CIMA CIMAPRO15-P01-X1-ENG : P1 - Management Accounting Question Tutorial

A medium-sized manufacturing company, which operates in the electronics industry, has employed a firm of consultants to carry out a review of the company's planning and control systems. The company presently uses a traditional incremental budgeting system and the inventory management system is based on economic order quantities (EOQ) and reorder levels. The company's normal production patterns have changed significantly over the previous few years as a result of increasing demand for customized products. This has resulted in shorter production runs and difficulties with production and resource planning. The consultants have recommended the implementation of activity based budgeting and a manufacturing resource planning system to improve planning and resource management.
What are the benefits for the company that could occur following the introduction of an activity based budgeting system?
Select ALL the correct answers.

• A. Activity based techniques including activity based budgeting focus on the outputs of a process rather than the input to the process. This approach provides a clear framework for understanding the link between costs and the level of activity. It allows the ranking of activities and the determination of how limited resources should be allocated across competing activities.
• B. The approach under an Activity based Budgeting System is to make arbitrary cuts in order to meet overall financial targets.
• C. Under a traditional incremental budgeting system the focus is on existing resources and operations.
  Adjustments are then made for changes in activity and price which results in past inefficiencies being perpetuated. Under an activity based budgeting system, only resources that are needed to perform activities required to meet the budgeted production and sales volumes are included.
• D. Activity Based Budgeting Systems present costs under functional headings i.e. the emphasis is on the nature of the cost. The weakness if this approach is that it gives little indication of the link between the level of activity and the cost incurred.
• E. Under an activity based budgeting system, resource allocation is linked to the strategic plan and is prepared after considering alternative strategies. This approach ensures that new activities that are required to meet the company's strategic objectives are included in the budget.

Explain how probability analysis could be used to assess the risk of the evaluated projects.
Select all the true statements.

• A. The NPVs of a sample range of possible outcomes and the probability of each NPV can be calculated. If a small sample is taken the distribution of outcomes can be used to calculate the zero activities deviation of the NPVs and the probability of success of the projects.
• B. The probabilities can be combined to calculate the expected value of each cash flow element and of the project as a whole
• C. The net present value (NPV) of the project, if all high, low or medium estimates occurred, can be calculated along with the combined probabilities of their occurrence.
• D. The company can determine a range of possible outcomes for each of the cash flows in the project, for example, a high, low and medium estimate of each cash flow could be determined.

RT produces two products from different quantities of the same resources using a just-in-time (JIT) production system. The selling price and resource requirements of each of the products are shown below:

Market research shows that the maximum demand for products R and T during June 2010 is 500 units and
800 units respectively. This does not include an order that RT has agreed with a commercial customer for the supply of 250 units of R and 350 units of T at selling prices of $100 and $135 per unit respectively. Although the customer will accept part of the order, failure by RT to deliver the order in full by the end of June will cause RT to incur a $10,000 financial penalty. At a recent meeting of the purchasing and production managers to discuss the production plans of RT for June, the following resource restrictions for June were identified:
Direct labour hours 7,500 hours
Material A 8,500 kgs
Material B 3,000 litres
Machine hours 7,500 hours
Assuming that RT completes the order with the commercial customer, prepare calculations to show, from a financial perspective, the optimum production plan for June 2010 and the contribution that would result from adopting this plan.
The contribution per unit for R and T will be...?

• A. R = $47 per unit. T = $65 per unit
• B. R = $45 per unit. T = $66 per unit
• C. R = $47 per unit. T = $61 per unit
• D. R = $51 per unit. T = $61 per unit

A company produces trays of pre-prepared meals that are sold to restaurants and food retailers. Three varieties of meals are sold: economy, premium and deluxe.


Discuss the benefits of flexible budgeting for planning and control purposes.
Select all the true statements.

• A. The fixed budget however provides more insight into actual performance.
• B. If actual sales revenue is compared to a fixed budget it is possible to tell whether a favourable sales variance is due to an increase in units sold or an increase in sales price.
• C. If a flexible budget is prepared then the budget variances calculated will provide a better indication of performance since actual results will be compared against an appropriate benchmark.
• D. If sales volumes were well above budget, adverse variable cost variances will probably be reported, against the fixed budget, since more variable costs have to be incurred to support the higher level of activity.
• E. Reporting against a fixed budget tells management nothing about the efficiency of operations.
• F. A fixed budget will provide meaningful control information when actual activity differs from budget and variable costs are significant.

QR uses an activity based budgeting (ABB) system to budget product costs. It manufactures two products, product Q and product R. The budget details for these two products for the forthcoming period are as follows:

The total budgeted cost of setting up the machines is $74,400.
Select TWO potential benefits of using an activity based budgeting system.

• A. Activity based budgeting allows the identification of value added and non-value added activity and ensures that any budget cuts are made to non-value added activities.
• B. Activity based budgeting allows the ranking of activities and the determination of how limited resources should be allocated across competing activities.
• C. Activity based budgeting provides a clear framework for understanding the link between turnover and the level of activity.
• D. Activity based budgeting is useful for the review of quality systems utilization.