Unit 13: Activity Based Costing - Practice Quiz

DEACC506 60 Questions
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1 Activity Based Costing (ABC) is a method of assigning costs based on:

Concept and Pre-requisites Easy
A. The number of employees
B. Total sales volume
C. Direct labour hours only
D. Activities that consume resources

2 The main aim of Activity Based Costing is to:

Concept and Pre-requisites Easy
A. Increase total overhead costs
B. Eliminate all direct costs
C. Reduce the number of employees
D. Improve the accuracy of product cost information

3 In ABC, an 'activity' refers to:

Concept and Pre-requisites Easy
A. A task or event that causes a cost to be incurred
B. A finished product ready for sale
C. A supplier's invoice
D. A department's total revenue

4 A key pre-requisite for implementing ABC is:

Concept and Pre-requisites Easy
A. Identification of major activities in the organisation
B. Complete elimination of overhead costs
C. Using a single plant-wide overhead rate
D. Ignoring cost drivers entirely

5 Traditional costing typically allocates overheads using:

Activity Based Costing versus Traditional Costing Easy
A. Number of machine setups
B. Multiple activity cost drivers
C. Volume-based measures such as labour or machine hours
D. The number of purchase orders

6 Compared to traditional costing, ABC generally uses:

Activity Based Costing versus Traditional Costing Easy
A. Multiple cost drivers
B. A single overhead rate
C. No cost drivers
D. Only direct material cost

7 Which costing system is more likely to distort product costs when overheads are high and diverse?

Activity Based Costing versus Traditional Costing Easy
A. Marginal costing under ABC
B. Standard ABC costing
C. Traditional costing
D. Activity Based Costing

8 A major difference between ABC and traditional costing lies in the treatment of:

Activity Based Costing versus Traditional Costing Easy
A. Sales revenue recognition
B. Direct material purchase price
C. Overhead cost allocation
D. Cash payments to suppliers

9 The first step in implementing ABC is usually to:

Steps Involved in Activity Based Costing Easy
A. Select the cost driver rate
B. Identify the major activities
C. Prepare the balance sheet
D. Compute the final product cost

10 In ABC, costs collected for each activity are grouped into:

Steps Involved in Activity Based Costing Easy
A. Cash accounts
B. Cost pools
C. Sales ledgers
D. Trial balances

11 After identifying activities and cost pools, the next step in ABC is to:

Steps Involved in Activity Based Costing Easy
A. Identify the cost driver for each activity
B. Value closing stock at market price
C. Close the books of accounts
D. Prepare a cash flow statement

12 The cost driver rate under ABC is calculated as:

Steps Involved in Activity Based Costing Easy
A.
B.
C.
D.

13 A cost driver is best described as:

Cost Drivers Easy
A. A type of finished product
B. A fixed selling price
C. A factor that causes a change in the cost of an activity
D. A person who reduces costs

14 Which of the following is a suitable cost driver for the purchasing activity?

Cost Drivers Easy
A. Number of purchase orders
B. Total sales revenue
C. Direct wages paid
D. Number of finished units sold

15 An appropriate cost driver for machine setup costs would be the:

Cost Drivers Easy
A. Number of sales invoices
B. Value of closing inventory
C. Amount of direct material
D. Number of machine setups

16 The number of inspections would most appropriately be used as a cost driver for:

Cost Drivers Easy
A. Interest on loans
B. Depreciation of building
C. Advertising activity
D. Quality control activity

17 Under ABC, overhead cost is charged to a product by multiplying the cost driver rate by the:

Determination of Cost under ABC Easy
A. Cost driver units used by the product
B. Total sales value of the product
C. Direct material cost of the product
D. Selling price of the product

18 If an activity's total cost is and it has cost driver units, the cost driver rate is:

Determination of Cost under ABC Easy
A. per unit
B. per unit
C. per unit
D. per unit

19 Which of the following is a benefit of Activity Based Costing?

Benefits and Limitations Easy
A. No need to identify activities
B. Complete removal of overhead costs
C. Lower cost of implementation than traditional systems
D. More accurate product costing

