 2500 3125
Rm Cost 75000 1406250
LabCost 1125000 18,75100

Ourheads 465938
qsoxba.ae 25 1 125
I
funds
Costunit 7936.3 1297g
Rate
Colony
ord pro 21 1 350 lady
Mach pro 8350040 17.5 MH

Insp
15751 1005 Insp
 Stelimentofastusingly
Grub 2500 3125
Rm Cost 75000 1406250
LabCost 1125000 18,75100
Overhead
Order proc 12256 8750
350 350 2501350
40250 47250
Mach Poe 23000 17.50 27000 17.50

11550
TP 42000
yoooxions 11000 10.5

Iamb
Cosi
if 1266.16T
15000
 CHAPTER a
5

ACTIVITY BASED
COSTING
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After studying this chapter, you would be able to-
 Discuss problem of Traditional Costing System.
 Discuss usefulness of Activity Based Costing (ABC).
 Discuss Cost Allocation under ABC.
 Discuss Different level of activities under ABC.
 Understand stages, advantages, and limitations of ABC.
 Discuss various requirements in ABC implementation.
 Explain the concept of Activity Based Management (ABM).
 Explain the concept of Activity Based Budgeting (ABB).

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

Activity Based Costing

Cost
Concept Usefulness Steps
Hierarchy

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.2 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

1. INTRODUCTION
As discussed in chapter 4 i.e. Overhead, in Traditional Costing System, overhead
costs are grouped together under cost center and then absorbed into product
costs on either of the basis such as direct labour hours, machine hours, volume
etc. In certain cases, this traditional costing system gives inaccurate cost
information. Though, it should not be assumed that all traditional absorption
costing systems are not accurate enough to give adequate information for pricing
purposes or other long-run management decision purposes. Some traditional
systems treat overheads in a detailed way and relate them to service cost centres
as well as production cost centres. The service centre overheads are then spread
over the production cost centres before absorption rates are calculated. The main
cause of inaccuracy is in the calculation of the overhead rate itself, which is usually
based on direct labour hours or machine hours. These rates assume that products
that take longer to make, generate more overheads and so on.
Organisations, who do not wish to know how much it costs to make a product
with precise accuracy, may be happy with traditional costing system. Others,
however, fix their price on cost basis and need to determine it with reasonable
accuracy. The latter organisations have been greatly benefitted from the
development of activity-based costing (ABC), which is considered as a modern
absorption costing method, and was evolved to give more accurate product costs.

1.1 Factors prompting the development of ABC

Various factors lead to the development of ABC include:
1. Growing overhead costs because of increasingly automated production

2. Increasing market competition, which necessitated more accurate product

costs.
3. Increasing product diversity to secure economies of scope & increased
market share.
4. Decreasing costs of information processing because of continual
improvements and increasing application of information technology.

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.35.3 a

1.2 Usefulness/Suitability of ABC

ABC is particularly needed by organisations for product costing in the following
situations:

1. High amount of overhead: When production overheads are high and form
significant costs, ABC is more useful than traditional costing system.

2. Wide range of products: ABC is most suitable, when, there is diversity in

the product range or there are multiple products.

3. Presence of non-volume related activities: When non-volume related

activities e.g. material handling, inspection set-up, are present significantly
and traditional system cannot be applied, ABC is a superior and better
option. ABC will identify non-value-adding activities in the production process
that might be a suitable focus for attention or elimination.

4. Stiff competition: When the organisation is facing stiff competition and

there is an urgent requirement to compute cost accurately and to fix the
selling price according to the market situation, ABC is very useful. ABC can
also facilitate in reducing cost by identifying non-value-adding activities in the
production process that might be a suitable focus for attention or elimination.

2. MEANING AND DEFINITION

Activity Based Costing is an accounting methodology that assigns costs to
activities rather than products or services. This enables resources & overhead
costs to be more accurately assigned to products & services that consume them.
ABC is a technique which involves identification of cost with each cost
driving activity and making it as the basis for apportionment of costs over
different cost objects/ jobs/ products/customers or services.

ABC assigns cost to activities based on their use of resources. It then assigns cost
to cost objects, such as products or customers, based on their use of activities.
ABC can track the flow of activities in organization by creating a link between the
activity (resource consumption) and the cost object.

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.4 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

CIMA defines ‘Activity Based Costing’ as “An approach to the costing and
monitoring of activities which involves tracing resource consumption and costing
final outputs. Resources are assigned to activities, and activities to cost objects
based on consumption estimates. The latter utilise cost drivers to attach activity
costs to outputs.”

3. MEANING OF TERMS USED IN ABC

(i) Activity: Activity, here, refers to an event that incurs cost.
(ii) Cost Object: It is an item for which cost measurement is required e.g. a
product or a customer.

(iii) Cost Driver: It is a factor that causes a change in the cost of an activity.
There are two categories of cost driver.
• Resource Cost Driver: It is a measure of the quantity of resources
consumed by an activity. It is used to assign the cost of a resource to an
activity or cost pool.
• Activity Cost Driver: It is a measure of the frequency and intensity of
demand, placed on activities by cost objects. It is used to assign activity
costs to cost objects.
(iv) Cost Pool: It represents a group of various individual cost items. It consists
of costs that have same cause and effect relationship. Example machine
set-up.
Examples of Cost Drivers:

Business Functions Cost Driver

Research and Development • Number of research projects

• Personnel hours on a project

Design of products, services • Number of products in design

and procedures
• Number of parts per product
• Number of engineering hours

Customer Service • Number of service calls

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.55.5 a

• Number of products serviced

• Hours spent on servicing products

Marketing • Number of advertisements

• Number of sales personnel

• Sales revenue

Distribution • Number of units distributed

• Number of customers

4. COST ALLOCATION UNDER ABC

Under activity based cost allocation overheads are attributed to products on the
activity base. Traditionally, overhead costs are grouped together under cost
centre and then absorbed into product costs on some basis such as direct labour
hours. Activity based costing identifies the activities which cause cost to be
incurred and searches for fundamental cost drivers of these activities. Once the
activities and there cost drivers have been identified this information can be used
to assign overheads to cost objects (e.g. products) which have actually caused
cost to be incurred.

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.6 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

5. TRADITIONAL ABSORPTION COSTING VS

ABC
Cost Allocation under Traditional and Activity Based Costing system

Direct Cost
Tracing of Product/
Cost Ascertainment
Cost Service
Indirect Cost
Cost
Allocation

Traditional Costing Activity based Costing

Based on Machine
hours, labour Hours, Based on Cost Driver
Volume etc.

Cost Allocation under Traditional and Activity Based Costing System

In traditional absorption costing overheads are first related to cost centres

(Production & Service Centres) and then to cost objects, i.e., products. In ABC
overheads are related to activities or grouped into cost pools. Then they are
related to the cost objects, e.g., products. The two processes are, therefore, very
similar, but the first stage is different, as ABC uses activities instead of functional
departments (cost centres). The problem with functional departments is that they
tend to include a series of different activities, which incur a number of different
costs that behave in different ways. Activities also tend to run across functions; for
instance, procurement of materials often includes raising a requisition note in a
manufacturing department or stores. It is not raised in the purchasing department
where most procurement costs are incurred. Activity costs tend to behave in a
similar way to each other i.e., they have the same cost driver. Therefore, ABC gives
a more realistic picture of the way in which costs behave.

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.75.7 a

Difference between Activity Based Costing and Traditional Absorption

Costing

Activity Based Costing Traditional Absorption Costing

1. Overheads are related to 1. Overheads are related to cost

activities and grouped into centers/departments.
activity cost pools.

2. Costs are related to activities 2 Costs are related to cost centers

and hence are more realistic. and hence not realistic of cost
behaviour.

3 Activity–wise cost drivers are 3. Time (Hours) are assumed to be

determined. the only cost driver governing
costs in all departments.

4. Activity–wise recovery rates are 4. Either multiple overhead recovery

determined and there is no rates (for each department) or a
concept of a single overhead single overhead recovery rate may
recovery rate. be determined for absorbing
overheads.

