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Variable, Fixed, and Mixed Costs

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Submitted By pattymcpheters
Words 1575
Pages 7
Running head: KINDS OF COST
Variable, Fixed, and Mixed Costs
ACCT614-1003B-05
September 3, 2010

Variable, Fixed, and Mixed Costs I. Introduction
As the corporate business financial analyst for SAC, it is essential that I possess a complete comprehension of the various kinds of costs a corporation carries. The three various kinds of costs that are essential for me to comprehend are variable, fixed, and mixed costs. To ensure that I comprehend all three of these costs, I will explain each of them, give examples, and review SAC’s journal entries for 2006 listing the various costs. II. Cost Analysis a. Variable Costs
The first kind of cost I will discuss is variable cost. “A variable cost is a cost that varies, in total, in direct proportion to changes in the level of activity” (Garrison, Noreen, & Brewer, 2010, p. 48). Some examples of the activity are hours worked, units manufactured, miles driven, units sold, et cetera. One example of a variable cost is the cost of materials. The cost of the materials will fluctuate depending on how many final products are being manufactured. To help me comprehend this I will give an example, if a corporation needed one computer chip for its production of one final product then if production increased by 20 final products then the cost of the material, computer chip, would go up by 20 units. The below table shows the rise of the variable cost of the computer chip due to the increased number of products being manufactured. Numbers of computers manufactured | Cost per chip | Total variable cost – computer chip | 1 | $50 | $50 | 250 | $50 | $12,500 | 500 | $50 | $25,000 | By looking at the table we can see how the total variable cost is influenced by the increase in the number of units of final product being manufactured resulting in an increase in the number of computer chips, direct materials,

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