20 A common limitation of Activity Based Costing is that it is:

Benefits and Limitations Easy
A. Prohibited under accounting standards
B. Costly and complex to implement
C. Unable to allocate any overheads
D. Only usable in service firms

21 Activity Based Costing (ABC) is most beneficial for an organisation where:

Concept and Pre-requisites Medium
A. Overhead costs form a small and stable proportion of total cost
B. Direct labour is the dominant cost element
C. Products are highly diverse and consume overhead resources in different proportions
D. Only a single product is manufactured in large volumes

22 Which of the following is a key pre-requisite for successfully implementing ABC?

Concept and Pre-requisites Medium
A. Elimination of all indirect costs
B. Use of a single plant-wide overhead rate
C. Identification of activities and their cost drivers
D. Charging all overheads directly to products without allocation

23 The main difference between ABC and traditional costing lies in the treatment of:

Activity Based Costing versus Traditional Costing Medium
A. Overhead (indirect) cost allocation
B. Direct material cost
C. Direct labour cost
D. Sales revenue recognition

24 Under traditional costing, low-volume complex products are typically:

Activity Based Costing versus Traditional Costing Medium
A. Over-costed relative to their true resource use
B. Costed accurately in all cases
C. Excluded from overhead allocation
D. Under-costed relative to their true resource use

25 A firm shifts from traditional costing to ABC. High-volume simple products previously appeared very profitable. Under ABC these products will most likely:

Activity Based Costing versus Traditional Costing Medium
A. Become impossible to cost
B. Show lower unit costs and higher reported profitability
C. Show higher unit costs and lower reported profitability
D. Remain completely unchanged

26 Which sequence correctly represents the steps in ABC?

Steps Involved in Activity Based Costing Medium
A. Assign costs to products → identify activities → select cost drivers → pool costs
B. Compute driver rates → assign costs to products → identify activities → pool costs
C. Select cost drivers → assign costs to products → identify activities → pool costs
D. Identify activities → pool costs → select cost drivers → compute driver rates → assign costs to products

27 In ABC, an 'activity cost pool' refers to:

Steps Involved in Activity Based Costing Medium
A. The number of units produced in a period
B. The selling price charged to customers
C. The grouped overhead costs associated with a single activity
D. The total direct material used by a product

28 Which of the following is the most appropriate cost driver for the activity 'machine setup'?

Cost Drivers Medium
A. Number of machine hours
B. Number of setups performed
C. Units of output
D. Direct labour hours

29 The activity 'order processing' would most logically use which cost driver?

Cost Drivers Medium
A. Total sales value
B. Kilograms of material handled
C. Square feet of factory space
D. Number of purchase/sales orders

30 In ABC terminology, a driver that measures the frequency an activity is performed (e.g., number of inspections) is best described as a:

Cost Drivers Medium
A. Resource driver
B. Duration driver
C. Transaction driver
D. Volume driver

31 An activity cost pool for material handling is and the driver is number of material moves totalling moves. The activity rate per move is:

Determination of Cost under ABC Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

32 Setup cost pool is for setups. Product X requires setups. The setup cost assigned to Product X is:

Determination of Cost under ABC Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

33 A company has inspection costs of driven by inspections. If Product Y needs inspections for an output of units, the inspection cost per unit of Y is:

Determination of Cost under ABC Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

34 Total overhead is split into two pools: assembly (driver: machine hours) and packaging (driver: packages). Product Z uses machine hours and packages. The overhead assigned to Z is:

Determination of Cost under ABC Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

35 A purchasing activity costs and is driven by number of orders. There are orders in total, of which Product P places . Product P produces units. Purchasing cost per unit of P is:

Determination of Cost under ABC Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

36 Which of the following is a limitation of ABC?

Benefits and Limitations Medium
A. It is costly and time-consuming to implement and maintain
B. It improves cost control over activities
C. It supports better pricing decisions
D. It provides more accurate product costs

