Too many questions

Kelly7

Hi all

Last night I attempted the first practice exam for budgeting in the 2013 syllabus and failed miserably. I noted down all the parts where I got stuck and thought I might find it easier looking at them again this morning with a clear head but I have tried this and still can't get to the correct answers.

I've already asked a lot of questions on here and still haven't even taken one exam so was thinking about which question I should ask about but there are just too many. I was just wondering if anyone else has a go at the practice assessment and gets the right answer to any of the numbers below if you wouldn't mind posting how you worked them out. The things I have got wrong are...

1.2b
1.6a - the energy cost and the depreciation stepped cost
1.6b
1.3 - labour
1.4b - labour

Also - there is a question in one of the written tasks about performance indicators and I don't know what these are. I have looked in my budgeting book but it doesn't actually explain what one of these is and I have googled it but still can't really find a clear answer.

Thanks in advance to anyone that may be of any help and sorry for so many questions but I don't know how much longer I can stare at these questions getting no where.

Kelly

Cudey

Okay lets see....

1.2b - a) So you have 800 items to produce, and each item requires 14 litres of raw material. So firstly multiply 800 by 14 to get the amount of raw material you need before accounting for waste.

800x14 = 11200. Now for the waste part. You're told that 8% of material is wasted in production. So you know you'll use more material than 11200 (this is a good sense check). To work this out you divide by 0.92 (I work this out by knowing 1 = 100% and I take the waste percentage away, so if it was 10% waste - i'd divide by 0.9 - someone could probably explain this better). 11200/0.92 = 12173.913 etc..... It says though to round up - so you get 12174.

b) You know you require 12174 for production (from part A) and you're told the opening inventory is 700 and closing is 500. Production + Closing Inventory - Opening Inventory. So 12174 +500- 700 = 11974. It's just that formula you need to remember for this. But also thing about it, you have an opening inventory of 700 and closing off 500 so you've consumed 200 of your current inventory so you should expect your answer to be lower for part A.


1.4b)

Right Labour. You are required to produce 18,000 units in the month - And you know it takes 5 minutes per item. 60 minutes / 5 minutes = 12 units per hour.

18,000 units / 12 units per hour gives you 1,500 hours.

Your basic labour for a month is 1250 hours at £16 per hour. Therefore 16 x 1250 = 20,000 - this is your standard Labour. Now for Overtime - You require 1,500 hours and a standard 1,250 a month. Therefore 1,500-1,250 = 250 overtime hours. Overtime is paid 50% above the standard rate of £16 (£24) 250 x 24 = 6,000. So the answer is 20,000 + 6,000 = 26,000

1.3 - Labour = I'll leave this to you as you may be able to use the above to work it out.

1.6a Energy -

You've been told that the there's a budgeted increase of 4% in the energy figure of £17,680 - so first of all, I get back to the original figure, you do this by dividing by 1.04 to give you £17,000
Next you've been told that there will be an increase of 6%, so now multiply your £17,000 by 1.06 to give you 18,020.

Depreciation -

Right this is a stepped cost. and you're told the price increases every 10,000 units. So first of all work out your steps. You do this by taking your volume (84,000) and dividing by the number of units in which the increase occurs (The 10,000 units it mentioned in the question - I didn't know how to explain that) The answer may give you a decimal - with stepped costs ALWAYS ROUND UP - So 84,000/10,000 = 8.4 which rounded up gives you 9.

Next work out how many steps you require in your Alternative scenario. Follow the steps above - I make it 8 steps. Now work out the cost per each step. Take your depreciation cost (£8100) and divide it by your steps (9) which gives you 900 per step. Lastly multiply the 8 steps for the alternative scenario by the cost per step - 900 = 7200.

Unfortunately I messed up part b in my exam, so am clueless with how to work it out!

Hope this helps.

Kelly7

Omg, I can't believe you took the time to go through all those questions - a massive thank you. I've gone over them again and can see where I was making silly mistakes now with the first couple and now I know how to work out the energy and depreciation questions. There is still 3 things I am getting wrong answers for so I am tempted to email my teacher to ask him if he can help me with these. Once I know how to or at least have how to work out the answers to a full paper then I want to go on the do the others knowing that I should be able to do them now.

Thanks again for all your help, it's greatly appreciated.

xxxxxxxxx

Kelly7

Awww, I can't believe you took the time to go through all those questions - a massive thank you. I've gone over them again and can see where I was making silly mistakes now with the first couple and now I know how to work out the energy and depreciation questions. There is still 3 things I am getting wrong answers for so I am tempted to email my teacher to ask him if he can help me with these. Once I know how to or at least have how to work out the answers to a full paper then I want to go on the do the others knowing that I should be able to do them now.

Thanks again for all your help, it's greatly appreciated.

xxxxxxxxx

Kelly7

Thanks Sandy. I have had a quick look at that and don't get it yet but will spend more time looking at it on the weekend and hopefully I'll be able to follow it then.

Thanks again.

Kelly xxxxxxxxxxx