5. Cost are assigned to cost 5. Costs are assigned to Cost Units

objects, e.g. customers, i.e. to products, or jobs or hours.
products, services, departments,
etc.

6. Essential activities can be 6. Cost Centers/ departments cannot

simplified and unnecessary be eliminated. Hence, not suitable
activities can be eliminated. for cost control.
Thus, the corresponding costs
are also reduced/ minimized.
Hence ABC aids cost control.

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.8 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

6. LEVEL OF ACTIVITIES UNDER ABC METHO-

DOLOGY/COST HIERARCHY
These categories are generally accepted today, but were first identified by Cooper
(1990). The categories of activities help to determine the type of activity cost
driver required.

The categories of activities are:

Level of Meaning Example

Activities
1. Unit level These are those activities • The use of indirect
activities for which the materials/consumables tends to
consumption of resources increase in proportion to the
can be identified with the number of units produced.
number of units • The inspection or testing of every
produced. item produced, if this was deemed
necessary or, perhaps more likely,
every 100th item produced.
2. Batch The activities such as • Material ordering–where an order
level setting up of a machine is placed for every batch of
activities or processing a purchase production
order are performed each • Machine set-up costs–where
time a batch of goods is machines need resetting between
produced. The cost of each different batch of production.
batch related activities • Inspection of products where the
varies with number of first item in every batch is
batches made, but is inspected rather than every 100th
common (or fixed) for all item quoted above.
units within the batch.
3. Product These are the activities • Designing the product,
level which are performed to • Producing parts specifications
activities support different • Keeping technical drawings of
products in product line products up to date.

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.95.9 a

4. Facilities These are the activities • Maintenance of buildings

level which cannot be directly • Plant security
activities attributed to individual
products. These activities
are necessary to sustain
the manufacturing
process and are common
and joint to all products
manufactured

7. STAGES IN ACTIVITY BASED COSTING (ABC)

The different stages in ABC calculations are listed below:
(1) Identify the different activities within the organisation: Usually the
number of cost centres that a traditional overhead system uses is quite
small, say up to fifteen. In ABC, the number of activities will be much more,
say 200; the exact number will depend on how the management subdivides
the organisation’s activities. It is possible to break the organisation down into
many very small activities. But if ABC is to be acceptable as practical system
it is necessary to use larger groupings, say, 40 activities may be used in
practice. The additional number of activities over cost centres means that
ABC should be more accurate than the traditional method regardless of
anything else. Some activities may be listed as follows:-
• Production schedule changes
• Customer liaison
• Purchasing
• Production process set up
• Quality control
• Material handling
• Maintenance

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.10 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

(2) Relate the overheads to the activities, both support and primary, that
caused them. This creates ‘cost pools’ or ‘cost buckets’. This will be done
using resource cost drivers that reflect causality.
(3) Support activities are then spread across the primary activities on some
suitable base, which reflects the use of the support activity. The base is the
cost driver that is the measure of how the support activities are used.
(4) Determine the activity cost drivers that will be used to relate the
overheads collected in the cost pools to the cost objects/products. This is
based on the factor that drives the consumption of the activity. The
question to ask is – what causes the activity to incur costs? In production
scheduling, for example, the driver will probably be the number of batches
ordered.
(5) Calculate activity cost driver rates for each activity, just as an overhead
absorption rate would be calculated in the traditional system.

Activity cost driver rate = Total cost of activity

Activity driver

The activity driver rate can be used not only to identify cost of products, as
in traditional absorption costing, but it can also be used for costing other
cost objects such as customers/customer segments and distribution
channels. The possibility of costing objects other than products is part of
the benefit of ABC. The activity cost driver rates will be multiplied by the
different amounts of each activity that each product/other cost object
consumes.

Cost allocation under ABC

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.11
5.11
a

Let us take a small example to understand the steps stated above:

Assume that a company makes widgets and the management decides to install an
ABC system. The management decides that all overhead costs will have only three
cost drivers viz. direct labour hours, machine hours and number of purchase
orders. The general ledger of the company shows the following overhead costs –

General Ledger (`)

Perquisite taxes 1,000
Machine maintenance 500
Purchasing Dept. labour 4,000
Fringe benefits 2,000
Purchasing Dept. Supplies 250
Equipment depreciation 750
Electricity 1,250
Employees’ group insurance 1,500
Total 11,250

So, which overheads do you think are driven by direct labour hours?
The answer is

Perquisite taxes ` 1,000

Fringe benefits ` 2,000
Employees’ group insurance ` 1,500
Total ` 4,500

Similarly, overheads driven by machine hours include Machine maintenance,

depreciation and electricity, totaling ` 2,500 and finally overheads driven by
number of purchase orders include purchasing department labour and purchasing
department supplies, totaling ` 4,250.
Now, overhead rate is calculated by the formula
Total cost in the activity pool ÷ Base,
base being the total number of labour hours, machine hours and total number of
purchase orders in the given case.

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.12 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Assume that the total number of labour hours be 1,000 hours, machine hours be
250 hours and total purchase orders be 100 orders.
So, Cost driver rate would be

Cost Driver Rate (`)

` 4,500/ 1,000 ` 4.50 per labour hour

` 2,500/ 250 ` 10 per machine hour

` 4,250/ 100 ` 42.50 per purchase order

Now, let’s allocate the overheads between two widgets A and B the details of
which are given below:

Particulars Widget A Widget B

Labour hours 400 600

Machine Hours 100 150

Purchase Orders 50 50

So, total overhead costs applied to widget A = (400 × ` 4.50) + (100 × ` 10) + (50
× ` 42.50) = ` 4,925
And total overheads applied to widget B = (600 × ` 4.50) + (150 × ` 10) + (50 ×
` 42.50) = ` 6,325
So total overheads = ` 4,925 + ` 6,325 = ` 11,250.

Generally, in the traditional costing method, overheads are applied on the basis
of direct labour hours (total 1,000 labour hours in the given case). So, in that case
the overhead absorption rate would be – ` 11,250/1000 = ` 11.25 per hour and
the total overheads applied to Widget A would have been = 400 × 11.25 =
` 4,500 and to Widget B = 600 × ` 11.25 = ` 6,750.
Hence Widget A would have been under-valued and Widget B over-valued by
` 425.

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.13
5.13
a

Examples of Cost Drivers

Some of the examples of cost drivers for different activity pools in a production
department are stated below:

Activity Cost Pools Related Cost Drivers

Ordering and Receiving Materials cost Number of purchase orders
Setting up machines costs Number of set-ups
Machining costs Machine hours
Assembling costs Number of parts
Inspecting and testing costs Number of tests
Painting costs Number of parts
Supervising Costs Direct labour hours

The process of calculating cost driver rate is illustrated in diagrammatic

presentation as below:

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.14 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

ILLUSTRATION 1
ABC Ltd. is a multiproduct company, manufacturing three products A, B and C. The
budgeted costs and production for the year ending 31st March are as follows:

A B C

Production quantity (Units) 4,000 3,000 1,600

Resources per Unit:

- Direct Materials (Kg.) 4 6 3

- Direct Labour (Minutes) 30 45 60

The budgeted direct labour rate was ` 10 per hour, and the budgeted material cost
was ` 2 per kg. Production overheads were budgeted at ` 99,450 and were
absorbed to products using the direct labour hour rate. ABC Ltd. followed the
Absorption Costing System.

