WGU Updated Accounting-for-Decision-Makers Exam Questions and Answers by fearne

The correct answer is C. Total variable costs will decrease in direct proportion . Variable costs change in total as activity or sales volume changes. When sales volume decreases, total variable costs also decrease proportionally because fewer units are produced or sold. Multiple accounting references explain that total variable cost rises and falls with the level of activity, while the variable cost per unit remains constant within the relevant range.

Option A is the opposite of what happens when volume falls. Options B and D are incorrect because total fixed costs generally remain unchanged within the relevant range regardless of short-term changes in sales volume. OpenStax notes that fixed costs are present regardless of production or sales levels, while variable costs occur only as items or services are produced and sold.

This distinction is central to cost behavior analysis and profit planning. As volume declines, total variable costs go down in direct proportion, but total fixed costs do not normally move with sales in the short run. Therefore, the correct answer is Option C .

The correct answer is C. IFRS are commonly required to be used in Asia . IFRS is widely used around the world, and the IFRS Foundation states that companies in more than 140 jurisdictions are required to use IFRS Accounting Standards when reporting their financial health. That broad global adoption includes many Asian jurisdictions, so saying IFRS are commonly required in Asia is accurate.

Option A is incorrect because U.S. domestic issuers are generally required under SEC rules to file financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP , not simply choose IFRS instead. Option B is false because IFRS are not seldom used by non-U.S. companies; in fact, they are extensively used internationally. Option D is incorrect because the SEC does not require IFRS for all issuers; rather, SEC rules generally require U.S. GAAP for domestic registrants, while certain foreign private issuers may use IFRS as issued by the IASB. Therefore, among the listed choices, Option C is the only statement that is broadly correct and consistent with current international reporting practice.

The best answer is B. Liability deferral . Among the choices provided, this is the only option that relates to a liability-based arrangement in which an obligation is incurred and then settled over time. In accounting, debt that is taken on and repaid through scheduled installments is generally treated as a liability until it is extinguished through repayment. Repaying principal over time is commonly described in finance as amortization of debt principal , meaning the borrower fully pays the debt in installments over a period of time.

The other options do not fit this meaning. Income smoothing refers to managing the pattern of reported earnings to reduce fluctuations between periods, not simply borrowing and repaying debt. “Profit control” and “accounting management” are not standard terms for the repayment of debt over time in basic accounting frameworks. Because the question asks for the option that best matches the idea of incurring debt and then paying it off over time, Liability deferral is the most appropriate answer from the choices given, even though “debt amortization” would be the more standard term in practice.

The correct answer is B. Machine setups . In activity-based costing , batch-level activities are performed each time a batch of goods is processed, regardless of how many units are in that batch. A classic example is the machine setup required before production of a batch can begin. ABC materials commonly identify setup costs as batch-level because the activity occurs per batch rather than per individual unit.

Option A, property taxes , and Option C, factory insurance , are usually considered facility-level or organization-sustaining overhead because they support the factory as a whole rather than a specific batch. Option D, product engineering wages , is more closely related to product-level activities , since engineering work often supports a particular product line rather than each batch run. Batch-level costs increase with the number of production batches, not necessarily with the number of units produced. Since machine setups are incurred each time a batch is started, they are the standard example of a batch-level overhead cost. Therefore, Option B is the correct answer.