Differential Analysis and Product Pricing
Chapter 11
Differential Analysis
(slide 1 of 6)
Managerial decision making involves choosing between alternative courses of action.
Differential analysis, sometimes called incremental analysis, analyzes differential revenues and costs in order to determine the differential impact on profit of two alternative courses of action.
Differential revenue is the amount of increase or decrease in revenue that is expected from a course of action compared to an alternative.
Differential cost is the amount of increase or decrease in cost that is expected from a course of action as compared to an alternative.
© 2020 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
2
Differential Analysis
(slide 2 of 6)
Differential profit (loss) is the difference between the differential revenue and differential costs.
Differential profit indicates that a decision is expected to increase income.
Differential loss indicates that a decision is expected to decrease income.
© 2020 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
3
Differential Analysis
(slide 3 of 6)
The differential analysis is prepared in three columns, where positive amounts indicate the differential effect is to increase profit and income and negative amounts indicate the effect is to decrease profit and income.
The first column is the revenues, costs, and profit (loss) for maintaining floor space for tables (Alternative 1).
The second column is the revenues, costs, and profit (loss) for using that floor space for a salad bar (Alternative 2).
The third column is the difference between the revenues, costs, and profit (loss) of two alternatives.
© 2020 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Differential Analysis
(slide 4 of 6)
The salad bar (Alternative 2) is being considered over keeping the existing tables (Alternative 1).
The differential revenue of a salad bar over tables is $20,000 ($120,000 − $100,000). Because the salad bar would increase revenue and profit, it is entered as a positive $20,000 in the Differential Effects column.
The differential cost of a salad bar over tables is $5,000 ($65,000 − $60,000). Because the salad bar would increase costs and decrease profit, the $5,000 is entered as a negative $(5,000) in the Differential Effects column.
The differential effect of a salad bar over tables is determined by subtracting the differential costs from the differential revenues in the Differential Effects column.
© 2020 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Differential Analysis
(slide 5 of 6)
The differential profit of a salad bar is $15,000 ($20,000 − $5,000).
Based upon the differential analysis, Bryant Re ...Read less