Question

A welding company specializes in custom steel frames and uses job costing to account for its operations. The following information is available as of May 1 for the work-in-process inventory account:
Job# Direct Materials Direct Labor Man. Overhead Total Cost
304 $3,000 $1,800 $2,520 $7,320
306 4,000 2,100 2,940 9,040
Total Cost 7,000 3,900 5,460 16,360

Welding Company pays an hourly rate of $15 for direct labor. Manufacturing overhead costsare applied to jobs based on the direct labor hours used. During the month of May, Jacob Welding spends $5,800 to purchase materials and $4,650 for manufacturing overhead. The operations in May are summarized below.

Job# Material Requisition summary Time Card Summary (Hours)
304 $1,100 40
306 900 30
307 2,800 110
308 750 25
Total 5,550 205


Jobs 304, 306, 307 are completed in May but only Jobs 304 and 307 are delivered to customers.
Required:
Calculate the predetermined overhead rate used.

Answer 1

Answer: $21 per direct labor hour.

Explanation:

Based on the information given in the question, the predetermined overhead rate that is used will be calculated as:

= Manufacturing overhead / Direct labor

where,

Manufacturing overhead = 5460

Direct labor = 3900/15 = 260 hours

Therefore, predetermined overhead rate:

= 5460/260

= $21 per direct labor hour.