Cheapo Sales Company Uses a Standard Cost System

question 167

Multiple Choice

Cheapo Sales Company uses a standard cost system.Overhead costs are allocated based on direct labor hours.In the first quarter,Cheapo Sales had a favorable efficiency variance for variable overhead costs.Which of the following scenarios is a reasonable explanation for this variance?

• A) The actual number of direct labor hours was lower than the budgeted hours.
• B) The actual variable overhead costs were higher than the budgeted costs.
• C) The actual variable overhead costs were lower than the budgeted costs.
• D) The actual number of direct labor hours was higher than the budgeted hours.

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Definitions:

Base Year

A specific year against which economic or financial data is measured and compared.

Chain-Weighted Index

An economic measure that accounts for changes in both prices and quantities of goods and services over time, adjusting the weightings to better reflect reality.

Laspeyres Index

A price index used to measure the change in the cost of acquiring a fixed basket of goods and services of the same type and quantity over time.

Paasche Index

A price index that measures the cost of purchasing a given market basket of goods and services in a certain year, compared to the cost of purchasing the same goods and services in a base year, with the quantities used in weighting the prices coming from the year of interest rather than the base year.