37 A primary benefit of ABC over traditional costing is that it:

Benefits and Limitations Medium
A. Eliminates the need to identify direct costs
B. Removes all subjectivity from cost allocation
C. Guarantees lower total overhead costs
D. Provides more accurate costing for decision-making and pricing

38 Which statement about ABC is correct?

Benefits and Limitations Medium
A. ABC recognises that some overheads are driven by non-volume factors
B. ABC assumes all overheads vary with production volume
C. ABC ignores support activities entirely
D. ABC uses only a single cost driver for all overheads

39 In ABC, activities are often classified into a hierarchy. 'Batch-level' activities are those that:

Steps Involved in Activity Based Costing Medium
A. Support a specific product line
B. Are performed each time a unit is produced
C. Are performed each time a batch is processed regardless of units in it
D. Sustain the plant as a whole

40 When selecting a cost driver, the most important criterion is that the driver should:

Cost Drivers Medium
A. Be the easiest data to collect
B. Have a strong cause-and-effect relationship with the activity cost
C. Produce the lowest possible product cost
D. Always be measured in machine hours

41 A firm has a machine-setup cost pool of driven by number of setups. Product X requires 40 setups and Product Y requires 60 setups. Product X's production volume is 8,000 units and Product Y's is 2,000 units. Under ABC, what is the setup cost allocated per unit of Product Y?

Determination of Cost under ABC Hard
A. per unit
B. per unit
C. per unit
D. per unit

42 A company currently absorbs overhead using direct labour hours. A low-volume, complex product consumes disproportionately high setup and inspection activities but few labour hours. If the firm switches from traditional costing to ABC, what is the most likely effect on this product's reported cost?

Activity Based Costing versus Traditional Costing Hard
A. Reported cost falls because labour-based absorption overstated it
B. Reported cost falls because complexity lowers per-unit driver rates
C. Reported cost rises because it now bears its true share of batch-level activities
D. Reported cost remains unchanged as total overhead is constant

43 Which of the following pairs correctly matches a cost pool with the most appropriate cost driver at the correct activity hierarchy level?

Cost Drivers Hard
A. Machine setup costs — number of production runs (batch level)
B. Factory rent — number of units produced (unit level)
C. Product design costs — number of machine hours (unit level)
D. Material handling — number of employees (facility level)

44 Ordering cost pool is , driven by number of purchase orders (300 total). Product A places 120 orders for 6,000 units; Product B places 180 orders for 3,000 units. Compared to a volume-based allocation (by units), how does ABC change Product B's ordering cost per unit?

Determination of Cost under ABC Hard
A. Decreases from to per unit
B. Increases from to per unit
C. Increases from to per unit
D. Remains at per unit

45 Arrange the core ABC steps in correct sequence: (i) Identify activities, (ii) Assign costs to cost objects using activity rates, (iii) Compute activity cost driver rate, (iv) Assign resource costs to activity cost pools, (v) Select cost drivers.

Steps Involved in Activity Based Costing Hard
A. (iv) → (i) → (v) → (iii) → (ii)
B. (i) → (v) → (iv) → (iii) → (ii)
C. (i) → (iv) → (v) → (iii) → (ii)
D. (i) → (iv) → (iii) → (v) → (ii)

46 Total overhead of splits into two pools: Assembly (, driver = machine hours, 25,000 MH) and Quality (, driver = inspections, 4,000 inspections). A batch uses 500 MH and 100 inspections. What overhead is assigned to the batch?

