Code of Federal Regulations Title 48. Federal Acquisition Regulations System 48.904.407-60 9904.407–60 Illustrations

(a) Contractor A's written practice is to set his material-price standard for an item on the basis of average purchase prices expected to prevail during the calendar year. For that item whose usage from month to month is stable, a purchase contract is generally signed on May 1 of each year for a 1–year commitment. The current purchase contract calls for a purchase price of $3 per pound;  an increase of 5 percent, or 15¢ per pound, has been announced by the vendor when the new purchase contract comes into effect next May. Contractor A sets his material-price standard for this item at $3.10 per pound for the year ([$3.00x4+$3.15x8]÷ 12). Since Contractor A sets his material-price standard in accordance with his written practice, he complies with provisions of 9904.407–40(c) of this Cost Accounting Standard.

(b) Contractor B accumulates, in one account, labor cost at standard for a department in which several categories of direct labor of disparate functions, in different combinations, are used in the manufacture of various dissimilar outputs of the department. Contractor B's department is not a production unit as defined in 9904.407–30(a)(7) of this Cost Accounting Standard. Modifying his practice so as to comply with the definition of production unit in 9904.407–30(a)(7), he could accumulate the standard costs and variances separately,

(c) Contractor C allocates variances at the end of each month. During the month of March, a production unit has accumulated the following data with respect to labor:

Using labor hours at standard as the base, Contractor C establishes a labor-cost variance rate of $.35 per standard labor hour ($7,000 ÷ 20,000), and deducts $2,800 ($.35 x 8,000) from the labor-cost variance account, leaving a balance of $4,200 ($7,000–$2,800). Contractor C's practice complies with provisions of 9904.407–50(d)(1) of this Cost Accounting Standard.

(d) Contractor D, who uses materials the prices of which are expected to fluctuate at different rates, recognizes material-price variances at the time purchases of material are entered into the books of account. He maintains one purchase-price variance account for the whole plant. Purchased items are requisitioned by various production units in the plant. Since prices of material are expected to fluctuate at different rates, this plant-wide grouping does not constitute a homogeneous grouping of material. Contractor D's practice does not comply with provisions of 9904.407–50(b)(2) of this Cost Accounting Standard. However, if he would maintain several purchased-items inventory accounts, each representing a homogeneous grouping of material, and maintain a material-price variance account for each of these homogeneous groupings of material, Contractor D's practice would comply with 9904.407–50(b)(2) of this Cost Accounting Standard.

Contractor E's practice complies with provisions of 9904.407–50(b)(3)(ii) of this Cost Accounting Standard.