Atkinson Construction assembles residential houses. It uses a job-costing system with two direct-cost categories (direct materials and direct labor) and one indirect-cost pool (assembly support). Direct labor-hours is the allocation base for assembly support costs. In December 2016, Atkinson budgets 2017 assembly-support costs to be $8,800,000 and 2017 direct labor-hours to be 220,000.

At the end of 2017, Atkinson is comparing the costs of several jobs that were started and completed in 2017.

Laguna Model Mission Model
Construction period Feb-June 2017 May-0ct 2017
Direct material costs $106,550 $127,450
Direct labor costs $ 36,250 $41,130
Direct labor-hours 970 1,000
Direct materials and direct labor are paid for on a contract basis. The costs of each are known when direct materials are used or when direct labor-hours are worked. The 2017 actual assembly-support costs were $8,400,000, and the actual direct labor-hours were 200,000.

Required:

1. Compute the (a) budgeted indirect-cost rate and (b) actual indirect-cost rate. Why do they differ?

2. What are the job costs of the Laguna Model and the Mission Model using (a) normal costing and (b) actual costing?

3. Why might Atkinson Construction prefer normal costing over actual costing?