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.
