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accounting for overheads

Forums › Ask ACCA Tutor Forums › Ask the Tutor ACCA MA – FIA FMA › accounting for overheads

  • This topic has 5 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 6 years ago by John Moffat.
Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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  • April 11, 2019 at 10:08 am #511823
    eldryanzyan
    Member
    • Topics: 1
    • Replies: 3
    • ☆

    hi, i have a question from bpp practice kit that i don’t understand. this is the question:

    a company uses a blanket overhead absorption rate of $5 per direct labour hour. actual overhead expenditure in a period was as budgeted.

    the under/over absorbed overhead account for the period have the following entries:

    Dt side = prod. overhead $4000
    Cr side = profit or loss a/c $4000

    which of the following is true?
    A. actual direct labour hours were 800 less than budgeted
    B. actual direct labour hours were 800 more than budgeted
    C. actual direct labour hours were 4000 less than budgeted
    D. production overhead was over absorbed by $4000

    so, my answer is B, because debit side of over/under overhead a/c means that the overhead is under absorbed. so, the only way for the o/h to be under absorbed is by the actual direct labour hours to be less than budgeted isn’t it? but the answer given is A. please explain this to me, thanks.

    April 11, 2019 at 3:46 pm #511948
    John Moffat
    Keymaster
    • Topics: 57
    • Replies: 54665
    • ☆☆☆☆☆

    But it seems that you have answered your own question 🙂

    You have written that your answer is B because the debit side means that the overhead has been under-absorbed – it has indeed been under-absorbed. You then write that the only way to be under-absorbed is by the actual hours to be less than budgeted – that is true as well.

    However answer B says the opposite – it says that actual hours are more than budgeted.
    It is answer A that says that actual hours are less than budgeted 🙂

    April 12, 2019 at 12:13 am #512009
    eldryanzyan
    Member
    • Topics: 1
    • Replies: 3
    • ☆

    Ooo. My bad?. My actual question was “why less actual hours causes under absorption overheads?”. Thank you?

    April 12, 2019 at 7:53 am #512024
    John Moffat
    Keymaster
    • Topics: 57
    • Replies: 54665
    • ☆☆☆☆☆

    It is easier for me to explain with a few numbers:

    Suppose they budget on overheads of $20,000 and they budget on working 10,000 hours.
    The absorption rate is therefore $2 per hour.

    Suppose they actually work only 8,000 hours. That means they will absorb 8,000 x $2 = $16,000.
    However fixed overheads will stay fixed at $20,000. But they will only have absorbed $16,000. So they will have under-absorbed by $4,000.

    It will help you to watch my free lectures on this. The lectures are a complete free course for Paper MA and cover everything needed to be able to pass the exam well.

    April 12, 2019 at 8:21 am #512030
    eldryanzyan
    Member
    • Topics: 1
    • Replies: 3
    • ☆

    Thank you so much. I get it now?

    I get confused because i mixed up between this topic and the variances.

    Thank you once again?

    April 12, 2019 at 2:54 pm #512075
    John Moffat
    Keymaster
    • Topics: 57
    • Replies: 54665
    • ☆☆☆☆☆

    You are welcome 🙂

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