ABC Ltd. is now considering to adopt an Activity Based Costing system. The
following additional information is made available for this purpose.
1. Budgeted overheads were analysed into the following:

(`)

Material handling 29,100

Storage costs 31,200

Electricity 39,150
2. The cost drivers identified were as follows:

Material handling Weight of material handled

Storage costs Number of batches of material

Electricity Number of Machine operations

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.15
5.15
a

3. Data on Cost Drivers was as follows:

A B C

For complete production:

Batches of material 10 5 15

Per unit of production:

Number of Machine operations 6 3 2

You are requested to:
1. PREPARE a statement for management showing the unit costs and total costs
of each product using the absorption costing method.
2. PREPARE a statement for management showing the product costs of each
product using the ABC approach.
3. STATE what are the reasons for the different product costs under the two
approaches?
SOLUTION
1. Traditional Absorption Costing

A B C Total

(a) Quantity (units) 4,000 3,000 1,600 8,600

(b) Direct labour (minutes) 30 45 60 -

(c) Direct labour hours (a × b)/60 minutes 2,000 2,250 1,600 5,850
Overhead rate per direct labour hour:
= Budgeted overheads Budgeted labour hours
= ` 99,450  5,850 hours
= ` 17 per direct labour hour

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.16 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Unit Costs:

A (`) B (`) C (`)

Direct Costs:

- Direct Labour 5.00 7.50 10.00

- Direct Material 8.00 12.00 6.00

Production Overhead: 8.50 12.75 17.00

 ` 17×30   ` 17×45   ` 17×60 
     
 60   60   60 

Total unit costs 21.50 32.25 33.00

Number of units 4,000 3,000 1,600

Total costs 86,000 96,750 52,800

2. Activity Based Costing

A B C Total

Quantity (units) 4,000 3,000 1,600 -

Material Weight per unit (Kg.) 4 6 3 -

Total material weight 16,000 18,000 4,800 38,800

Machine operations per unit 6 3 2 -

Total operations 24,000 9,000 3,200 36,200

Total batches of Material 10 5 15 30

Material handling rate per kg. = ` 29,100  38,800 kg.

= ` 0.75 per kg.

Electricity rate per machine operations = ` 39,150  36,200

= ` 1.081 per machine operations
Storage rate per batch = ` 31,200  30 batches

= ` 1,040 per batch

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Unit Costs:

A (`) B (`) C (`)

Direct Costs:

Direct Labour 5.00 7.50 10.00

Direct material 8.00 12.00 6.00

Production Overheads:

Material Handling 3.00 4.50 2.25

(`0.75  4) (`0.75  6) (`0.75  3)

Electricity 6.49 3.24 2.16

(`1.081  6) (`1.081  3) (`1.081  2)

Storage 2.60 1.73 9.75

 ` 1,040   `1,040   `1,040 
 `10    `5×   `15× 
 4,000   3,000   1,600 
Total unit costs 25.09 28.97 30.16

Number of units 4,000 3,000 1,600

Total costs ` 1,00,360 ` 86,910 ` 48,256

3. Comments: The difference in the total costs under the two systems is due
to the differences in the overheads borne by each of the products. The
Activity Based Costs appear to be more precise.

8. ADVANTAGES OF ACTIVITY BASED COSTING

The main advantages of using Activity Based Costing are:
(i) More accurate costing of products/services.
(ii) Overhead allocation is done on logical basis.

(iii) It enables better pricing policies by supplying accurate cost information.

(iv) Utilizes unit cost rather than just total cost

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(v) Help to identify non-value added activities which facilitates cost reduction.
(vi) It is helpful to the organizations with multiple products.
(vii) It highlights problem areas which require attention of the management.

9. LIMITATIONS OF ACTIVITY BASED COSTING

The main limitations using Activity Based Costing are:

(i) It is more expensive, particularly in comparison with traditional costing

system.
(ii) It is not helpful to the small organizations.
(iii) It may not be applied to organizations with limited products.
(iv) Selection of the most suitable cost driver may not be easy/ may be difficult
or complicated.

10. REQUIREMENTS IN ABC IMPLEMENTATION

A number of distinct practical stages are required in the ABC implementation
which are given as below:
(1) Staff Training: The co-operation of the workforce is critical to the
successful implementation of ABC. Staff training should be done to create
an awareness on the purpose of ABC.
(2) Process Specification: Informal, but structured interviews with key members
of personnel will identify the different stages of the production process, the
commitment of resources to each, processing times and bottlenecks.
(3) Activity Definition: The activities must be defined clearly in the early stage in
order to manage the problems, if any, effectively. There might be overloading
of information from the new data, but the same is needed in codification.
(4) Activity Driver Selection: Cost driver for each activity shall be selected.
(5) Assigning Cost: A single representative activity driver can be used to assign
costs from the activity pools to the cost objects.

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11. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF ACTIVITY

BASED COSTING
11.1 As a Decision-Making Tool
ABC can act as a decision making tool in the following ways:
(i) ABC along with some other cost management technique can be utilized to
improve performance and profitability of an organization.
(ii) Wholesale distributors can gain significant advantage in the decision-
making process through implementation of ABC concepts by correlating
costs to various activities. Introduction of new product or vendor can be
better decided through ABC.
(iii) ABC can assist in decisions related to facility and resource expansion. Often
the basis for relocation or opening of a new distribution center is based on
cost associations. Reduction in freight or other logistic costs can offset the
expense of the new facility, staff or equipment. The ABC model can identify
the specific cost elements being targeted, providing a much clearer picture
which aids in management actions.
(iv) ABC augments decision support for human resources. Since the activity
(and therefore costs) can be associated to an individual, new levels of
financial performance can be determined. This might be evident in the case
of branch management or sales.
(v) Companies who wish to determine price based on cost plus markup basis
find ABC method of costing very relevant and are able to determine
competitive prices for their products.

11.2 As Activity Based Management

Meaning of Activity Based Management
The term Activity Based Management (ABM) is used to describe the cost
management application of ABC. The use of ABC as a costing tool to manage
costs at activity level is known as Activity Based Management (ABM). ABM is
a discipline that focuses on the efficient and effective management of activities as
the route to continuously improving the value received by customers. ABM
utilizes cost information gathered through ABC.

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Various analysis in Activity Based Management

The various types of analysis involved in ABM are as follows:
(1) Cost Driver Analysis: The factors that cause activities to be performed need
to be identified in order to manage activity costs. Cost driver analysis
identifies the causal factors.
(2) Activity Analysis.

(a) Value-Added Activities (VA): The value-added activities are those

activities which are indispensable in order to complete the process.
The customers are usually willing to pay (in some way) for these
services. For example, polishing furniture by a manufacturer dealing in
furniture is a value added activity.
(b) Non-Value-Added Activities (NVA): The NVA activity represents work
that is not valued by the external or internal customer. NVA
activities do not improve the quality or function of a product or
service, but they can adversely affect costs and prices. Moving
materials and machine set up for a production run are examples of
NVA activities.
(3) Performance Analysis: Performance analysis involves the identification of
appropriate measures to report the performance of activity centres or
other organisational units, consistent with each unit’s goals and objectives.
Activity Based Management in Business
Activity Based Management can be used in the following ways

(i) Cost Reduction: ABM helps the organisation to identify costs against
activities and to find opportunities to streamline or reduce the costs or
eliminate the entire activity, especially if there is no value added.

(ii) Business Process Re-engineering: Business process re-engineering

involves examining business processes and making substantial changes
to how organisation currently operates. ABM is a powerful tool for
measuring business performance, determining the cost of business output
and is used as a means of identifying opportunities to improve process
efficiency and effectiveness.

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(iii) Benchmarking: Benchmarking is a process of comparing of ABC-derived

activity costs of one segment of company with those of other
segments. It requires uniformity in the definition of activities and
measurement of their costs.
(iv) Performance Measurement: Many organisations are now focusing on
activity performance as a means of facing competitors and managing costs
by monitoring the efficiency and effectiveness of activities.

Area Measure

Quality of purchased component Zero defects

Quality of output % yield

Customer awareness Orders; number of complaints

11.3 Facilitate Activity Based Budgeting

Meaning of Activity Based Budgeting (ABB)
Activity based budgeting analyse the resource input or cost for each activity. It
provides a framework for estimating the amount of resources required in
accordance with the budgeted level of activity. Actual results can be compared
with budgeted results to highlight both, in financial and non-financial terms,
those activities with major discrepancies from budget for potential reduction in
supply of resources. It is a planning and control system which seeks to support
the objectives of continuous improvement. It means planning and controlling the
expected activities of the organization to derive a cost-effective budget that meet
forecast workload and agreed strategic goals. ABB is the reversing of the ABC
process to produce financial plans and budgets.

