Breakeven Quantity of Sales

This video discusses the concept of “Breakeven Quantity of Sales”. Relevant topics are the “Degree of Operating Leverage”. The following is a part of the transcript. The video requires flash 8 or higher.

 

 

When we discussed the DOL, we saw that the “variable cost (VC)” and “fixed cost (FC)” are the two main characters. The goal of a company is to sell enough quantities so that it can cover the variable cost as well as the fixed cost, so that it has operating profit (EBIT).

 

The quantity the company has to sell to cover both the VC and FC is called the breakeven quantity. At the breakeven quantity, the net profit is zero. Therefore,

 

QxP – Q x VC – FC =0

Q = FC / (P-VC)

 

This is simple math. I don’t think you have to memorize. If you use the common sense to write down the 1st equation during the exam, the chance of making mistake will be less than just memorizing the 2nd one.

 

Please refer to the video for more insights.

 

4 Comments

yashuAugust 1st, 2007 at 4:48 am

Please note that the first question is not correct as there is + sign with FC. It shoud be the following:

QxP – Q x VC – FC =0

second one is correct i.e Q = FC / (P-VC)

suryaAugust 1st, 2007 at 6:38 am

Contribution = Fixed price + Profit. So it would be Sales – Variable cost = Fixes cost + Profit.

(Q*Price per unit) -( Q* VCper unit ) = Fixed cost + Profit

AdministratorAugust 1st, 2007 at 9:35 am

Yahsu,

Thanks a lot for pointing out the typo! It’s corrected now.

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