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INCOME INFLATION:
ABSORPTION COSTING VS. VARIABLE

Geri B. Wink, Colorado State University Pueblo

Laurie J. Corradino, Colorado State University Pueblo
CASE DESCRIPTION
The primary subject matter of this case concerns income inflation opportunities when GAAP
based absorption costing is used as compared to internally used variable costing when more
inventory is produced than sold. Secondary issues examined include distinctions between financial
and managerial accounting; ethical responsibilities of managers, Certified Public Accountants and
Certified Management Accountants; organizational climate of institutions; fixed costs vs. variable
costs; and how inaccurate reporting in one year may affect financial statements in other years. This
case can be tailored to three different difficulty levels; level two , appropriate for sophomore
Principles of Managerial Accounting; level three, appropriate for junior Cost Accounting; and level
five, appropriate for graduate level Managerial Accounting. This case is designed to be taught in
one-half hour of class time and is expected to require one hour of outside preparation by students.
CASE SYNOPSIS
Robert had no idea how much his life was about to change. He thought he had acquired a
forever career with a financially strong company. What he had not considered, though, was the
effect his new supervisor could have on his career.
This case examines the income inflation opportunities available to unethical managers.
These opportunities arise when production exceeds sales and occurs as a result of the differences
between absorption costing and variable costing.
An absorption costing income statement is provided at three different sales levels with
production remaining constant. The case asks students to use that information to prepare a variable
costing income statement at those same levels assuming production remains constant. The case also
asks students to differentiate between fixed and variable costs, to discuss ethical choices, and to
discuss the tone at the top.

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INTRODUCTION
Robert had no idea how much his life was about to change. He thought he had acquired a
forever career with a financially strong company. What he had not considered, though, was the
effect his new supervisor could have on his career.
Robert Gonzales was a 28-year-old CMA and CPA who had recently become a member of
the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants (AICPA). He was in his first year of being employed at a vehicle manufacturing
facility. For years, the plant had prided itself in its multiple lines including both compact cars and
sport utility vehicles (SUVs). His supervisor, Gail Smith, was also a CMA and CPA. She had been
with the company six months.
Robert, having consulted with the companys former CPA, was aware the business had
always used absorption costing for external reporting purposes as required by U.S. Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Income for internal reporting, though, had been
calculated based on variable costing, and it was those numbers that were used for employee
compensation and end-of-year bonuses. Those were the all-important numbers to most of the
employees and especially to Gail.
Who wouldnt want to find a way to boost company income and get a few extra zeros added
to ones paycheck, right? It was, therefore, no surprise that Gail, being the clever CPA that she was,
decided to test the options herself. It was the perfect opportunity. Robert was relatively new to
the company and to the profession itself. Gail was fairly confident that Robert would be more than
willing to listen to her. She was his supervisor, but, more than that, during the few months that she
had known him, he had always been eager to listen to her suggestions and to openly demonstrate his
admiration for her and her many years of experience. Being fully aware of GAAP requirements,
she knew there was nothing she could alter in the external realm. She definitely did not want to
arouse any suspicion among the auditors. It was those internal reports that were uppermost on her
mind when she sat in her office on that November afternoon. After laboring over the numbers for
hours, it finally hit her. There were two costing options, variable and absorption. She was new to
variable costing for internal decision making. Previous organizations for which she had worked had
considered the method, but they all had ultimately chosen against it. Aha! She had found her
income inflation opportunity! When using GAAP based absorption costing as compared to
internally used variable costing, if more was produced than sold, then there was a chance for income
manipulation. She was not only Roberts supervisor but also one of three main managers at the
plant. She was, thus, partially in charge of deciding on an appropriate production level every
quarter. Luckily for Gail, the other two managers were not as financially adept as she was. They
would never have any clue that she was inflating income.