Determination of Cost under ABC Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

47 Which condition would make an ABC system least likely to improve costing accuracy relative to a traditional system?

Concept and Pre-requisites Hard
A. Overheads are small and largely proportional to a single volume measure
B. Product diversity causes significant cross-subsidisation of costs
C. Overhead forms a large share of total cost with diverse activities
D. Products differ greatly in batch sizes and complexity

48 A material-handling pool of is driven by number of material moves. Product P: 350 moves; Product Q: 280 moves; Product R: 210 moves. If Product R's output is 3,000 units, its material-handling cost per unit is closest to:

Determination of Cost under ABC Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

49 In distinguishing between resource cost drivers and activity cost drivers, which statement is correct?

Cost Drivers Hard
A. Activity drivers assign resource costs to activities; resource drivers assign to cost objects
B. Resource drivers apply only to unit-level costs and activity drivers only to facility-level costs
C. Resource drivers assign resource costs to activities; activity drivers assign activity costs to cost objects
D. Both types assign costs only to final products, never to activities

50 Under traditional costing a plant-wide rate of /labour hour is used. Under ABC, a high-volume simple product's cost drops significantly. What is the most accurate economic interpretation?

Activity Based Costing versus Traditional Costing Hard
A. Its direct material cost has been reclassified as overhead
B. Total plant overhead has decreased due to ABC adoption
C. It was previously over-costed, subsidising complex low-volume products
D. It was previously under-costed and ABC corrects the shortfall

51 A company's setup pool is with 600 setups. Product Z is made in batches of 250 units and requires 2 setups per batch. If annual output of Z is 25,000 units, the setup cost per unit of Z is:

Determination of Cost under ABC Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

52 Which of the following is a genuine limitation of ABC rather than a benefit?

Benefits and Limitations Hard
A. High cost of identifying activities and maintaining multiple driver data
B. Improved insight for pricing and product-mix decisions
C. More accurate profitability analysis by product and customer
D. Better tracing of overheads to products using multiple drivers

53 Two products share three pools: Setup (60 setups), Machining (12,000 MH), Packing (30,000 units). Product A: 40 setups, 8,000 MH, 20,000 units. Total overhead assigned to A is:

Determination of Cost under ABC Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

54 A facility-level activity (e.g., factory security) cannot be sensibly linked to a cause-and-effect driver. Under a strict ABC hierarchy, how should such costs ideally be treated?

Cost Drivers Hard
A. Excluded from product cost and treated as a period cost or apportioned arbitrarily
B. Distributed equally across all setups as a batch-level cost
C. Traced directly to each product using machine hours
D. Assigned using number of units as the most logical unit-level driver

55 A firm reports that under traditional costing Product L shows a profit and Product H a loss, but under ABC the results reverse. Which single factor best explains this reversal?

Activity Based Costing versus Traditional Costing Hard
A. A change in the selling prices used in each costing system
B. A reduction in total overhead when ABC is implemented
C. Reclassification of direct labour into manufacturing overhead
D. Differences in consumption of non-volume-related activities between the products

56 Inspection pool , driven by inspection hours. Product M uses 0.5 inspection hours per unit; total inspection hours across all products . If M's output is 6,000 units, what inspection cost per unit does M bear?

Determination of Cost under ABC Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

57 During ABC implementation, a manager pools two unrelated activities (setups and machine maintenance) into one cost pool and uses machine hours as the driver. What is the most likely consequence?

Steps Involved in Activity Based Costing Hard
A. More accurate costs due to fewer pools and simpler administration
B. Distorted product costs because setups are not driven by machine hours
C. Improved traceability because machine hours capture all activities
D. No impact since both are overhead and net to the same total

58 A criticism of ABC is that it can still be arbitrary. Which situation best illustrates residual arbitrariness within an ABC system?

Benefits and Limitations Hard
A. Allocating facility-sustaining costs to products where no cause-effect driver exists
B. Tracing direct materials to products via bills of material
C. Using number of setups to allocate batch-level setup costs
D. Assigning machining costs on the basis of actual machine hours

59 Product N has: direct materials /unit, direct labour /unit, and ABC-assigned overhead of for 4,800 units. If the selling price is /unit, N's profit per unit under ABC is:

Determination of Cost under ABC Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

60 Which set of pre-requisites must broadly hold for an ABC system to be worth implementing?

Concept and Pre-requisites Hard
A. Uniform batch sizes, volume-based drivers, and stable prices
B. Significant overheads, high product diversity, and availability of driver data
C. Low overheads, single product line, and manual record keeping
D. Minimal overhead, high labour intensity, and one cost pool