CHAPTER 9 INVENTORY COSTING AND CAPACITY ANALYSIS 9-1 No. Differences in operating income between variable costing and absorption costing are due to accounting for fixed manufacturing costs. Under variable costing, only variable manufacturing costs are included as inventoriable costs. Under absorption costing, both variable and fixed manufacturing costs are included as inventoriable costs. Fixed marketing and distribution costs are not accounted for differently under variable costing and absorption costing. 9-2 The term direct costing is a misnomer for variable costing for two reasons:
a. Variable costing does not include all direct costs as inventoriable costs. Only variable direct manufacturing costs are included. Any fixed direct manufacturing costs and any direct nonmanufacturing costs (either variable or fixed) are excluded from inventoriable costs.
b. Variable costing includes as inventoriable costs not only direct manufacturing costs but also some indirect costs (variable indirect manufacturing costs). 9-3 No. The difference between absorption costing and variable costs is due to accounting for fixed manufacturing costs. As service or merchandising companies have no fixed manufacturing costs, these companies do not make choices between absorption costing and variable costing. 9-4 The main issue between variable costing and absorption costing is the proper timing of the release of fixed manufacturing costs as costs of the period: a. at the time of incurrence, or b. at the time the finished units to which the fixed overhead relates are sold. Variable costing uses (a) and absorption costing uses (b). 9-5 No. A company that makes a variable-cost/fixed-cost distinction is not forced to use any specific costing method. The Stassen Company example in the text of Chapter 9 makes a variable-cost/fixed-cost distinction. As illustrated, it can use