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The economy had been poor lately and that, coupled with soaring gas prices, had caused
SUV sales to decline significantly over the past three months. It was another perfect opportunity.
Could things get any better than this, thought Gail?
Over the next few weeks, Gail worked tirelessly to craft fail-proof arguments in favor of
keeping SUV production constant despite the recent lack of adequate sales in that line. Then the day
came to use her verbal arsenal. She met early that day with the other two managers and, going down
her, by then, overflowing list of unsound arguments that she had creatively spun to her benefit,
she won the other managers over. Her self-claimed theory that the economy would soon be
flourishing and that future gas prices would drop so low that even the most non-traveler type would
hit the pavement to see the back roads of the country in an instant was accepted by her colleagues
easier than she had ever imagined. It was time to move on to Robert.
That afternoon she called Robert into her office. She explained to him about the decision
to keep production of SUVs steady despite the current sales predicament. He was surprised and
confused, but nonchalantly shrugged it off. What did he know? He was just a first-year entrant into
the auto industry. Maybe there was something he was missing, something that a little more
experience would have revealed. It was not until Gail began to mention something about
eliminating the use of variable costing for internal purposes that he became suspicious. She told
him that nothing would be changed in the externally submitted financials, but that she felt that it
would be best for company decision making if the internal reporting techniques were altered slightly.
Robert was open to change, but what Gail was suggesting was not exactly a slight change. He had
remembered one of his professors dwelling on how changing from variable to absorption costing
could cause a significant change in reported income, especially if there was an overabundance of
inventory, and it was that same professor who had warned him and his classmates to watch out for
such manipulation in their professional lives. But that could not be what was going on here, could
it? Gail had only worked for the plant a short time herself, but she still seemed to make decisions
in the best interests of the company. He continued to listen to her ideas and suggestions, but refused
to agree to any specific method until, as he told her, he had time to conduct further evaluation of the
proposals.
Exposure by Robert to more diligent accounting instruction and ethical awareness was not
a variable that Gail had factored into her plan. She realized that her simply fashioned arguments,
which had worked so well on her fellow managers, would not be sufficient to make Robert a
believer. If she wanted her plan to work, she was going to have to amend her arguments so that they
had less of a financial foundation. Robert was an astute accountant; she could see that now. To
successfully convince him, she recognized that she was going to have to use his lack of industry
knowledge to her advantage.
In the days following his encounter with Gail, Robert spent every free moment he had
evaluating his supervisors suggestion. He thought about it and plugged in numbers time and time
again trying out various scenarios, and each time it came out the same way. When production
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remained constant but sales declined, the use of absorption costing as opposed to variable costing
resulted in higher reported income. More than ever, he started to believe that it just was not his
industry inexperience that was causing him to be leery of the proposed production increases. Maybe
it was not sound industry policy at all.
He decided to investigate further into Gails employment history. He had been on her
screening committee six months earlier and her rsum was in his desk drawer. As he scanned the
document, he noticed something intriguing: She had only been employed at her last company for
a little over a year. Because she had only been there a short while, Robert had surmised that perhaps
she was one of those job jumpers who went from job to job using her financial and accounting
know-how to get what she wanted from the company and would leave before anyone was able to
catch on to her scheme. By that time, though, the company would be reeling from the countless bad
and irreversible decisions it made based upon the information she persuaded management to believe
to be correct. Keeping such thoughts in the back of his mind, he decided to inspect the rsum
further. The next previous job listed indicated Gail had been with that company a mere four months.
The other listed jobs were also accompanied by ranges of work dates that were not typical of the
profession. Jackpot, thought Robert! There had been similar information flowing through the
organizations grapevine, and the records had proved it. The short employment span being related
to any deceptive practice was just a gut feeling on Roberts part, but it was an instinct that he felt
very strongly about.
To further support his convictions, he decided to dig around for his old accounting textbooks.
Sure enough, his cost accounting text illustrated a similar example. The texts evaluation and his
own matched. But, why, he asked himself, would Gail want to boost internally reported income?
