Solutions Manual for Managerial Accounting:
Creating Value in a Dynamic Business
Environment, 13th Edition by Hilton
,Chapter 1: The Changing Role of Managerial Accounting in a Dynamic Business Environment
Chapter 2: Basic Cost Management Concepts
Chapter 3: Product Costing and Cost Accumulation in a Batch Production Environment
Chapter 4: Process Costing and Hybrid Product-Costing Systems
Chapter 5: Activity-Based Costing and Management
Chapter 6: Activity Analysis, Cost Behavior, and Cost Estimation
Chapter 7: Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
Chapter 8: Variable Costing and the Measurement of ESG and Quality Costs
Chapter 9: Financial Planning and Analysis: The Master Budget
Chapter 10: Standard Costing and Analysis of Direct Costs
Chapter 11: Flexible Budgeting and the Management of Overhead and Support Activity Costs
Chapter 12: Responsibility Accounting and the Balanced Scorecard
Chapter 13: Investment Centers and Transfer Pricing
Chapter 14: Decision Making: Relevant Costs and Benefits
Chapter 15: Target Costing and Cost Analysis for Pricing Decisions
Chapter 16: Capital Expenditure Decisions
Chapter 17: Allocation of Support Activity Costs and Joint Costs
Appendix I: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Internal Controls, and Management Accounting
Appendix II: Compound Interest and the Concept of Present Value
Appendix III: Inventory Management
,CHAPTER 1
The Crucial Role of Managerial Accounting in a
Dynamic Business Environment
FOCUS ON ETHICS (Located before the Chapter Summary in the text.)
The focus-on-ethics inset for Chapter 1 is the IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice.
Instructors can use this list of ethical principles and standards to lead a class discussion.
The discussion can also range to consideration of how these standards may have been
violated by accountants and managers involved in the various ethical scandals uncovered
over the past several years. It is also useful to discuss the pros and cons of the procedures
that IMA suggests for its members when they believe they know about ethical lapses in their
organizations.
ANSWERS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS
1-1 The explosion in e-commerce will affect managers in significant ways. One effect will
be a drastic reduction in paper work. Millions of transactions between businesses are
now being conducted electronically with no hard-copy documentation. Along with
this method of communicating for business transactions comes the very significant
issue of information security. Businesses need to find ways to protect confidential
information in their own computers, in cloud computing data centers, and while
moving across the internet, while at the same time sharing the information necessary
to complete transactions. Another effect of e-commerce is the dramatically increased
speed with which business transactions can be conducted. In addition, there will be
dramatic changes in the way managerial accounting procedures are carried out, one
example being cloud-based budgeting, which is the enterprise-wide and electronic
completion of a company’s budgeting process using cloud-based software and data
storage.
,1-2 Plausible goals for the organizations listed are as follows:
(a) Amazon.com: (1) To achieve and maintain profitability, and (2) to grow on-line
sales of their many products. Amazon is also famous (infamous) for wanting to
have every product in the world on its site.
(b) American Red Cross: (1) To raise funds from the general public sufficient to have
resources available to meet any disaster that may occur, and (2) to provide
assistance to people who are victims of a disaster anywhere in the world on short
notice.
(c) General Motors: (1) To earn income sufficient to provide a good return on the
investment of the company's stockholders, and (2) to provide the highest-quality
product possible.
(d) Wal-Mart: (1) To penetrate the retail market in virtually every location in the United
States, and (2) to grow over time in terms of number of retail locations, total assets,
and earnings. Also, to be competitive with Amazon in the e-retail space.
(e) City of Seattle: (1) To maintain an urban environment as free of pollution as
possible, and (2) to provide public safety, police, and fire protection to the city's
citizens.
(f) Hertz: (1) To be a recognizable household name associated with rental car
services, and (2) to provide reliable and economical transportation services to the
company's customers.
1-3 The four basic management activities are listed and defined as follows:
(a) Decision making: Choosing among the available alternatives.
(b) Planning: Developing a detailed financial and operational description of
anticipated operations.
(c) Directing operations: Running the organization on a day-to-day basis.
(d) Controlling: Ensuring that the organization operates in the intended manner and
achieves its goals.
,1-4 Examples of the four primary management activities in the context of a national fast-
food chain are as follows:
(a) Decision making: Choosing among several possible locations for a new fast-food
outlet.
(b) Planning: Developing a cost budget for the food and paper products to be used
during the next quarter in a particular fast-food restaurant.
(c) Directing operations: Developing detailed schedules for personnel for the next
month to provide counter service in a particular fast-food restaurant.
(d) Controlling: Comparing the actual cost of paper products used during a particular
month in a restaurant with the anticipated cost of paper products for that same
time period.
