Would Yogurt Vi use job costing or process costing in calculating the cost of a customer’s cup of frozen yogurt and toppings?

Source: Wendy Tietz

Yogurt Vi (pronounced vee) is a frozen yogurt restaurant with several locations in Ohio. Customers will select the flavor of frozen yogurt they want and fill their cup from the self-serve machine with the desired amount of the frozen yogurt. Next the customer will proceed to the toppings bar, where they can select from a large variety of toppings including strawberries, kiwis, gummy bears, chocolate chips, crushed Oreos, M&M candies, sprinkles, salted caramels, and many other toppings. Once the customer has finished adding toppings, the customer then proceeds to the cash register where the cup of frozen yogurt and toppings is weighed. The customer is charged a flat fee of $0.48 per ounce.

Questions

1. Do you think that Yogurt Vi pays the same amount to its suppliers for each of the toppings? For example, is it probable that fresh strawberries cost the exact same amount as M&M candies? Do you think the toppings would cost the same amount as the frozen yogurt mix that is put into the soft-serve machines?
2. From a technical viewpoint, do you think Yogurt Vi would use a job costing system or a process costing system for calculating the cost of each customer’s order? Explain.
3. From a practical standpoint, do you think Yogurt Vi would use a job costing system or a process costing system for calculating the cost of each customer’s order? Explain.

Instructor Resources

These resources are provided to give the instructor flexibility for use of Accounting in the Headlines articles in the classroom. The blog posting itself can be assigned via a link to this site OR by distributing the student handout below. Alternatively, the PowerPoint file below contains a bullet point overview of the article and the discussion questions.

• Student handout (pdf) (word) (contains entire blog posting + discussion questions)
• PowerPoint file (brief article overview + discussion questions)

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