Salem Telephone Company Accounting Case Essay Example
Salem Telephone Company Accounting Case Essay Example

Salem Telephone Company Accounting Case Essay Example

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  • Pages: 2 (536 words)
  • Published: March 27, 2017
  • Type: Case Study
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Salem Telephone Company has recently set up a computer service branch, Salem Date Services, aiming to boost company profits and alleviate the need to raise prices for their regulated telephone services. However, the financial records of Salem Data Services indicate that the subsidiary has been operating at a loss for the past quarter.

The president of Salem Telephone Company, Peter Flores, is gearing up for a meeting. He has opted to delve into the financial analysis of their computer service subsidiary. This will help him determine if the auxiliary organization is genuinely adding to company profits. Key to this analysis is the distinction between variable costs and fixed costs. Costs related to power, operations hourly personnel, sales promotion, and corporate services are all variable. However, it's important to note that sales promotion and corporate services also contain elements of mixe

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d costs.

The expenses incurred by Salem Data Services such as rent, computer leases, maintenance services, custodial services, depreciation of office furnishings and computer equipment, operations personnel wages, systems development and maintenance costs, administrative overheads, and sales costs are all fixed costs. The primary activity that determines the cost for the company is the "revenue hours". In terms of these revenue hours, power and operational personnel on an hourly basis are the variable costs. The expenditure per revenue hour for power amounts to $4. 0 and for operations hourly personnel it stands at $24. 00. In order to ascertain the potential earnings of Salem Data Services given that intracompany usage would be 205 hours, a contribution margin income statement has been constructed. As analyzed from this income statement, the operating income culminates in a net deficit of $30,014

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(refer to Exhibit 1). This implies that a reduction of 5% in revenue hours, corresponding to the decrease in intra company hours, will bring about a 27% downfall in the operating income.

Assuming the internal company demand for usage hours stays constant at 205, the affiliate company must achieve 176 hours of commercial revenue from computer usage to reach a breakeven point (refer to Exhibit 2). This denotes a 27% uplift in commercial revenue hours compared to the company's March performance, assuming costs remain unchanged. Cynthia Wu, Salem Data Service's director, has proposed ideas on how to enhance the data service arm's contribution towards the parent telephone company.

Understanding the financial impact of each proposed idea is essential. If the rate for commercial clients is raised by $1000 per hour, there will be a 30% drop in demand, leading to a higher net operating income loss of $41,178. Conversely, if the rate for commercial clients is lowered by $600 per hour, demand would rise by 30%, resulting in a net operating income loss of $34,810. Salem Data Service could alternatively choose to boost advertising expenditure by $1,070, which would result in no monthly losses if commercial usage increased by 30%; refer to Exhibit 1.

The assessment reveals that the primary issue with Salem Data Service is its surplus capacity. However, to truly comprehend the advantages offered by Salem Data Services, Flores should take into account the actual cost reductions experienced by Salem Telephone Company. The company saves about $ 46,000 per month by not contracting out these services (refer to Exhibit 3). It is advised that as long as these cost savings persist, Flores should continue managing Salem

Data Service.

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