Site Search                  

Manufacturing Overhead Budget:

Learning Objective of the article:

1. Define and explain manufacturing overhead budget.
2. Prepare a manufacturing overhead budget.

The manufacturing overhead budget provides a schedule for all costs of production other than direct materials and direct labor.

Example of a Manufacturing Overhead Budget:

Following is the manufacturing overhead budget of Hampton Freeze Inc. (See explanation of this manufacturing overhead budget for Hampton Freeze Inc.)
 

Hampton Freeze Inc. Manufacturing Overhead Budget For the Year Ended December 31, 2003
	Quarters
	1	2	3	4	Year
Budgeted direct labor hours (see direct labor budget)	5,600	12,800	14,400	7,600	40,400
Variable overhead rate	$4.00	$4.00	$4.00	$4.00	$4.00
	---------	---------	---------	---------	---------
Variable manufacturing overhead	$22,400	$51,200	$57,600	$30,400	$161,600
Fixed manufacturing overhead	60,600	60,600	60,600	60,600	242,400
	---------	---------	---------	---------	---------
Total manufacturing overhead	83,000	111,800	118,200	91,000	404,000
Less depreciation	15,000	15,000	15,000	15,000	60,000
	---------	---------	---------	---------	---------
Cash disbursement for manufacturing overhead	$68,000	$96,800	$103,200	$76,000	$344,000
	=======	=======	=======	=======	=======
Total manufacturing overhead (a)					$404,000
Budgeted direct labor-hours (b)					40,400
					------------
Predetermined overhead rate for the year (a) / (b)					$10.00

Explanation of the Manufacturing Overhead Budget for Hampton Freeze Inc:

At Hampton Freeze the manufacturing overhead is spread into variable and fixed components. The variable component is $4 per direct labor-hour and the fixed component is $60,600 per quarter. Because the variable component of the manufacturing overhead depends on direct labor, the first line in the manufacturing overhead budget consists of the budgeted direct labor hours from the direct labor budget (see direct labor budget). The budgeted direct labor hours in each quarter are multiplied by the variable rate to determine the variable component of the manufacturing overhead. For example, the the variable manufacturing overhead for the first quarter is $22,400 (5,600 direct labor hours × $4.00 per direct labor-hour). This is added to the fixed manufacturing overhead for the quarter to determine the total manufacturing overhead for the quarter. The total manufacturing overhead for the first quarter is $83,000 ($22,400 + $60,600).

A few words about fixed costs and the budgeting process are in order. In most cases, fixed costs are the costs of supplying capacity to do things like make products, process purchase orders, handle customer calls, and so on. The amount of capacity that will be required depends on the expected level of activity for the period. If the expected level of activity is greater than the company's current capacity, then fixed costs may have to be increased. Or, if the expected level of activity is appreciably below the company's current capacity, then it may be desirable to decrease fixed costs if that is possible. However once the level of fixed cost has been determined in the budget, the costs really are fixed. The time to adjust fixed costs is during the budgeting process. To determine the appropriate level of fixed costs at budget time, an activity based costing system may be very helpful. It can help answer questions like, "How many clerks will we need to hire to process the anticipated the number of purchase orders next year?" For simplicity, we assume in all of the budgeting examples that appropriate fixed costs has already been determined for the budget with the aid of activity based costing system or some other method.

The last line in the manufacturing overhead budget for Hampton Freeze Inc. shows that its budgeted cash disbursement for manufacturing overhead. Since, some of the overhead costs are not cash outflows, the total budgeted manufacturing overhead costs must be adjusted to determine the cash disbursements for manufacturing overhead. At Hampton Freeze, the only significant non-cash manufacturing overhead cost is depreciation, which is $15,00 per quarter. These non-cash depreciation charges are deducted from the total budgeted manufacturing overhead to determine the expected cash disbursements. Hampton Freeze Inc. pays all overhead costs involving the cash disbursements in the quarter incurred. Note that the company's predetermined overhead rate for the year will be $10 per direct labor hour, which is determined by dividing the total budgeted manufacturing overhead for the year by the total budgeted direct labor hours for the year.

You may also be interested in other articles from "Budgeting and planning" chapter:

1. Profit Planning
2. Participative or Self Imposed budgeting
3. Human Factors in Budgeting
4. Zero Based Budgeting (ZBB)
5. Budget Committee
6. Master Budget
7. Sales Budget
8. Production Budget
9. Inventory Purchases Budget for a Merchandising Firm
10. Material Budgeting | Direct Materials Budget
11. Labor Budget
12. Manufacturing Overhead Budget
13. Ending Finished Goods Inventory Budget
14. Selling and Administrative Expense Budget
15. Cash Budget
16. Budgeted Income Statement
17. Budgeted Balance Sheet
18. International Aspects of Budgeting

Back to Home Page | Back to Budgeting and Planning Page

Managerial Accounting

Financial Accounting