Overheads
Overheads
OVERVIEW
Objective
OVERHEADS Terminology
Allocation, apportionment
& absorption
1 OVERHEADS
1.1 Terminology
1.2.1 Allocation
Charging to a cost centre those overheads that result solely from its existence, e.g.
1.2.3 Apportionment
When an overhead is common to more than one cost centre it must be shared out or split on an
equitable basis, e.g.
1.2.4 Absorption
Attributing the overheads accumulated by a cost centre to the cost units passing through it,
e.g.
Illustration 1
As illustrated above – is appropriate if only one type of unit is produced by a cost centre.
Appropriate where more than one type of unit is produced each taking a different amount of
time.
Illustration 2
Sam produces calculators and computers in one production department, with £15,000
overheads. He has planned production of 3,000 calculators each taking 1 hour, and
2,000 computers each taking 6 hours.
Solution
Total overheads
Overhead absorption rate per hour =
Total planned hours worked
£15,000
= = £1/hour
(3,000 × 1) + (2,000 × 6)
This is a fairer method of absorbing the overhead as it recognises the greater time taken to
produce a computer rather than a calculator.
Example 1
Production data
Sofas Chairs
Volume (units) 100 400
£ £
Direct costs per unit:
Materials (£10.00 per kg) 80.00 30.00
Labour (£2.50 per hr) 105.00 42.50
Other information
Sofas and chairs pass through two production cost centres; the Assembly department
and the Trimming department. A sofa takes 24 hrs in the Assembly department and 18
hrs in the Trimming department. A chair takes 9 hrs in the Assembly department and 8
hrs in the Trimming department.
The Assembly department occupies approximately three quarters of the area of the
factory.
The production manager, on average, spends twice as long supervising the 30 workers
in the Assembly department as he does supervising the 70 workers in the Trimming
department.
The written down value of the equipment in the Assembly department and the
Trimming department is £104,500 and £115,500 respectively.
Materials storage costs should be apportioned two fifths to Assembly and three fifths to
Trimming.
Required:
(b) Calculate the overhead cost per unit for each product.
Solution
(a) Overhead
Basis Ratio Assembly Trimming
£ £
Canteen
Machine depn &
machine repairs
Rent and rates
Prod man’s salary
Heat and light
Materials storage
______ ______
______ ______
WORKINGS
_____
Absorption rate =
_____
Absorption rate =
_____
Chair: Assembly
Trimming
_____
_____
2 SERVICE DEPARTMENTS
2.1 Overview
Steps
Rent Electricity Indirect Indirect Establish cost centres and
materials labour
1 Allocate and
2(a) apportion
overheads to cost centres
n
Product X 3 Absorb prod cost
centre overheads into
Product Y
cost units via
Product Z absorption rates
Direct Direct
materials labour
2.2 Explanation
Absorption is the process of charging overhead into a cost unit. The overhead is absorbed
while a product passes through a cost centre.
Products do not pass through service cost centres and therefore an absorption rate will not be
calculated for the service cost centre. Absorption rates are only calculated for production
departments.
This is why overhead in service cost centres must be reapportioned to production cost centres.
.
This secondary apportionment should be done on a fair basis to reflect the benefit derived
from the service centre.
Example 2
A firm has two production departments and two service departments. It makes two
products and its total overhead bill for the year is as follows.
£
Rent 20,000
Depreciation – machinery 10,000
– buildings 8,000
Electricity 5,000
Indirect materials 15,000
———
58,000
———
Required:
STEPS 1 and 2(a) – Allocate (1) and primarily apportion (2(a)) overheads to cost centres.
Direct method
Step-down method
Reciprocal method – 2 methods
Reciprocal services (if any) are ignored. The service department costs are reapportioned to
production departments only.
Services that do most work for other service departments are allocated first. Reciprocal
services (if any) are then ignored.
Maintenance (55:40)
——— ——— ——— ———
– –
——— ——— ——— ———
Maintenance (55:40:5)
——— ———
Canteen (50:30:20)
——— ———
Maintenance (55:40:5)
——— ———
Canteen (50:30)
——— ——— ———
——— ———
Let c be
Let m be
c =
m =
There are numerous ways in which these equations can be solved either simultaneously
and/or by substitution – the suggested solution is only one way.
c =
m =
STEP 3
The firm’s two products have the following direct costs per unit.
Product A B
£ £
Direct Materials 7.00 5.00
Direct Labour
Pressing A: 3 hrs/unit 15.00
B: 2 hrs/unit 10.00
Assembly A: 2 hrs/unit 8.00
B: 1 hr/unit 4.00
——— ———
Prime cost 30.00 19.00
It has been decided to absorb overheads into products on the basis of labour hours.
Required:
Note: A reciprocal method must be used for reciprocal services unless told otherwise.
——— ———
——— ———
Assembly
_____ _____
Overhead cost per unit
_____ _____
3 ABSORPTION
A single overhead rate computed for the entire factory by omitting the first of these two
stages.
Cost units passing through centres with high overhead costs (e.g. machine shops)
will be under-costed
Those passing through low overhead centres (e.g. an assembly department) will be
over-costed.
May be used where they are an approximation to departmental rates as they simplify product
cost calculations.
As management needs to know overhead costs per unit in advance e.g. to ensure sales price
covers all costs, they calculate predetermined overhead absorption rates, i.e.
Budgeted (forecast) overheads for the next year
Budgeted (forecast) activity (e.g. direct labour hours)
This standard absorption rate is then used during each period (e.g. month) to charge
production overheads through the management accounting profit and loss account.
For example every time labour works one hour a standard amount of overhead is charged into
cost of sales.
Total overhead absorbed = standard rate x actual activity during the period .
