Which production cost is included in the manufacturing overhead budget?
John Johnson
Updated on February 23, 2026
Manufacturing overhead includes all the costs of production other than labor and raw materials. This can include some variable and some fixed components. Variable manufacturing overhead is based on direct labor hours.
How do you prepare a manufacturing overhead budget?
To do this, take your monthly overhead costs and divide it by your company’s monthly sales. Then multiply it by 100. For example, if your company has $100,000 in monthly manufacturing overhead and $600,000 in monthly sales, the overhead percentage would be about 17%.
What is production overhead budget?
The manufacturing overhead budget contains all manufacturing costs other than direct materials and direct labor. The information in this budget becomes part of the cost of goods sold line item in the master budget. This budget is typically presented in either a monthly or quarterly format.
Is direct labor included in manufacturing overhead?
In manufacturing companies, manufacturing overhead includes all manufacturing costs except those accounted for as direct materials and direct labor. In addition to indirect materials and indirect labor, manufacturing overhead includes depreciation and maintenance on machines and factory utility costs.
What are the components of overhead budget?
Overhead expenses are all costs on the income statement except for direct labor, direct materials, and direct expenses. Overhead expenses include accounting fees, advertising, insurance, interest, legal fees, labor burden, rent, repairs, supplies, taxes, telephone bills, travel expenditures, and utilities.
How do you calculate overhead budget?
To calculate the estimated cost per unit, divide the total costs by the estimated production run. For example, say your total factory overhead costs are $30,000 and your estimated production for the year is 10,000 units. Divide $30,000 by 10,000 units to get your per-unit factory overhead cost of $3.
Where does manufacturing overhead go in a budget?
For example, direct labor hours could be included at the bottom of the budget, which are divided into the total manufacturing overhead cost per quarter to arrive at the allocation rate per direct labor hour.
How are production cost and direct labor related?
Because the production overhead and direct labor costs give the firm the capacity to produce, their sum is termed the conversion cost. This is the cost of converting raw materials into finished products. It is occasionally used as a measure of plant performance when the prices of feedstocks vary widely.
How are indirect labor costs classified as overhead?
As with indirect material costs, indirect labor costs are classified as overhead. An aside: as operations are becoming increasingly automated, the labor force necessary to operate production equipment is increasingly being replaced by personnel to maintain the control systems.
How to budget for direct and indirect labor?
Understanding the cost contributions of direct labor and indirect labor is crucial, of course, in budgeting and planning. However, these concepts are also center stage in several other areas: Understanding the profitability of individual products and services. For more on profitability analysis, see Profitability. Setting prices.