Question Tag: Labour budget

Diminutive Limited is a manufacturing company situated at the Jubilee field that produces chemicals for oil production. The company is preparing its budget for the coming year. It expects to be able to sell 10,000 tonnes of its only product, the “Sparkle Oil,” in January 2016. Sales are then expected to rise to 11,000 tonnes in February and 14,000 tonnes in March and then remain stable for the rest of the year.

Diminutive Limited aims to carry a finished goods inventory at the end of each month equal to 10% of the following month’s sales. Each “Sparkle Oil” takes 2 hours of labour to make. Diminutive Limited’s 132 production workers are employed on contracts that require them to work a minimum of 160 hours per month and are each paid GH¢1,280 per month. Production workers are highly skilled and require a minimum of one year’s training. In the short term, it is not possible to recruit any more production workers. Any labour hours required in excess of 160 hours per worker are made up by overtime that is paid at the basic rate plus an overtime premium of 48% of the basic rate.

Required:

i) Prepare the production budget on a monthly basis for the first quarter of 2016. (3 marks)

ii) Prepare the labour budget for the first quarter of 2016 showing both hours and labour cost (assume that all production workers work at least 160 hours per month). (6 marks)