Key Elements of ABB

The three key elements of activity based budgeting are as follows:-
 Type of work to be done

 Quantity of work to be done

 Cost of work to be done

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Benefits of ABB
Few benefits of activity based budgeting are as follows:-
(i) Activity Based Budgeting (ABB) can enhance accuracy of financial forecasts
and increasing management understanding.
(ii) When automated, ABB can rapidly and accurately produce financial plans
and models based on varying levels of volume assumptions.
(iii) ABB eliminates much of the needless rework created by traditional
budgeting techniques.

ILLUSTRATION 2
MST Limited has collected the following data for its two activities. It calculates
activity cost rates based on cost driver capacity.

Activity Cost Driver Capacity Cost

Power Kilowatt hours 50,000 kilowatt hours ` 2,00,000

Quality Inspections Number of Inspections 10,000 Inspections ` 3,00,000

The company makes three products M, S and T. For the year ended March 31st, the
following consumption of cost drivers was reported:

Product Kilowatt hours Quality Inspections

M 10,000 3,500

S 20,000 2,500

T 15,000 3,000
Required:
(i) COMPUTE the costs allocated to each product from each activity.

(ii) CALCULATE the cost of unused capacity for each activity.

(iii) DISCUSS the factors the management considers in choosing a capacity level
to compute the budgeted fixed overhead cost rate.

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SOLUTION
(i) Statement of cost allocation to each product from each activity

Product
M (`) S (`) T (`) Total
(`)
Power (Refer 40,000 80,000 60,000 1,80,000
to working (10,000 kWh (20,000 kWh (15,000 kWh
note) × `4) ×`4) ×`4)
Quality 1,05,000 75,000 90,000 2,70,000
Inspections (3,500 (2,500 (3,000
(Refer to inspections inspections × inspections ×
working note) × `30) ` 30) ` 30)
Working note
Rate per unit of cost driver:

Power (` 2,00,000 / 50,000 kWh) ` 4/kWh

Quality Inspection (` 3,00,000 / 10,000 inspections) ` 30 per inspection
(ii) Computation of cost of unused capacity for each activity:

(`)
Power (` 2,00,000 – ` 1,80,000) or 5,000 x 4 20,000
Quality Inspections (` 3,00,000 – ` 2,70,000) or 1,000 x 30 30,000
Total cost of unused capacity 50,000

(iii) Factors management consider in choosing a capacity level to compute

the budgeted fixed overhead cost rate:
• Effect on product costing & capacity management

• Effect on pricing decisions.

• Effect on performance evaluation
• Effect on financial statements

• Regulatory requirements.
• Difficulties in forecasting.

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ILLUSTRATION 3
ABC Ltd. Manufactures two types of machinery equipment Y and Z and
applies/absorbs overheads on the basis of direct-labour hours. The budgeted
overheads and direct-labour hours for the month of December are
` 12,42,500 and 20,000 hours respectively. The information about Company’s
products is as follows:

Equipment Equipment
Y Z
Budgeted Production volume 2,500 units 3,125 units
Direct material cost ` 300 per unit ` 450 per unit
Direct labour cost
Y : 3 hours @ ` 150 per hour
Z : 4 hours @ ` 150 per hour ` 450 ` 600
ABC Ltd.’s overheads of ` 12,42,500 can be identified with three major activities:
Order Processing (` 2,10,000), machine processing ( ` 8,75,000), and product
inspection (` 1,57,500). These activities are driven by number of orders processed,
machine hours worked, and inspection hours, respectively. The data relevant to
these activities is as follows:

Orders processed Machine hours Inspection hours

worked

Y 350 23,000 4,000

Z 250 27,000 11,000

Total 600 50,000 15,000

Required:

(i) Assuming use of direct-labour hours to absorb/apply overheads to production,

COMPUTE the unit manufacturing cost of the equipment Y and Z, if the
budgeted manufacturing volume is attained.
(ii) Assuming use of activity-based costing, COMPUTE the unit manufacturing costs
of the equipment Y and Z, if the budgeted manufacturing volume is achieved.

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(iii) ABC Ltd.’s selling prices are based heavily on cost. By using direct -labour
hours as an application base, CALCULATE the amount of cost distortion
(under-costed or over-costed) for each equipment.
SOLUTION
(i) Overheads application base: Direct labour hours

Equipment Equipment

Y (`) Z (`)

Direct material cost 300 450

Direct labour cost 450 600

Overheads* 186.38 248.50

936.38 1,298.50

Budgeted overheads ` 12, 42,500

*Pre-determined rate = = = `62.125
Budgeted direct labour hours 20,000 hours

(ii) Estimation of Cost-Driver rate

Overhead cost Cost-driver level Cost driver

Activity rate

(`) (`)

Order processing 2,10,000 600 350

Orders processed

Machine 8,75,000 50,000 17.50

processing
Machine hours

Inspection 1,57,500 15,000 10.50

Inspection hours

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Equipment Equipment

Y (`) Z (`)

Direct material cost 300 450

Direct labour cost 450 600

Prime Cost 750 1,050

Overhead Cost
Order processing 350 : 250 or Rs 350 per 1,22,500 87,500
order

Machine processing 23,000 : 27,000 or ` 4,02,500 4,72,500

17.5 per hour

Inspection 4,000 : 11,000 42,000 1,15,500

Total overhead cost 5,67,000 6,75,500

Per unit cost Y (`) Z (`)

5,67,000 /2,500 226.80 ` 216.16

6,75,500/ 3,125

Unit manufacturing cost (Prime Cost + ` 976.80 ` 1,266.16

Overhead per unit)

(iii)

Equipment Equipment
Y (`) Z (`)
Unit manufacturing cost–using direct
labour hours as an application base 936.38 1,298.50
Unit manufacturing cost-using activity 976.80 1,266.16
based costing
Cost distortion (-)40.42 + 32.34
Low volume product Y is under-costed and high volume product Z is over
costed using direct labour hours for overhead absorption.

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ILLUSTRATION 4
‘Humara - Apna’ bank offers three products, viz., deposits, Loans and Credit Cards.
The bank has selected 4 activities for a detailed budgeting exercise, following
activity based costing methods.
The bank wants to know the product wise total cost per unit for the selected
activities, so that prices may be fixed accordingly.
The following information is made available to formulate the budget:

Activity Present Estimation for the budget

Cost (`) period

ATM Services:
(a) Machine Maintenance 4,00,000 All fixed, no change.
(b) Rents 2,00,000 Fully fixed, no change.
(c) Currency Replenishment 1,00,000 Expected to double during
Cost budget period.
7,00,000 (This activity is driven by no. of
ATM transactions)
Computer Processing 5,00,000 Half this amount is fixed and no
change is expected.
The variable portion is expected
to increase to three times the
current level.
(This activity is driven by the
number of computer
transactions)
Issuing Statements 18,00,000 Presently, 3 lakh statements are
made. In the budget period, 5
lakh statements are expected.
For every increase of one lakh
statement, one lakh rupees is the
budgeted increase.
(This activity is driven by the
number of statements)

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Computer Inquiries 2,00,000 Estimated to increase by 80%

during the budget period.
(This activity is driven by
telephone minutes)

The activity drivers and their budgeted quantifies are given below:

Activity Drivers Deposits Loans Credit

Cards

No. of ATM Transactions 1,50,000 --- 50,000

No. of Computer Processing 15,00,000 2,00,000 3,00,000
Transactions
No. of Statements to be issued 3,50,000 50,000 1,00,000
Telephone Minutes 3,60,000 1,80,000 1,80,000
The bank budgets a volume of 58,600 deposit accounts, 13,000 loan accounts, and
14,000 Credit Card Accounts.
Required:

(i) CALCULATE the budgeted rate for each activity.

