Title 48

SECTION 9904.403-50

9904.403-50 Techniques for application.

(a)(1) Separate expense groupings will ordinarily be required to implement 9904.403-40. The number of groupings will depend primarily on the variety and significance of service and management functions performed by a particular home office. Ordinarily, each service or management function will have to be separately identified for allocation by means of an appropriate allocation technique. However, it is not necessary to identify and allocate different functions separately, if allocation in accordance with the relevant requirements of 9904.403-40(b) can be made using a common allocation base. For example, if the personnel department of a home office provides personnel services for some or all of the segments (a centralized service function) and also established personnel policies for the same segments (a staff management function), the expenses of both functions could be allocated over the same base, such as the number of personnel, and the separate functions do not have to be identified.

(2) Where the expense of a given function is to be allocated by means of a particular allocation base, all segments shall be included in the base unless:

(i) Any excluded segment did not receive significant benefits from, or contribute significantly to the cause of the expense to be allocated and,

(ii) Any included segment did receive significant benefits from or contribute significantly to the cause of the expense in question.

(b)(1) Section 9904.403-60 illustrates various expense pools which may be used together with appropriate allocation bases. The allocation of centralized service functions shall be governed by a hierarchy of preferable allocation techniques which represent beneficial or causal relationships. The preferred representation of such relationships is a measure of the activity of the organization performing the function. Supporting functions are usually labor-oriented, machine-oriented, or space-oriented. Measures of the activities of such functions ordinarily can be expressed in terms of labor hours, machine hours, or square footage. Accordingly, costs of these functions shall be allocated by use of a rate, such as a rate per labor hour, rate per machine hour or cost per square foot, unless such measures are unavailable or impractical to ascertain. In these latter cases the basis for allocation shall be a measurement of the output of the supporting function. Output is measured in terms of units of end product produced by the supporting function, as for example, number of printed pages for a print shop, number of purchase orders processed by a purchasing department, number of hires by an employment office.

(2) Where neither activity nor output of the supporting function can be practically measured, a surrogate for the beneficial, or causal relationship must be selected. Surrogates used to represent the relationship are generally measures of the activity of the segments receiving the service; for example, for personnel services reasonable surrogates would be number of personnel, labor hours, or labor dollars of the segments receiving the service. Any surrogate used should be a reasonable measure of the services received and, logically, should vary in proportion to the services received.

(c)(1) Where residual expenses are required to be allocated pursuant to 9904.403-40(c)(2), the three factor formula described below must be used. This formula is considered to result in appropriate allocations of the residual expenses of home offices. It takes into account three broad areas of management concern: The employees of the organization, the business volume, and the capital invested in the organization. The percentage of the residual expenses to be allocated to any segment pursuant to the three factor formula is the arithmetical average of the following three percentages for the same period.

(i) The percentage of the segment's payroll dollars to the total payroll dollars of all segments.

(ii) The percentage of the segment's operating revenue to the total operating revenue of all segments. For this purpose, the operating revenue of any segment shall include amounts charged to other segments and shall be reduced by amounts charged by other segments for purchases.

(iii) The percentage of the average net book value of the sum of the segment's tangible capital assets plus inventories to the total average net book value of such assets of all segments. Property held primarily for leasing to others shall be excluded from the computation. The average net book value shall be the average of the net book value at the beginning of the organization's fiscal year and the net book value at the end of the year.

(d) The following paragraphs provide guidance for implementing the requirements of 9904.403-40(c)(3).

(1) An indication that a segment received significantly less benefit in relation to other segments can arise if a segment, unlike all or most other segments, performs on its own many of the functions included in the residual expense. Another indication may be that, in relation to its size, comparatively little or no costs are allocable to a segment pursuant to 9904.403-40(b) (1) through (5). Evidence of comparatively little communication or interpersonal relations between a home office and a segment, in relation to its size, may also indicate that the segment receives significantly less benefit from residual expenses. Conversely, if the opposite conditions prevail at any segment, a greater allocation than would result from the application of 9904.403-40(c) (1) or (2) may be indicated. This may be the case, for example, if a segment relies heavily on the home office for certain residual functions normally performed by other segments on their own.

(2) Segments which may require special allocations of residual expenses pursuant to 9904.403-40(c)(3) include, but are not limited to foreign subsidiaries, GOCO's, domestic subsidiaries with less than a majority ownership, and joint ventures.

(3) The portion of residual expenses to be allocated to a segment pursuant to 9904.403-40(c)(3) shall be the cost of estimated or recorded efforts devoted to the segments.

(e) Home office functions may be performed by an organization which for some purposes may not be a part of the legal entity with which the Government has contracted. This situation may arise, for example, in instances where the Government contracts directly with a corporation which is wholly or partly owned by another corporation. In this case, the latter corporation serves as a “home office,” and the corporation with which the contract is made is a “segment” as those terms are defined and used in this Standard. For purposes of contracts subject to this Standard, the contracting corporation may only accept allocations from the other corporation to the extent that such allocations meet the requirements set forth in this Standard for allocation of home office expenses to segments.