At the end of each period the cost accountant must check that the correct amount of overhead
has been charged through the profit and loss account.
If overhead absorbed > actual overhead incurred then this is described as over-absorption and
the difference is written off as a credit to cost of sales or to the profit figure (there is on rule
about exactly where the adjustment is made).
If overhead absorbed < actual overhead incurred then this is described as under-absorption
and the difference is written off as a debit to cost of sales or to the profit figure.
Activity in a specific month may be higher or lower than the long-run average level used to
calculate the standard rate.
If activity in a particular period is higher than normal levels then too much fixed cost will be
charged into cost of sales i.e. over-absorption. If activity is below normal levels then under-
absorption will occur.
You may feel that the above system for accounting for overheads is rather complex – rather
than simply showing the actual overhead for a period (as in financial accounting) we go
through three steps when showing cost accounting i.e.
(2) during the period use the standard rate to charge overhead through
the cost accounts (standard rate x actual activity)
There are two reasons you should show the detailed accounting for overheads in the paper 1,2
exam:
– to ensure you get all the marks! Although there is no rule in practice
which tells management accountants how to deal with overheads
the way it is shown in this study system is according to the syllabus.
The next section works through the calculation of under/over-absorption and should help to
clarify the system. Furthermore you will see under/over-absorption again in session 6 on
absorption costing.
Illustration 3
Continuing with Example 2, the following figures applied to the assembly department.
Budgeted Actual
Overhead £32,844 £35,742
Direct labour hours 4,000 hrs 4,200 hrs
Solution
£32,844
Predetermined absorption rate = = £8.211 per direct labour hour
4 ,000
£
Actual overhead incurred 35,742
Overhead absorbed (recovered)
Actual hours × Predetermined absorption rate
(4,200 × £8.211) 34,486
_____
Under-absorption
1,256
_____
Under/ (over) absorption is simply written off in total through the profit and loss account i.e.
is not split between the profit and loss account and balance sheet. .
So unrelated to production and selling that any basis of apportionment is very subjective but
possible methods are to.
This session is perhaps the most complex of the three concerning resource inputs. However
for decision making, overhead apportionment and absorption may be considered as irrelevant
due to the subjective nature of sharing overheads between products.
That does not mean that the analysis of overheads becomes redundant as for many
organisations they constitute a large proportion of totals costs.
Overheads may therefore need to be analysed more accurately and ways of absorbing
overheads looked at more closely, to ensure appropriate costs per unit are calculated.
The following section on Activity Based Costing (ABC) suggests a method of analysing
overheads more accurately. This is provided for background purposes; ABC is not likely to
be examined in paper 1.2 but is important for later ACCA papers.
5 ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING
5.1 Attributes
A more refined approach to assigning overheads to products and calculating product costs.
Provides product cost information more relevant to decision-making purposes than absorption
costing.
Recognises that in the long run most manufacturing costs are not fixed.
Assumes that activities cause costs and that products (and customers) create demand for
activities.
Illustration 4
Products A B
Quantity produced 5,000 7,000
Direct labour hours per unit 1 2
Machine hours per unit 3 1
Set-ups in the period 10 40
Orders handled in the period 15 60
285
_____
Required:
(i) a traditional costing approach using labour hour rates to absorb overheads
(ii) an ABC approach, using suitable cost drivers to trace overheads to products.
Solution
£285,000
Direct labour hour rate = = £15 per hour
19,000 ( W )
WORKING
Absorption rates
WORKING
Overhead absorbed
A B
Machine costs (15,000 × £10) 150,000 (7,000 × £10) 70,000
Set-up costs (10 × £400) 4,000 (40 × £400) 16,000
Order costs (15 × £600) 9,000 (60 × £600) 36,000
_______ _______
163,000 122,000
_______ _______
Comparison
A B
(i) TAC £15 £30
(ii) ABC £32.60 £17.43
Change 117% ↑ 41.9%↓
FOCUS
calculate and apply overhead absorption rates using different methods and discuss their
appropriateness;
apportion factory overheads using appropriate bases and re-apportion service centre costs
(including using the reciprocal method;
comment on the use of blanket, departmental, cost driver, actual and predetermined
absorption rate;
understand the implications of the cost structure of a business with regard to overhead
analysis.
discuss the use of activity based costing (calculations are not examinable);
EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS
(a) Overhead
Basis Ratio Assembly Trimming
£ £
Canteen No of employees 30:70 1,230 2,870
Machine depn &
machine repairs WDV 104.5:115.5 1,045 1,155
Rent and rates Area 3:1 4,725 1,575
Prod man’s salary Time spent 2:1 4,800 2,400
Heat and light Area 3:1 2,400 800
Materials storage Allocation 2:3 800 1,200
______ ______
15,000 10,000
______ ______
WORKINGS
Hours
Sofas 100 × 18 = 1,800
Chairs 400 × 8 = 3,200
_____
5,000
_____
10,000
Absorption rate = = £2.00 per direct labour hour.
5,000
Direct method
Pressing Assembly Canteen Maintenance
£ £ £ £
15,000 26,000 8,000 9,000
Canteen (50:30) 5,000 3,000 (8,000)
Maintenance (55:40) 5,211 3,789 (9,000)
——— ——— ——— ———
25,211 32,789 – –
——— ——— ——— ———
Reciprocal methods
Continuous re-apportionment
“Step 3” – Absorption
Pressing Assembly
Overhead £25,156 £32,844
Direct Labour hours A 1,000 units × 3 hrs 3,000
1,000 units × 2 hrs 2,000
B 2,000 units × 2 hrs 4,000
2,000 units × 1 hr 2,000
——— ———
7,000 4,000
——— ———