(ii) PREPARE the budgeted cost statement activity wise.
(iii) COMPUTE the budgeted product cost per account for each product using (i)
and (ii) above.
SOLUTION
Statement Showing “Budgeted Cost per unit of the Product”

Activity Activity Activity No. of Activity Deposits Loans Credit

Cost Driver Units of Rate Cards
(Budgeted) Activity (`) (`) (`) (`)
(` ) Driver
(Budget)

ATM 8,00,000 No. of ATM 2,00,000 4.00 6,00,000 --- 2,00,000

Services Transaction

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Computer 10,00,000 No. of 20,00,000 0.50 7,50,000 1,00,000 1,50,000

Processing Computer
processing
Transaction

Issuing 20,00,000 No. of 5,00,000 4.00 14,00,000 2,00,000 4,00,000

Statements Statements

Customer 3,60,000 Telephone 7,20,000 0.50 1,80,000 90,000 90,000

Inquiries Minutes

Budgeted 41,60,000 29,30,000 3,90,000 8,40,000

Cost

Units of Product (as estimated in the budget period) 58,600 13,000 14,000

Budgeted Cost per unit of the product (`) 50 (`) 30 (`) 60

Working Note

Activity Budgeted Remark

Cost (` )

ATM Services:
(a) Machine 4,00,000 − All fixed, no change.
Maintenance −
(b) Rents 2,00,000 − Fully fixed, no change.
(c) Currency
Replenishment
2,00,000 − Doubled during budget period.
Cost

Total 8,00,000

Computer Processing 2,50,000 − ` 2,50,000 (half of ` 5,00,000) is

fixed and no change is
expected.
− ` 2,50,000 (variable portion) is
expected to increase to three
7,50,000
times the current level.
Total 10,00,000

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Issuing Statements 18,00,000 − Existing.

2,00,000 − 2 lakh statements are expected
to be increased in budgeted
period. For every increase of
one lakh statement, one lakh
rupees is the budgeted
Total 20,00,000 increase.

Computer Inquiries 3,60,000 − Estimated to increase by 80%

during the budget period.
Total 3,60,000 (` 2,00,000 x 180%)

SUMMARY
 Activity based costing is an accounting methodology that assigns costs to
activities rather than products or services. This enables resources &
overhead costs to be more accurately assigned to products & services that
consume them.
 Unit level activities, batch level activities, product level activities and facility
level activities are the categories of activities that help to determine the
type of activity cost driver required.
 ABC is very much useful to the organization with multiple products.
 The limitations of ABC are that, it is very costly and cannot be applied to all
companies.
 The use of ABC as a costing tool to manage costs at activity level is known
as Activity Based Cost Management (ABM). ABM is a discipline that focuses
on the efficient and effective management of activities as the route to
continuously improving the value received by customers. ABM utilizes cost
information gathered through ABC.

 The value-added activities are those activities which are indispensable in

order to complete the process.

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 NVA activity represents work that is not valued by the external or internal
customer. NVA activities do not improve the quality or function of a product
or service, but they can adversely affect costs and prices.
 Activity-based budgeting is a process of planning and controlling the
expected activities for the organisation to derive a cost-effective budget
that meets forecast workload and agreed strategic goals.
 Key elements of ABB are type of work/activity to be performed, quantity of
work/activity to be performed and cost of work/activity to be performed.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. A cost driver is:
(a) An item of production overheads
(b) A common cost which is shared over cost centres
(c) Any cost relating to transport

(d) An activity which generates costs

2. In activity based costing, costs are accumulated by activity using:
(a) Cost drivers

(b) Cost objects

(c) Cost pools
(d) Cost benefit analysis

3. A cost driver:
(a) Is a force behind the overhead cost
(b) Is an allocation base

(c) Is a transaction that is a significant determinant of cost

(d) All of the above

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4. Which of the following is not a correct match:

Activity Cost Driver

(a) Production Scheduling Number of Production runs
(b) Despatching Number of dispatch orders
(c) Goods receiving Goods received orders
(d) Inspection Machine hours

5. Transactions undertaken by support department personnel are the

appropriate cost drivers. Find the one which is not appropriate:
(a) The number of purchase, supplies and customers’ orders drives the cost
associated with new material inventory, work-in-progress and finished
goods inventory
(b) The number of production runs undertaken drives production
scheduling, inspection and material handling
(c) The quality of raw material issued drives the cost of receiving
department costs

(d) The number of packing orders drives the packing costs

6. Steps in ABC include:
(a) Identification of activities and their respective costs
(b) Identification of cost driver of each activity and computation of an
allocation rate per activity
(c) Allocation of overhead cost to products/ services based on the activities
involved
(d) All of the above
7. Which of the following is not a benefit of ABC?

(a) Accurate cost allocation

(b) Improved decision making
(c) Better control on activity and costs

(d) Reduction of prime cost

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8. The steps involved for installation of ABC in a manufacturing company

include the following except:
(a) Borrowing fund
(b) Feasibility study
(c) Building up necessary IT infrastructure and training of line employees
(d) Strategy and value chain analysis
9. Which of the following statements are true: (1) Activity based Management
involves activity analysis and performance measurement. (2) Activity based
costing serves as a major source of information in ABM.
(a) (1) True; (2) False
(b) (1) True; (2) True
(c) (1) False; (2) True
(d) (1) False; (2) False
10. The key elements of activity based budgeting are:
(a) Type of activity to be performed
(b) Quantity of activity to be performed
(c) Cost of activity to be performed
(d) All of the above

Theoretical Questions
1. DEFINE the following terms:
(i) Cost driver
(ii) Activity cost pool
2. EXPLAIN in brief the problems of traditional costing where overhead costs are
allocated based on volume.
3. STATE what is Activity based costing. How are product costs determined in
ABC?

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4. A manufacturing company in India wants to replace its traditional costing

system by ABC. It produces a number of products, each having complex
production process of different degree. SUGGEST various requirements for
installing activity based costing.
5. DESCRIBE various levels of activities under ABC.
6. STATE what are the benefits of ABC.
7. STATE what are the limitations of ABC.
8. STATE what are the practical applications of ABC.
9. STATE what is Activity based Management. How does ABC help ABM?
10. DEFINE Activity based Budgeting. STATE what are its key elements.

Practical Problems
1. Woolmark Ltd. manufactures three types of products namely P, Q and R. The
data relating to a period are as under:

Particulars P Q R

Machine hours per unit 10 18 14

Direct Labour hours per unit 4 12 8

Direct Material per unit ( `) 90 80 120

Production (units) 3,000 5,000 20,000

Currently the company uses traditional costing method and absorbs all
production overheads on the basis of machine hours. The machine hour rate
of overheads is ` 6 per hour. Direct labour hour rate is ` 20 per hour.
The company proposes to use activity based costing system and the activity
analysis is as under:

Particulars P Q R

Batch size (units) 150 500 1,000

Number of purchase orders per batch 3 10 8

Number of inspections per batch 5 4 3

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The total production overheads are analysed as under:

Machine set up costs……………………………………… 20%

Machine operation costs……………………………………. 30%

Inspection costs……………………………………………… 40%

Material procurement related costs……………………….. 10%

Required
(i) CALCULATE the cost per unit of each product using traditional method
of absorbing all production overheads on the basis of machine hours.
(ii) CALCULATE the cost per unit of each product using activity based
costing principles.
2. RST Limited specializes in the distribution of pharmaceutical products. It buys
from the pharmaceutical companies and resells to each of the three different
markets.
(i) General Supermarket Chains
(ii) Drugstore Chains
(iii) Chemist Shops
The following data for the month of April in respect of RST Limited has been
reported:

General Drugstore Chemist

Supermarket Chains Shops
Chains
(` ) (` ) (` )

Average revenue per delivery 84,975 28,875 5,445

Average cost of goods sold per 82,500 27,500 4,950

delivery

Number of deliveries 330 825 2,750

In the past, RST Limited has used gross margin percentage to evaluate the
relative profitability of its distribution channels.

