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Expected sales to Business Unit Y 5000 units
Variable cost per unit Rs. 5
Monthly fixed costs Rs. 20000
Investment in working capital and facilities Rs. 1,200,000
Competitive return in investment per year 10%
Transfer Price for Product A
Variable cost per unit Rs. 5
Plus fixed cost per unit Rs. 4
Plus profit per unit * Rs. 2
Transfer price per unit Rs. 11
* 10% of monthly investment per unit =
[(Rs. 1,200,000/12)*0.10]/5000
Lecture 10 MCS 11
Profit Sharing
A profit sharing system might be used to ensure congruence
between business unit and company interests. This system operates
as follows:
1. The product is transferred to the marketing unit at standard
variable cost
2. After the product is sold, the business units share the contribution
earned, which is the selling price minus the variable manufacturing
and marketing costs.
Lecture 10 MCS 22
Problems with the method:
Arguments over the way contribution is divided between the two
profit centres
Arbitrarily dividing up the profits between units does not give valid
information on the profitability of each unit
Since the contribution is not allocated until after the sale has been
made, the manufacturing unit’s contribution depends on the
marketing unit’s ability to sell as well as the actual selling price.
Lecture 10 MCS 33
Two sets of Prices
Lecture 10 MCS 44
Problems with the method:
The sum of business unit profits is greater than overall company
profits
This system creates an illusive feeling that business units are
making money, while in fact, the overall company might be losing
money because of debits to headquarters.
This system might motivate business units to concentrate more on
internal transfers where they are assured of a good markup at the
expense of outside sales
Lecture 10 MCS 55
Pricing Corporate Services
We discuss some of the problems while charging business units for
services furnished by corporate staff units. The allocations are not
transfer prices.
There remain two types of transfers:
1. For central services that the receiving unit must accept but can at
least partially control the amount used.
2. For central services that the business unit can decide whether or
not to use.
Lecture 10 MCS 66
Control over amount of service
If Information Technology or Research & Development services are
used, efficiency cannot be controlled but the amount of service can
be controlled.
Methods
A business unit should pay the standard variable cost of the
discretionary services.
If it pays less than this, it will be motivated to use more of the
service than is economically justified.
Lecture 10 MCS 77
A price equal to the standard variable cost plus a fair share of the
standard fixed costs – that is, the full cost.
Proponents argue that if the business units do not believe the
services are worth at least this amount, something is wrong with
either the quality or the efficiency of the service unit.
A price that is equivalent to the market price, or to standard full cost
plus a profit margin.
The market price would be used if available; if not, the price
would be full cost plus a return on investment.
The rationale for this position is that the capital employed by
service units should earn a return just as the capital employed by
manufacturing units does.
88
Lecture 10 MCS
Administration of Transfer Prices
Negotiation
In most companies, business units negotiate transfer prices
with each other; that is transfer prices are not set by a central staff
group.
A negotiated transfer price often is the result of compromises
made by both buyer and seller.
If headquarters establishes transfer prices, business unit
managers can argue that their low profits are due to the prices,
business unit managers can argue that their low profits are due to
the arbitrariness of the transfer price.
Lecture 10 MCS 99
Arbitration and Conflict Resolution
No matter how specific the pricing rules are, there may be
instances in which business units will not be able to agree on a
price.
Arbitration may be through an executive or a committee.
The committee sees that:
(1) Settling transfer price disputes
(2) Reviewing sourcing changes, and
(3) Changing the transfer price rules when appropriate
Lecture 10 MCS 1010
Arbitration can be conducted in a number of ways.
With a formal system, both parties submit a written case
to the arbitrator. The arbitrator reviews their positions and decides
on the price, sometimes with the assistance of other staff offices.
It is important that relatively few disputes be submitted to
arbitration. If a large number of disputes are arbitrated, this indicates
the rules are not specific enough or are difficult to apply, or the
business unit organisation is illogical.
Also preventing disputes from being submitted to arbitration
will tend to hide the fact that there are problems with the transfer
price system.
Lecture 10 MCS 1111
Product Classification
The extent and formality of the sourcing and transfer pricing
rules depend to a large extent on the number of intracompany
transfers and the availability of markets and market prices.
The greater are the number of intracompany transfers and
the availability of market prices, the more formal and specific the
rules must be.
If market prices are readily available, sourcing can be
controlled by having headquarters review makeorbuy decisions
that exceed a specified amount.
Some companies divide products into two main classes:
Class I includes all products for which senior management
wishes to control sourcing.
Lecture 10 MCS 1212
Largevolume products for which no outside source exists,
and products over whose manufacturing, for quality or secrecy
reasons, senior management wishes to maintain control.
Class II is all other products.
These products can be produced outside the company
without any significant disruption to present operations, and products
of relatively small volume, produced with generalpurpose
equipment.
These products are transferred at market prices.
The sourcing of Class I products can be changed only by
permission of central management.
The sourcing of Class II products is determined by the
business units involved.
Lecture 10 MCS 1313
Case: Division A of Lambda Company manufactures Product X, which is
sold to Division B as a component of Product Y. Product Y is sold to Division
C, which uses it as a component in Product Z. Product Z is sold to
customers outside of the company. The intracompany pricing rule is that
products are transferred between divisions at standard cost plus a 10
percent return on inventories and fixed assets. From the information
provided below, calculate the transfer price for products X and Y and the
standard cost of Product Z.
Standard Cost Per Unit Product X Product Y Product Z
Material purchased outside (Rs.) 2.00 3.00 1.00
Direct labour (Rs.) 1.00 1.00 2.00
Variable overhead (Rs.) 1.00 1.00 2.00
Fixed overhead per unit (Rs.) 3.00 4.00 1.00
Standard volume (units) 10,000 10,000 10,000
Inventories (average) (Rs.) 70,000 15,000 30,000
Fixed assets (net) (Rs.) 30,000 45,000 16,000
Lecture 10 MCS 1414