1-5 Examples of the objectives of managerial-accounting activity in an airline company
are described below:
(a) Providing information for decision making and planning, and proactively
participating as part of the management team in the decision making and planning
processes: Managerial accountants provide estimates of the cost of adding a flight
on the route from Dallas to Miami and actively participate in making the decision
about adding the flight.
(b) Assisting managers in directing and controlling operations: Managerial
accountants provide information about the actual costs of flying the company’s
Asian routes during a particular month.
(c) Motivating managers and other employees toward the organization's goals: A
budget is provided for the cost of handling baggage at Chicago O'Hare Airport.
The budget is given to the airline's baggage handling manager, who is expected to
strive to achieve the budget.
(d) Measuring the performance of activities, subunits, managers, and other employees
within the organization: Quarterly income statements are prepared for each of the
airline's major geographical sectors, and these income reports are used to
evaluate the earnings performance of each sector during the relevant time period.
(e) Assessing the organization's competitive position and working with other
managers to ensure the organization's long-run competitiveness in its industry:
Information about industry-wide performance standards is obtained and compared
with the airline's own performance. For example, how does the airline stack up
against its competitors in ticket prices, on-time departures, mishandled baggage,
customer complaints, and safety?
,1-6 Four important differences between managerial accounting and financial accounting
are listed below:
(a) Managerial-accounting information is provided to managers within the
organization, whereas financial-accounting information is provided to interested
parties outside the organization.
(b) Managerial-accounting reports are not required and are unregulated, whereas
financial-accounting reports are required and must conform to generally accepted
accounting principles.
(c) The primary source of data for managerial-accounting information is the
organization's basic accounting system, plus various other sources. These
sources include such data as rates of defective products manufactured, physical
quantities of material and labor used in production, occupancy rates in hotels and
hospitals, and average takeoff delays in airlines. The primary source of data for
financial-accounting information is almost exclusively the organization's basic
accounting system, which accumulates financial information.
(d) Managerial-accounting reports often focus on subunits within the organization,
such as departments, divisions, geographical regions, or product lines. These
reports are based on a combination of historical data, estimates, and projections
of future events. Financial-accounting reports focus on the enterprise in its
entirety. These reports are based almost exclusively on historical transaction data.
,1-7 The cost-accounting system is one part of an organization's overall accounting
system, the purpose of which is to accumulate cost information. Cost information
accumulated by the cost-accounting system is used for both managerial-accounting
and financial-accounting purposes. Managerial accounting is the broad task of
preparing information for making decisions about planning, directing, and controlling
an organization's operations.
1-8 Managers in line positions are directly involved in the provision of services or the
production of goods in an organization. Managers in staff positions support the
organization's overall objectives, but they are indirectly involved in operations.
Examples of line positions in a university are the president, who is the university's
chief executive officer, and the business school dean, who is responsible for running
the “division” called the business school. Examples of staff positions in a university
are the university counsel, who is the university's chief lawyer, and the director of
maintenance, who is charged with maintaining the university's facilities.
1-9 An organization's controller (or comptroller) is the chief managerial and financial
accountant. The controller usually is responsible for supervising the personnel in the
accounting department and for preparing the information and reports used in both
managerial and financial accounting. The treasurer typically is responsible for raising
capital and safeguarding the organization's assets. Among the treasurer's
responsibilities is the management of an organization's investments, credit policy,
and insurance coverage.
1-10 A college or university could use the balanced scorecard as a management tool just
like any other business. There is one important difference, however, between a profit-
seeking enterprise and a nonprofit organization like a university. A profit-seeking
enterprise generally has long-term profitability as its foremost goal, and the other
points on the balanced scorecard are oriented toward helping the enterprise achieve
that goal of profitability. Universities, on the other hand, usually have multiple goals,
which are sometimes in competition with each other. For example, a land-grant
university may have teaching, research, and public service as its three primary goals.
Nevertheless, it is possible for a college or university to develop performance
measures for each of the areas in the balanced scorecard. Some examples follow:
Financial: Amount of the unrestricted endowment supporting the university’s
activities, and the extent to which the university operates with a balanced budget.
Internal business processes: Tenure rates for faculty, and the extent to which the
university’s facilities are up to date and well maintained.
Customer: Class evaluations by students, and job placement rates for students.
Learning and growth: Dollars of research grants obtained, and publication of
journal articles and books by faculty.
1-11 This quote from a managerial accountant at Caterpillar suggests that managerial
accountants are physically located throughout an organization where the day-to-day
, work is being done, rather than being sequestered off by themselves as was the
tendency some years ago. Managerial accountants are increasingly deployed as key
members of management teams.
1-12 Managerial-accounting information often brings to the attention of managers
important issues that need their managerial experience and skills. In many cases,
managerial-accounting information will not answer the question or solve the problem,
but rather make management aware that the issue or problem exists. In this sense,
managerial accounting sometimes is said to serve an attention-directing role.