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The company plans to use activity–based costing for analysing the

profitability of its distribution channels.
The Activity analysis of RST Limited is as under:

Activity Area Cost Driver

Customer purchase order processing Purchase orders by customers

Line-item ordering Line-items per purchase order

Store delivery Store deliveries

Cartons dispatched to stores Cartons dispatched to a store per

delivery

Shelf-stocking at customer store Hours of shelf-stocking

The April month’s operating costs (other than cost of goods sold) of RST
Limited are ` 8,27,970. These operating costs are assigned to five activity
areas. The cost in each area and the quantity of the cost allocation basis u sed
in that area for the month of April are as follows:

Activity Area Total costs (`) Total Units of Cost

Allocation Base

Customer purchase order 2,20,000 5,500 orders

processing

Line-item ordering 1,75,560 58,520 line items

Store delivery 1,95,250 3,905 store deliveries

Cartons dispatched to 2,09,000 2,09,000 cartons

store

Shelf-stocking at customer 28,160 1,760 hours

store

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Other data for the month of April include the following:

General Drugstore Chemist

Supermarket Chains Shops
Chains
Total number of orders 385 990 4,125
Average number of line items 14 12 10
per order
Total number of store deliveries 330 825 2,750
Average number of cartons 300 80 16
shipped per store delivery
Average number of hours of 3 0.6 0.1
shelf-stocking per store delivery
Required:
(i) COMPUTE gross-margin percentage for each of its three distribution
channels and compute RST Limited’s operating income.
(ii) COMPUTE the rate per unit of the cost-allocation base for each of the
five activity areas.
(iii) COMPUTE the operating income of each distribution channel using the
activity-based costing information. Comment on the results. What new
insights are available with the activity-based cost information?
(iv) DESCRIBE four challenges one would face in assigning the total
operating costs of ` 8,27,970 to five activity areas.
3. Family Store wants information about the profitability of individual product
lines: Soft drinks, Fresh produce and Packaged food. Family store provides the
following data for the current year for each product line:

Soft drinks Fresh Packaged

produce food
Revenues ` 39,67,500 ` 1,05,03,000 ` 60,49,500
Cost of goods sold ` 30,00,000 ` 75,00,000 ` 45,00,000
Cost of bottles returned ` 60,000 `0 `0

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Number of purchase orders 360 840 360

placed
Number of deliveries received 300 2,190 660
Hours of shelf-stocking time 540 5,400 2,700
Items sold 1,26,000 11,04,000 3,06,000

Family store also provides the following information for the current year:

Activity Description of activity Total Cost Cost-allocation

base

Bottles Returning of empty ` 60,000 Direct tracing to

returns bottles soft drink line

Ordering Placing of orders for ` 7,80,000 1,560 purchase

purchases orders

Delivery Physical delivery and ` 12,60,000 3,150 deliveries

receipt of goods

Shelf Stocking of goods on ` 8,64,000 8,640 hours of

stocking store shelves and on- shelf-stocking time
going restocking

Customer Assistance provided to ` 15,36,000 15,36,000 items

Support customers including sold
check-out

Required:
(i) Family store currently allocates support cost (all cost other than cost of
goods sold) to product lines on the basis of cost of goods sold of each
product line. CALCULATE the operating income and operating income
as a % of revenues for each product line.

(ii) If Family Store allocates support costs (all costs other than cost of goods
sold) to product lines using and activity-based costing system,
CALCULATE the operating income and operating income as a % of
revenues for each product line.

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.39
5.39
a

4. Alpha Limited has decided to analyse the profitability of its five new
customers. It buys bottled water at ` 90 per case and sells to retail customers
at a list price of ` 108 per case. The data pertaining to five customers are:

Customers

A B C D E

Cases sold 4,680 19,688 1,36,800 71,550 8,775

Listed Selling Price ` 108 ` 108 ` 108 ` 108 ` 108

Actual Selling Price ` 108 ` 106.20 ` 99 ` 104.40 ` 97.20
Number of 15 25 30 25 30
Purchase orders

Number of 2 3 6 2 3
Customer visits

Number of 10 30 60 40 20
deliveries

Kilometers 20 6 5 10 30
travelled per
delivery

Number of 0 0 0 0 1
expedited deliveries

Its five activities and their cost drivers are:

Activity Cost Driver Rate

Order taking ` 750 per purchase order

Customer visits ` 600 per customer visit

Deliveries ` 5.75 per delivery Km travelled

Product handling ` 3.75 per case sold

Expedited deliveries ` 2,250 per expedited delivery

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.40 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Required:
(i) COMPUTE the customer-level operating income of each of five retail
customers now being examined (A, B, C, D and E). Comment on the results.
(ii) STATE what insights are gained by reporting both the list selling price
and the actual selling price for each customer.
5. BABYSOFT is a global brand created by Bio-organic Ltd. The company
manufactures three ranges of beauty soaps i.e. BABYSOFT- Gold, BABYSOFT-
Pearl, and BABYSOFT- Diamond. The budgeted costs and production for the
month of December are as follows:

BABYSOFT- Gold BABYSOFT- Pearl BABYSOFT- Diamond

Production 4,000 3,000 2,000

of soaps
(Units)

Resources Qty Rate Qty Rate Qty Rate

per Unit:

Essential 60 ml ` 200 / 100 ml 55 ml ` 300 / 100 ml 65 ml ` 300 / 100 ml

Oils

Cocoa 20 g ` 200 / 100 g 20 g ` 200 / 100 g 20 g ` 200 / 100 g

Butter

Filtered 30 ml ` 15 / 100 ml 30 ml ` 15 / 100 ml 30 ml ` 15 / 100 ml

Water

Chemicals 10 g ` 30 / 100 g 12 g ` 50 / 100 g 15 g ` 60 / 100 g

Direct 30 ` 10 / hour 40 ` 10 / hour 60 ` 10 / hour

Labour minutes minutes minutes

Bio-organic Ltd. followed an Absorption Costing System and absorbed its

production overheads, to its products using direct labour hour rate, which
were budgeted at ` 1,98,000.
Now, Bio-organic Ltd. is considering adopting an Activity Based Costing
system. For this, additional information regarding budgeted overheads and
their cost drivers is provided below:

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.41
5.41
a

Particulars (` ) Cost drivers

Forklifting cost 58,000 Weight of material lifted
Supervising cost 60,000 Direct labour hours
Utilities 80,000 Number of Machine operations
The number of machine operations per unit of production are 5, 5, and 6 for
BABYSOFT- Gold, BABYSOFT- Pearl, and BABYSOFT- Diamond respectively.
(Consider (i) Mass of 1 litre of Essential Oils and Filtered Water equivalent to
0.8 kg and 1 kg respectively (ii) Mass of output produced is equivalent to the
mass of input materials taken together.)
You are requested to:
(i) PREPARE a statement showing the unit costs and total costs of each
product using the absorption costing method.
(ii) PREPARE a statement showing the product costs of each product using
the ABC approach.
(iii) STATE what are the reasons for the different product costs under the
two approaches.

ANSWERS
Answers to the MCQs
1. (d) 2. (c) 3. (d) 4. (d) 5. (c) 6. (d)

7. (d) 8. (a) 9. (b) 10. (d)

Answers to the Theoretical Questions

1. Please refer paragraph 3
2. Please refer paragraph 1

3. Please refer paragraph 2, 5 and 7

4. Please refer paragraph 10
5. Please refer paragraph 6

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.42 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

6. Please refer paragraph 8

7. Please refer paragraph 9
8. Please refer paragraph 11
9. Please refer paragraph 11.2
10. Please refer paragraph 11.3

Answers to the Practical Problems

1. (i) Statement Showing “Cost per unit - Traditional Method”

Particulars of Costs P Q R
(`) (`) (`)

Direct Materials 90 80 120

Direct Labour [(4, 12, 8 hours)  ` 20] 80 240 160
Production Overheads [(10, 18, 14 hours)  ` 6] 60 108 84
Cost per unit 230 428 364
(ii) Statement Showing “Cost per unit - Activity Based Costing”

Products P Q R

Production (units) 3,000 5,000 20,000

(`) (`) (`)

Direct Materials (90, 80, 120) 2,70,000 4,00,000 24,00,000

Direct Labour (80, 240, 160) 2,40,000 12,00,000 32,00,000

Machine Related Costs @ ` 1.80 per

hour 54,000 1,62,000 5,04,000
(30,000, 90,000, 2,80,000)

Setup Costs @ ` 9,600 per setup

(20, 10, 20) 1,92,000 96,000 1,92,000

Inspection Costs @ ` 4,800 per

inspection 4,80,000 1,92,000 2,88,000

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.43
5.43
a

Products P Q R

(100, 40, 60)