Then it hit him. At the end of each fiscal year, the internally reported figures were reviewed, and
based upon the numbers and their changes from the previous year, decisions were made to issue or
reject bonuses. Gail must be at it again, he thought; she has been here only six months, but she
clearly is directing the company in the wrong direction yet again in order to fulfill her own
objectives. Further pondering the situation, he continued and exclaimed out loud, She must be
interested in some extra cash for herself, then thinking about it a bit more, and it would not really
be bad for the rest of us either.
Going along with the plan, though, would cause the other managers to make decisions that
would differ from those that would be made if the more proper variable costing method were used.
Those decisions would include the choice to continue manufacturing SUVs at a constant level even
though they clearly were not as profitable as any absorption-based numbers would indicate. He knew
that allowing such a misconception would be wrong, but it would help him and all the other
employees who had families to support. He was in a bad situation, and he knew it. It was the type
of situation that he had often dreamed and feared about during his preparations to become an
accountant and then even more so when he had pursued the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and
Certified Management Accountant (CMA) designations. He had promised to take the CPA and
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CMA ethical codes of conduct as his own and now his supervisors directives and those very codes
were in conflict.
Gail, still up to her old tricks, had been working on non-financial arguments to present to
Robert in hopes she could still convince him that absorption costing and the production changes
were superior to any other choice that the company could possibly make. In her conversation with
Robert, she noted that the SUV was the companys legacy and for that matter, was the legacy of the
American auto industry. The company could not just decrease production of such a popular line of
vehicles even if gas prices were off the charts. Demand would always be there, she argued. As she
stated, the whole notion of going green was just another fad that would vanish as soon as the
economy recovered. With the emergence of a new U.S. President who advocated a comprehensive
economic stimulus plan, she further declared that such a positive fiscal state looked more promising
than ever. To provide support for the absorption costing method, she contended that absorption
costing was good enough for external reporting why should it not be equally sound and acceptable
for internal reporting as well. Inside she knew fully well why, in this and many other cases, it would
not be acceptable, but she had done it so many times before, it had become nothing for her to be
untrue to herself and the ethical codes of her designations. Still, she could see it in Roberts
skeptical eyes. Could this be the time when she finally met her match and would be caught in the
act?
Gail interpreted Roberts reactions correctly. He was absolutely on to her. Now it was just
up to him to decide what to do. He created a spreadsheet based on one set of his previous
calculations. To make things simple and to provide an analysis that the other managers might be
able to at least conceptually understand, he decided to establish fixed overhead at $150 per unit
based on an estimated overhead and production of $15,000,000 and 100,000 units, respectively.
His estimated figure for direct materials would be $100 per unit, direct labor would be $200 per unit,
and variable manufacturing overhead would be $50 per unit. He created comparison budgets for
three different levels of sales for SUVs based upon those costs. The absorption portion of that
budget is presented in Table 1. He gathered together the remaining support and his counterarguments. All that was left was to decide if he was going to pursue his gut feeling or allow Gail
to follow through with her plan once again.
Robert has a meeting with the other managers in two days to discuss his progress with the
company. It is an ideal opportunity to disclose his findings. Having only been employed at the
company for six months, he is not sure how his allegations and concerns will be received. He and
the other employees could be monetarily rewarded if he does not say anything. If he does openly
question Gails tactics with her superiors, his job could potentially be at stake.

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Table 1: Based on Absorption Costing
Partial Income Statement
Sales of 100,000 units

Sales of 90,000 units

Sales of 80,000 units

Sales

100,000,000

90,000,000

80,000,000

Less: COGS

(50,000,000)

(45,000,000)

(40,000,000)

Gross Profit

50,000,000

45,000,000

40,000,000

50,000,000

45,000,000

40,000,000

Less: Fixed Manufacturing Overhead

Operating Income

Cost of Goods Sold and Ending Inventory

Sales of 100,000 units Sales of 90,000 units

Sales of 80,000 units

Beginning Inventory

5,000,000

5,000,000

5,000,000

Add: Production at 100,000 units

50,000,000

50,000,000

50,000,000

Goods Available for Sale

55,000,000

55,000,000

55,000,000

Less: Sales

(50,000,000)

(45,000,000)

(40,000,000)

Ending Inventory

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies, Volume 16, Special Issue, Number 1, 2010

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