batch-level activities definition and meaning

By more accurately and reliably classifying overhead costs at the batch level than traditional cost accounting systems, it is easier for manufacturers to determine the breakeven point of cost and units produced, through cost-volume-profit analysis. This helps managers identify non-value-adding activities and process inefficiencies, and increase profitability. Activity‐based costing assumes that the steps or activities that must be followed to manufacture a product are what determine the overhead costs incurred. Each overhead cost, whether variable or fixed, is assigned to a category of costs.

In the coming year it expects to incur $825,000 of costs to dispose of 3,300 tons of hazardous waste. Unit-level activities, batch-level activities, product-level activities, and facility-level activities are all levels of activity-based costing. The number of activities a company has may be small, say five or six, or number in the hundreds. Assume Lady Trekkers, Inc., has identified its activity cost pools and cost drivers (see the following table). A classic example is the cost to set up a production run; this cost is then assigned to the units produced as a result of that setup. Certain activities, such as maintenance or quality control, can oftentimes be accounted for in multiple levels of activity-based costing.

What Are Batch-Level Activities?

Let’s consider a fictional example of a toy manufacturing company that produces two types of action figures, Model A and Model B. The company uses a batch production process, where it produces each type of action figure in separate batches. Unit-level activities are activities that are related to producing each unit. This is unlike batch-level activities that happen every time a batch of products are produced. Unit-level activities are those that support making each individual unit, while batch-level include a group of units. A manufacturer uses activity-based costing to assign overhead costs to products.

Using the plantwide overhead rate, determine the total cost per case for the two products if the direct materials and direct labor cost is $6 per case of Extra Fine and $5 per case of Family Style. Kohler defined an activity as a portion of work done by a specific part of the company. By tracking the costs of such activities in various parts of the company, Kohler began the precedent of accounting for the cost of work activities.

Once the per unit costs are all calculated, they are added together, and the total cost per unit is multiplied by the number of units to assign the overhead costs to the units. Batch-level activities are one of the five broad levels of activity that activity-based costing account for. Each of these levels is assessed by cost, and these costs are allocated to the company’s overhead costs. The other levels of activity that are accounted for by activity-based costing are unit-level activities, customer-level activities, production-level activities, and organization-sustaining activities. Machine setup is an often-used example of a batch-level activity. The way in which companies will structure the schedule by which machines are set up is an example of how batch-level activity accounting can influence the practices of a manufacturer.

What is Job Costing?

Batch-level activities are work actions that are classified within an activity-based costing accounting system, often used by production companies. Batch-level activities are related to costs that are incurred whenever a batch of a certain product is produced. However, these costs are accounted for regardless of the related production run’s size. Examples of these batch-level cost drivers can often include machine setups, maintenance, purchase orders, and quality tests.

Kohler found that a traditional form of managerial accounting was not going to suffice in properly and accurately accounting for the costs that were being incurred by the TVA in the process of carrying out their duties. Kohler introduced the concept of accounting for the costs of these processes by accurately assessing the activities involved in carrying them out. The concept of activity-based costing and, as a consequence, batch-level activity accounting, started in the 1930s. Eric Kohler was a Comptroller of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA was in the process of accounting for costs surrounding activities involved with flood control, navigation, and hydro-electric power generation. Would your pricing analysis be improved if the company used departmental rates based on machine hours in department 1 and number of cases in department 2 instead of ABC?

What are Batch-Level Activities?

Be sure it is written to be understandable to someone who is not an accountant. Which company has a higher ratio of costs, defined as cost of goods sold plus total operating expenses, to revenues? Use the two most recent years’ income statements from Appendix A. Show your analysis.

• These activities are indirectly related to individual product units, and their costs are considered indirect costs.
• The TVA was in the process of accounting for costs surrounding activities involved with flood control, navigation, and hydro-electric power generation.
• Be sure it is written to be understandable to someone who is not an accountant.
• Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as a university accounting instructor, accountant, and consultant for more than 25 years.

ABC is partitioning overhead utilization for merchandise and organization such as administrative cost, maintenance cost etc. Activity-based costing makes allocating backhanded costs simpler than the old costing approach. Using ABC, compute the total cost per case for each product type if the direct labor and direct materials cost is $6 per case of Extra Fine and $5 per case of Family Style. Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as a university accounting instructor, accountant, and consultant for more than 25 years. He is the sole author of all the materials on AccountingCoach.com.

Strategic Analysis

Because there are costs incurred for every time a machine is set up to produce a batch of products, companies will often set up machines to produce large amounts of one product before setting them up again to produce a different type of product. This type of practice is likely to have been developed out of an awareness of the specific costs related to producing a batch of each product. Activity-based costing is a system that provides detailed information regarding a company’s production expenditures. The costs of unit‐level, batch‐level, and product‐line activities are easily allocated to a specific product, either directly as a unit‐level activity or through allocation of a pooled cost for batch‐level and product‐line activities. In contrast, the facility‐level costs are kept separate from product costs and are not allocated to individual units because the allocation would have to be made on an arbitrary basis such as square feet, number of divisions or products, and so on.

• Unit-level activities, batch-level activities, product-level activities, and facility-level activities are all levels of activity-based costing.
• Each of these levels is assessed by cost, and these costs are allocated to the company’s overhead costs.
• Kohler defined an activity as a portion of work done by a specific part of the company.

Batch-level activities are production tasks or processes that occur each time a batch or group of similar products is produced, regardless of the number of units within the batch. These activities are indirectly related to individual product units, and their costs are considered indirect costs. Batch-level activities are a key component of activity-based costing (ABC) systems, which aim to more accurately allocate indirect costs to products or services. A per unit cost is calculated by dividing the total dollars in each activity cost pool by the number of units of the activity cost drivers. As an example to calculate the per unit cost for the purchasing department, the total costs of the purchasing department are divided by the number of purchase orders.

Example of Batch-Level Activities

Cost drivers are the actual activities that cause the total cost in an activity cost pool to increase. The number of times materials are ordered, the number of production lines in a factory, and the number of shipments made to customers are all examples of activities that impact the costs a company incurs. When using ABC, the total cost of each activity pool is divided by the total number of units of the activity to determine the cost per unit. In an activity-based costing system, batch-level activity costs are allocated to individual products by dividing the total cost of the batch-level activity by the number of units produced in the batch. This allocation helps businesses better understand the true cost of producing each product, which in turn supports more informed decision-making regarding pricing, production planning, and inventory management.

Using a plantwide overhead rate based on cases, compute the overhead cost that is assigned to each case of Extra Fine Salsa and each case of Family Style Salsa. Activities involving a batch of products—as opposed to individual items. An example of a batch activity is the setting up of a machine to produce a batch of 1,000 identical items. Write a memorandum to the CEO, no more than one page, explaining how ABC is different from traditional volume-based costing methods. Also, identify its advantages and disadvantages vis-à-vis traditional methods.