Exeter Group is a large retall company that has brickandmortar outlets throughout the Southeast. They have been in business for
many years, but two years ago started an online sales channel to offset slowing instore sales. The human resources HR department
at Exeter handles tasks for the two divisions that make up Exeter. Retall and Oniline. Retall Division manages the company's traditional
business line. This business, although still profitable, is currently not growing and may be shrinking silightly. Oniline Division, on the
other hand, has experlenced doubledigit growth from the beginning.
The cost allocation system at Exeter allocates all corporate costs to the divisions based on a variety of cost allocation bases. HR costs
are allocated based on the average number of employees in the two divisions.
There are two basic activities in the HR Department. The first is employee maintenance payroll administration, benefits, and so on
which is an ongoing activity and requires the same amount of work for each employee regardless of the employee's salary. The
second, called turnover, handles new and departing employees, including all records and orientations for new employees and
assurance of procedural integrity for all departures Virtually all of this activity occurs when employees are hired or leave the
company.
Assorted data for Exeter for the most recent year follow:
Required:
a Under the current allocation system, what are the costs that will be allocated from HR to Retall Division? To Oniline Division?
b Suppose the company implements an activitybased cost system for HR with the two activitles, employee maintenance and
turnover. Use the average number of employees as the cost driver for employee maintenance costs and the average number of
employees hired or leaving for turnover costs. What are the costs that will be allocated from HR to Retail? To Online?
Complete this question by entering your answers in the tabs below.
Suppose the company implements an activitybased cost system for HR with the two activities, employee maintenance and
turnover. Use the average number of employees as the cost driver for employee maintenance costs and the average number
of employees hired or leaving for turnover costs. What are the costs that will be allocated from HR to Retail? To Online?