1-13 Both manufacturing and service industry firms are engaged in production. The
primary difference between these types of companies is that manufacturing firms
produce inventoriable goods, whereas the services produced by service industry
firms are not inventoriable. Services, such as air transportation or hotel service, are
consumed as they are produced.
1-14 (a) Practical capacity is an organization’s upper limit on production of goods or
services, calculated after taking into account normal occurrences such as
equipment downtime, employee fatigue, illness, and breaks, and planned
interruptions in production such as holidays and shutdowns.
(b) Cost of resources supplied is a measure of the spending on production resources,
such as labor, machinery, and various overhead costs, that have been made
available for in support of the production planned during a particular period of
time.
(c) Cost of resources used is a consumption-oriented measure that attempts to
quantify the spending on the production resources used to create the actual
amount of product or service output. It considers only the amount of resources
provided that were actually needed for production.
(d) Cost of resources unused is the difference between cost of resources supplied
and cost of resources used, i.e., the cost of the various production resources that
were available for production but not needed for the amount of output actually
produced. Often referred to as cost of excess capacity.
1-15 The statement is accurate: capacity supplied in the current period but not used for
production is gone. If a pizza maker is available for four hours to make pizzas but only
one pizza is ordered, she still has to be paid for four hours. There is no way to store
that capacity to use it another time. However, if an experienced store manager,
realizing it is going to be a slow night, tells her after an hour to “go home and we’ll
schedule you for three extra hours later in the week,” then the capacity is never
supplied, and therefore it does not go unused and is not “lost forever.”
1-16 CMA stands for Certified Management Accountant. This title is the professional
certification for managerial accountants administered by the Institute of Management
Accountants. The requirements for becoming a CMA include fulfilling specified
, educational requirements, obtaining relevant experience, and successfully passing
the CMA examination.
1-17 (a) Competence: Ongoing development of knowledge and skills, performance of
duties in accordance with relevant laws, adherence to regulations and technical
standards, and preparation of complete and clear reports for management.
(b) Confidentiality: Refraining from disclosing confidential information, except when
legally required, and from using confidential information for unethical or illegal
advantage (personal or professional).
(c) Integrity: Contribute to a positive ethical culture by mitigating conflicts of interest,
avoiding activity or conduct that would prejudice carrying out duties ethically or
discredit the profession, and placing the integrity of the profession above personal
interests.
(d) Credibility: Communication of information fairly, objectively, and fully, including
delays or deficiencies, as well as professional limitations or constraints that would
preclude responsible judgment or successful performance.
1-18 Non-value-added costs are the costs of activities in the value chain that can be
eliminated with no deterioration of product quality, performance, or perceived value.
1-19 As a quick glance at the internet will make clear, Disney’s ESPN both produces and
broadcasts a variety of sporting events via several cable channels. There are many
ways in which big data and data analytics are important to ESPN, and answers could
include (but are not limited to) such uses as: analyzing viewer demographics by region
of the country to choose which football games to broadcast; studying viewer behavior
patterns to help sell advertising time more effectively; and analyzing employee
performance across several dimensions to determine the characteristics of the most
effective employees. A successful answer must specify the insight that such an
analysis would provide for the benefit of the company.
1-20 Managerial accounting is just as important in nonprofit organizations as it is in profit-
seeking enterprises. Managers in nonprofit organizations also need managerial-
accounting information for decision making, planning, directing, and controlling
operations. While the organization’s goal is not profit, it still has important goals
relating to its mission that its managers need to achieve with support from managerial
accounting tools and perspectives. A common saying is, “No money, no mission!”
1-21 Becoming the low-cost producer in an industry requires a clear understanding by
management of the costs incurred in its production process. Reports and analysis of
these costs are a primary function of managerial accounting.
, 1-22 According to Miriam-Webster, a professional is a person who conforms to the
technical or ethical standards of a profession. And the Oxford English Dictionary
describes a professional as someone who is “competent, skillful, or assured.”
According to these definitions, a managerial accountant would be a professional if
she conducted herself according to the IMA’s principle and standards of ethical
professional practice.
1-23 Some activities in the value chain of a manufacturer of cotton shirts are as follows:
(a) Growing and harvesting cotton
(b) Transporting raw materials
(c) Designing shirts
(d) Weaving cotton material
(e) Manufacturing shirts
(f ) Transporting shirts to retailers
(g) Advertising cotton shirts
Some activities in the value chain of an airline are as follows:
(a) Making reservations and ticketing
(b) Designing the route network
(c) Scheduling
(d) Purchasing aircraft
(e) Maintaining aircraft
(f) Running airport operations, including handling baggage
(g) Flying passengers and cargo
1-24 Strategic cost management is the process of understanding and managing, to the
organization's advantage, the cost relationships among the activities in an
organization's value chain.