Purchase Related Costs @ ` 750 per

purchase (60, 100, 160) 45,000 75,000 1,20,000

Total Costs 12,81,000 21,25,000 67,04,000

Cost per unit (Total Cost  Units) 427.00 425.00 335.20

Workings
Number of Batches, Purchase Orders, and Inspections-

Particulars P Q R Total

A. Production (units) 3,000 5,000 20,000

B. Batch Size (units) 150 500 1,000
C. Number of Batches (A÷B) 20 10 20 50
D. Number of Purchase Order per
batch 3 10 8
E. Total Purchase Orders [C  D] 60 100 160 320
F. Number of Inspections per 5 4 3
batch
G. Total Inspections [C  F] 100 40 60 200
Total Machine Hours-

Particulars P Q R

A. Machine Hours per unit 10 18 14

B. Production (units) 3,000 5,000 20,000
C. Total Machine Hours [A  B] 30,000 90,000 2,80,000
Total Machine Hours = 4,00,000
Total Production Overheads-
= 4,00,000 hrs.  ` 6 = ` 24,00,000

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.44 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Cost Driver Rates-

Cost Pool % Overheads Cost Driver Cost Cost Driver

Basis Driver Rate
(`) (Units) (`)

Setup 20% 4,80,000 Number of 50 9,600 per

batches Setup

Inspection 40% 9,60,000 Number of 200 4,800 per

inspections Inspection

Purchases 10% 2,40,000 Number of 320 750 per

purchases Purchase

Machine 30% 7,20,000 Machine 4,00,000 1.80 per

Operation Hours Machine Hour

2. (i) RST Limited’s

Statement of operating income and gross margin percentage
for each of its three distribution channel

Particulars General Super Drugstore Chemist Shops Total

Market Chains
Chains

Revenues: (`) 2,80,41,750 2,38,21,875 1,49,73,750 6,68,37,375

(330 × ` 84,975) (825 × ` 28,875) (2,750 × ` 5,445)

Less: Cost of 2,72,25,000 2,26,87,500 1,36,12,500 635,25,000

goods sold: (330 × ` 82,500) (825 × ` 27,500) (2,750 × ` 4,950)
(`)

Gross Margin: 8,16,750 11,34,375 13,61,250 33,12,375

(`)

Less: Other
operating 8,27,970
costs: (`)

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.45
5.45
a

Operating 24,84,405
income: (`)

Gross Margin 2.91% 4.76 % 9.09% 4.96%

Operating 3.72
income %

(ii) Computation of rate per unit of the cost allocation base for

each of the five activity areas for the month of April

(`)

Customer purchase order processing 40 per order

(` 2,20,000/ 5,500 orders)
Line item ordering 3 per line item order
(` 1,75,560/ 58,520 line items)
Store delivery 50 per delivery
(` 1,95,250/ 3,905 store deliveries)
Cartons dispatched 1 per dispatch
(` 2,09,000/ 2,09,000 dispatches)
Shelf-stocking at customer store ( ` ) 16 Per hour
(` 28,160/ 1,760 hours)

(iii) Operating Income Statement of each distribution channel

in April (Using the Activity based Costing information)

General Drugstore Chemist

Super Chains Shops
Market
Chains
Gross margin (`) : (A) 8,16,750 11,34,375 13,61,250
(Refer to (i) part of the answer)
Operating cost (`): (B) 1,62,910 1,90,410 4,74,650
(Refer to working note)

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.46 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Operating income (`): (A–B) 6,53,840 9,43,965 8,86,600

Operating income (in %) 2.33 3.96 5.92

(Operating income/ Revenue)
× 100

Comments and new insights: The activity-based cost information

highlights, how the ‘Chemist Shops’ uses a larger amount of RST Ltd.’s
resources per revenue than do the other two distribution channels.
Ratio of operating costs to revenues, across these markets is:

General supermarket chains 0.58%

(` 1,62,910/ ` 2,80,41,750) × 100
Drug store chains 0.80%
(` 1,90,410/ ` 2,38,21,875) × 100
Chemist shops 3.17%
(` 4,74,650/ ` 1,49,73,750) ×100

Working note:

Computation of operating cost of each distribution channel:

General Drugstore Chemist

Super Chains Shops
Market
(`) (`)
Chains (`)

Customer 15,400 39,600 1,65,000

purchase order (` 40 × 385 (` 40 × 990 (` 40 ×4125
processing orders) orders) orders)
Line item 16,170 35,640 1,23,750
ordering (` 3 × 14 x (` 3 × 12 x (` 3 × 10 ×
385) 990) 4125)
Store delivery 16,500 41,250 1,37,500
(` 50 × 330 (` 50 × 825 (` 50 × 2750
deliveries) deliveries) deliveries)

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.47
5.47
a

Cartons 99,000 66,000 44,000

dispatched ( ` 1× 300 ( ` 1 × 80 ( ` 1 × 16
cartons × 300 cartons × cartons ×
deliveries) 825 2,750
deliveries) deliveries)
Shelf stocking 15,840 7,920 4,400
(` 16 × 330 (` 16 × 825 (` 16 × 2,750
deliveries × 3 deliveries × deliveries ×
Av. hrs.) 0.6 Av. hrs) 0.1 Av. hrs)
Operating cost 1,62,910 1,90,410 4,74,650

(iv) Challenges faced in assigning total operating cost of ` 8,27,970:

• Choosing an appropriate cost driver for activity area.
• Developing a reliable data base for the chosen cost driver.
• Deciding, how to handle costs that may be common across
several activities.
• Choice of the time period to compute cost rates per cost driver.
• Behavioural factors
3. Working notes:
1. Total support cost:

(`)

Bottles returns 60,000

Ordering 7,80,000

Delivery 12,60,000

Shelf stocking 8,64,000

Customer support 15,36,000

Total support cost 45,00,000

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.48 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

2. Percentage of support cost to cost of goods sold (COGS):

Total support cost
= ×100
Total cost of goods sold
` 45,00,000
= ×100 = 30%
` 1,50,00,000

3. Cost for each activity cost driver:

Activity Total cost Cost Cost driver rate

(1) (`) allocation (4)=[(2)÷(3)]
(2) base
(3)
Ordering 7,80,000 1,560 purchase ` 500 per
orders purchase order
Delivery 12,60,000 3,150 ` 400 per delivery
deliveries
Shelf-stocking 8,64,000 8,640 hours ` 100 per stocking
hour
Customer 15,36,000 15,36,000 ` 1 per item sold
support items sold
(i) Statement of Operating income and Operating income as a
percentage of revenues for each product line
(When support costs are allocated to product lines on the basis of cost of
goods sold of each product)

Soft Fresh Packaged Total (`)

Drinks (`) Produce Foods (`)
(`)

Revenues: (A) 39,67,500 1,05,03,000 60,49,500 2,05,20,000

Cost of Goods sold 30,00,000 75,00,000 45,00,000 1,50,00,000

(COGS): (B)

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.49
5.49
a

Support cost (30% of 9,00,000 22,50,000 13,50,000 45,00,000

COGS): (C)
(Refer working notes)

Total cost: (D) = {(B) + 39,00,000 97,50,000 58,50,000 1,95,00,000

(C)}

Operating income: E= 67,500 7,53,000 1,99,500 10,20,000

{(A)-(D)}

Operating income as a 1.70% 7.17% 3.30% 4.97%

percentage of revenues:
(E/A) × 100)

(ii) Statement of Operating income and Operating income as a

percentage of revenues for each product line
(When support costs are allocated to product lines using an activity-
based costing system)

Soft Fresh Packaged Total

drinks Produce Food (`)
(`) (`) (`)

Revenues: (A) 39,67,500 1,05,03,000 60,49,500 2,05,20,000

Cost & Goods sold 30,00,000 75,00,000 45,00,000 1,50,00,000

Bottle return costs 60,000 0 0 60,000

Ordering cost* 1,80,000 4,20,000 1,80,000 7,80,000

(360:840:360)

Delivery cost* 1,20,000 8,76,000 2,64,000 12,60,000

(300:2190:660)

Shelf stocking cost* 54,000 5,40,000 2,70,000 8,64,000

(540:5400:2700)

