Vernon runs Buzz, his own event management company, which frequently organizes large corporate events. He has built a good reputation for organizing corporate events with a fair degree of professionalism at reasonable costs. He works out of his own house with a staff of about 55 employees. Vernon's company can be categorized as a .

For many years, kellogg's frosted flakes, a ready-to-eat breakfast cereal, was perceived as a cereal for children. tony the tiger, a cartoon character, extolled frosted flakes, and advertisements depicted children enjoying the product with tony in competitive situations. recently, in response to declining sales of frosted flakes, the cereal maker has adopted a new series of advertisements that show adults admitting that they enjoy frosted flakes, too. kellogg's is attempting to

Zachary company produces commercial gardening equipment. since production is highly automated, the company allocates its overhead costs to product lines using activity-based costing. the costs and cost drivers associated with the four overhead activity cost pools follow: activities unit level batch level product level facility level cost $ 64,800 $ 27,730 $ 15,000 $ 154,000 cost driver 2,400 labor hrs. 47 setups percentage of use 11,000 units production of 780 sets of cutting shears, one of the company’s 20 products, took 240 labor hours and 7 setups and consumed 15 percent of the product-sustaining activities. required: (a) had the company used labor hours as a company wide allocation base, how much overhead would it have allocated to the cutting shears? (b) how much overhead is allocated to the cutting shears using activity-based costing? (c) compute the overhead cost per unit for cutting shears first using activity-based costing and then using direct labor hours for allocation if 780 units are produced. if direct product costs are $150 and the product is priced at 30 percent above cost for what price would the product sell under each allocation system? (d) assuming that activity-based costing provides a more accurate estimate of cost, indicate whether the cutting shears would be over- or underpriced if direct labor hours are used as an allocation base. explain how over-or undercosting can affect vaulker's profitability. (e) comment on the validity of using the allocated facility-level cost in the pricing decision. should other costs be considered in a cost- plus pricing decision? if so, which ones? what costs would you include if you were trying to decide whether to accept a special order?

Computing equivalent units is especially important for: (a) goods that take a relatively short time to produce, such as plastic bottles. (b) goods with sustainability implications in their production processes. (c) goods that are started and completed during the same period. (d) goods that take a long time to produce, such as airplanes.