Sole Purpose Shoe Company is owned and operated by Sarah Charles. The company manufactures casual shoes, with manufacturing facilities in your state. Sarah began the business this year, and while she has a great deal of experience in manufacturing popular and comfortable shoes, she needs some help in evaluating her results for the year, and asks for your help. Sarah’s first questions for you have to do with the general ideas and terminology used to evaluate variances.
Provide answers to the following questions (1)-(3).
Why might Sarah want to use standard costs to compare with her actual costs?
A) Management can evaluate the differences between standard costs and actual costs to focus on correcting the cost variances.
B) Standard costs give management a cost structure for products that is applicable for the entire life of the business.
C) Standard costs allow management to motivate employees by comparing their performance to what it would be under perfect conditions.

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?

Which of the following is an example of a positive externality? a. promoting generic drugs would benefit people. b. a lower inflation rate would benefit most consumers. c. compulsory flu shots for all students prevents the spread of illness in the general public. d. singapore has adopted a comprehensive savings plan for all workers known as the central provident fund.

What two categories do strategic choices fall within? a. generic business strategies and cost leadership strategies b. business-level strategies and corporate-level strategies c. cost leadership strategies and corporate-level strategies d. diversification strategies and leadership strategies e. pricing strategies and cost-leadership strategies