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This case provides students with an opportunity to practice a set of activity-based costing calculations. More importantly, it provides an instructor with the opportunity to challenge students to think about and to discuss the rationale used by the case protagonist to revise the means by which the company allocates corporate support costs to the product lines and to the business units. It is best used as an introduction to activity-based costing and/or the more general topic of cost allocations. As such, it is amenable to undergraduate and graduate managerial accounting courses, as well as executive education financial management programs.

This case provides students with an opportunity to understand how to analyze costs and profit at the service-line level. Students have a chance to allocate general and administrative costs to service lines in a number of different ways and are directed toward considering drivers of overhead expenses in the allocation process. In addition, students should be challenged to discuss whether it even makes sense, in this setting, to allocate all the general and administrative costs. Finally, students are asked to calculate the incremental contribution margin percentage for each service line, and determine which service line(s) Finnegan should try to expand.

This case presents an opportunity for students to use flexible budgeting to perform a variance analysis on the operating results of EntertainmentNow.com. First, the company's original budget is flexed to account for changes in sales volume. Then, actual results are compared to the flexed budget and analyzed for product mix, price, cost of goods sold, efficiency, and other variances. In addition, the case requires a simple calculation to determine the breakeven level of sales given the company's current variable and fixed costs.

This case provides students the opportunity to practice variance analysis for an annual operating plan using flexible budgeting skills. First, a static budget is flexed to account for changes in product volume. Then, actual results are compared to the flexed budget and analyzed for product price, efficiency, and other variances. In addition, the case allows for discussion as to how flexible budgets can be used for management decision making, and how various compensation structures can affect financial results.

The primary purpose of this case is to provide students with an opportunity to practice the implementation of a simple activity-based costing (ABC) system. In doing so, students are asked to review several possible allocation bases and ascertain the best base by which to allocate plant administration costs. In addition, students are expected to calculate and compare traditional volume-based or direct-labor plus direct materials-based overhead allocation results with ABC--and then analyze which allocation method is most appropriate to the situation at Zauner Ornaments. This case also allows students to apply a managerial perspective and utilize the cost allocation results to identify potential pricing and cost management strategies.

This case has three main purposes: 1. To illustrate the importance of understanding cost behaviors in calculating the contribution of the Corvallis Cup youth soccer tournament to decide whether to continue, drop, or expand the tournament. 2. To provide a vehicle for discussing sunk costs, overhead allocation methods, and the impact of misallocation on the income/loss shown for a segment of an organization. 3. To allow students to perform simple breakeven analysis using relevant costs.