Explain why a business needs to keep variable costs low and high variable costs impact the business.

Elliott company produces large quantities of a standardized product. the following information is available for its production activities for march. units costs beginning work in process inventory 2,500 beginning work in process inventory started 25,000 direct materials $ 3,725 ending work in process inventory 5,000 conversion 11,580 $ 15,305 status of ending work in process inventory direct materials added 185,750 materials—percent complete 100 % direct labor added 182,375 conversion—percent complete 30 % overhead applied (140% of direct labor) 255,325 total costs to account for $ 638,755 ending work in process inventory $ 62,530 prepare a process cost summary report for this company, showing costs charged to production, unit cost information, equivalent units of production, cost per eup, and its cost assignment and reconciliation. use the weighted-average method. (round "cost per eup" to 2 decimal places.)

"in my opinion, we ought to stop making our own drums and accept that outside supplier's offer," said wim niewindt, managing director of antilles refining, n.v., of aruba. "at a price of $21 per drum, we would be paying $4.70 less than it costs us to manufacture the drums in our own plant. since we use 70,000 drums a year, that would be an annual cost savings of $329,000." antilles refining's current cost to manufacture one drum is given below (based on 70,000 drums per year):

Trey morgan is an employee who is paid monthly. for the month of january of the current year, he earned a total of $4,538. the fica tax for social security is 6.2% of the first $118,500 earned each calendar year, and the fica tax rate for medicare is 1.45% of all earnings for both the employee and the employer. the amount of federal income tax withheld from his earnings was $680.70. his net pay for the month is .