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.50 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Customer Support cost* 1,26,000 11,04,000 3,06,000 15,36,000

(1,26,000:11,04,000:
3,06,000)
Total cost: (B) 35,40,000 1,04,40,000 55,20,000 1,95,00,000
Operating income C:{(A)- 4,27,500 63,000 5,29,500 10,20,000
(B)}
Operating income as a % 10.78% 0.60% 8.75% 4.97%
of revenues
* Refer to working note 3
4. Working note:
Computation of revenues (at listed price), discount, cost of goods sold
and customer level operating activities costs:

Customers

A B C D E

Cases sold: 4,680 19,688 1,36,800 71,550 8,775

(a)
Revenues 5,05,440 21,26,304 1,47,74,400 77,27,400 9,47,700
(at listed
price) (`):
(b)
{(a) × `
108)}
Discount - 35,438 12,31,200 2,57,580 94,770
( ` ): (c)
(19,688 (1,36,800 (71,550 (8,775
{(a) ×
cases × cases × cases × cases ×
Discount
` 1.80) ` 9) ` 3.60) ` 10.80)
per case}
Cost of 4,21,200 17,71,920 1,23,12,000 64,39,500 7,89,750
goods sold
(`) : (d)
{(a) × ` 90}

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.51
5.51
a

Customer level operating activities costs

Order 11,250 18,750 22,500 18,750 22,500
taking costs
(`):
(No. of
purchase ×
`750)
Customer 1,200 1,800 3,600 1,200 1,800
visits costs
(`)
(No. of
customer
visits ×
` 600)

Delivery 1,150 1,035 1,725 2,300 3,450

vehicles (5.75 x
(5.75 x 30 x (5.75 x 60x 5) (5.75 x 40 x (5.75 x 20
travel costs 10x20)
6) 10) x 30)
(`)

(` 5.75 per
km)

(Kms
travelled by
delivery
vehicles ×
` 5.75 per
km.)

Product 17,550 73,830 5,13,000 2,68,313 32,906

handling
costs (`)

{(a) ×` 3.75}

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.52 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Cost of - - - - 2,250
expediting
deliveries (`)

{No. of
expedited
deliveries ×
` 2,250}

Total cost of 31,150 95,415 5,40,825 2,90,563 62,906

customer
level
operating
activities (`)

(i) Computation of Customer level operating income

Customers
A (`) B (`) C (`) D (`) E (`)
Revenues 5,05,440 21,26,304 1,47,74,400 77,27,400 9,47,700
(At list price)
(Refer to
working note)
Less: Discount - 35,438 12,31,200 2,57,580 94,770
(Refer to
working note)
Revenue 5,05,440 20,90,866 1,35,43,200 74,69,820 8,52,930
(At actual
price)
Less: Cost of 4,21,200 17,71,920 1,23,12,000 64,39,500 7,89,750
goods sold
(Refer to
working note)
Gross margin 84,240 3,18,946 12,31,200 10,30,320 63,180

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.53
5.53
a

Less: 31,150 95,415 5,40,825 2,90,563 62,906

Customer
level
operating
activities costs
(Refer to
working note)

Customer 53,090 2,23,531 6,90,375 7,39,757 274

level
operating
income

Comment on the results:

Customer D is the most profitable customer. D’s profits are even

higher than C (whose revenue is the highest) despite having only
52.30% of the unit volume of customer C. The main reason is that C
receives a discount of ` 9 per case while customer D receives only a
` 3.60 discount per case.

Customer E is the least profitable. The profits of E is even less than A

(whose revenue is least) Customer E received a discount of ` 10.80 per
case, makes more frequent orders, requires more customer visits and
requires more delivery kms. in comparison with customer A.

(ii) Insight gained by reporting both the list selling price and the
actual selling price for each customer:

Separate reporting of both-the listed and actual selling prices enables

Alpha Ltd. to examine which customer has received what discount per
case, whether the discount received has any relationship with the sales
volume. The data given below provides us with the following
information;

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.54 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Sales volume Discount per case (`)

C (1,36,800 cases) 9.00

D (71,550 cases) 3.60

B (19,688 cases) 1.80

E (8,775 cases) 10.80

A (4,680 cases) 0
The above data clearly shows that the discount given to customers per
case has a direct relationship with sales volume, except in the case of
customer E. The reasons for ` 10.80 discount per case for customer E
should be explored.
5. (i) Traditional Absorption Costing

BABYSOFT- BABYSOFT- BABYSOFT- Total

Gold Pearl Diamond

(a) Production of soaps 4,000 3,000 2,000 9,000

(Units)

(b) Direct labour 30 40 60 -

(minutes)

(c) Direct labour hours 2,000 2,000 2,000 6,000

(a × b)/60 minutes
Overhead rate per direct labour hour:
= Budgeted overheads  Budgeted labour hours
= ` 1,98,000  6,000 hours
= ` 33 per direct labour hour

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.55
5.55
a

Unit Costs:

BABYSOFT- BABYSOFT- BABYSOFT-

Gold (`) Pearl (`) Diamond (`)

Direct Costs:

- Direct Labour 5.00 6.67 10.00

 10×30   10×40   10×60 
     
 60   60   60 

- Direct Material 167.50 215.50 248.50

(Refer working
note1)

Production Overhead 16.50 22.00 33.00

 33×30   33×40   33×60 
     
 60   60   60 

Total unit costs 189.00 244.17 291.50

Number of units 4,000 3,000 2,000

Total costs 7,56,000 7,32,510 5,83,000

Working note-1
Calculation of Direct material cost

BABYSOFT- BABYSOFT- BABYSOFT-

Gold (`) Pearl (`) Diamond (`)

120.00 165.00 195.00

Essential oils  200×60   300×55   300×65 
     
 100   100   100 

40.00 40.00 40.00

Cocoa Butter  200×20   200×20   200×20 
     
 100   100   100 

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 a 5.56 COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Filtered 4.50 4.50 4.50

water  15×30   15×30   15×30 
     
 100   100   100 

Chemicals 3.00 6.00 9.00

 30×10   50×12   60×15 
     
 100   100   100 

Total costs 167.50 215.50 248.50

(ii) Activity Based Costing

BABYSOFT- BABYSOFT- BABYSOFT- Total

Gold Pearl Diamond

Quantity (units) 4,000 3,000 2,000 -

Weight per unit 108 106 117 -

(grams) {(60×0.8)+20+ {(55×0.8)+20 {(65×0.8)+20+
30+10} +30+12} 30+15}

Total weight 4,32,000 3,18,000 2,34,000 9,84,000

(grams)

Direct labour 30 40 60 -
(minutes)

Direct labour 2,000 2,000 2,000 6,000

hours  4,000×30   3,000×40   2,000×60 
     
 60   60   60 
Machine 5 5 6 -
operations per
unit

Total 20,000 15,000 12,000 47,000

operations
Forklifting rate per gram = ` 58,000  9,84,000 grams

= ` 0.06 per gram

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

 ACTIVITY BASED COSTING 5.57
5.57
a

Supervising rate per direct = ` 60,000  6,000 hours

labour hour = ` 10 per labour hour
Utilities rate per machine
operations = ` 80,000  47,000 machine operations
= ` 1.70 per machine operations
Unit Costs under ABC:

BABYSOFT- BABYSOFT- BABYSOFT-

Gold (`) Pearl (`) Diamond (`)

Direct Costs:

- Direct Labour 5.00 6.67 10.00

- Direct material 167.50 215.50 248.50

Production Overheads:

- Forklifting cost 6.48 6.36 7.02

(0.06  108) (0.06  106) (0.06  117)

- Supervising cost 5.00 6.67 10.00

 10×30   10×40   10×60 
     
 60   60   60 

Utilities 8.50 8.50 10.20

(1.70  5) (1.70  5) (1.70  6)

Total unit costs 192.48 243.70 285.72

Number of units 4,000 3,000 2,000

Total costs 7,69,920 7,31,100 5,71,440

(iii) Comments: The difference in the total costs under the two systems is
due to the differences in the overheads borne by each of the products.
The Activity Based Costs appear to be more accurate

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

© The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India