Boswell and Associates Designs Relatively Small Sports Stadiums and Arenas

Essay

Boswell and Associates designs relatively small sports stadiums and arenas at various sites throughout the country. The firm's accountant prepared the following budget for the upcoming year: $\begin{array}{l}\begin{array}{l}\text { Professional staff salaries } \\\text { Administrative support staff } \\\text { Other operating costs }\end{array}\begin{array}{l}\$ 3,000,000 \\800,000 \\200,000\end{array}\end{array}$ Eighty percent of professional staff salaries are directly traceable to client projects, a figure that falls to 60% for the administrative support staff and other operating costs. Traceable costs are charged directly to client projects; non-traceable costs, on the other hand, are treated as firm overhead and charged to projects by using a predetermined overhead application rate.
Boswell had one project in process at year-end: an arena that was being designed for Addington County. Costs directly chargeable to this project were: $\begin{array}{lccc} \text { Professional staff salaries } & \$ 90,000 \\ \text { Administrative support staff } & 17,300 \\ \text { Other operating costs} & 6,700\end{array}$
Required:
A. Calculate Boswell's overhead for the year and the firm's predetermined overhead application rate. The rate is based on costs directly chargeable to firm projects.
B. Compute the cost of the Addington County arena project as of year-end.
C. Present three examples of "other operating costs" that might be directly traceable to the Addington County project.