You are a manager in one department of the XYZ Manufacturing Company. You have been invited to a meeting by the general manager to discuss how spending in your department and the other departments could impact the company's profitability. In particular, the general manager is going to be discussing the concept of manufacturing overhead, how it is such an important part of setting prices, and how to determine the firm's profitability.

In order to properly set selling prices, you need to know the cost of certain products that you make. Setting prices is done at the beginning of each year. While it is easy to know labor and material content, it is harder to know how much overhead should be assigned to each unit of output

In your own words:

describe what manufacturing overhead is

describe how it is different than direct labor and direct materials

give at least 3 examples of typical manufacturing overhead

What exactly is the predetermined overhead rate, and why is it important?