Final answer:
To allocate the accounting department costs, calculate the proportion of employees in each department, then multiply by the total accounting department costs.
Step-by-step explanation:
To allocate the accounting department costs based on the number of employees using the direct method, we need to determine the proportion of employees in each department relative to the total number of employees. The total number of employees is 4 (Accounting) + 36 (Production) + 12 (Sales) = 52. The proportion of employees in the Production department is 36/52 = 0.6923, and the proportion of employees in the Sales department is 12/52 = 0.2308.
To calculate the allocated costs for each department, multiply the total accounting department costs ($200,000) by the proportion of employees in each department. The allocated costs for Production department is $200,000 x 0.6923 = $138,460. The allocated costs for Sales department is $200,000 x 0.2308 = $46,160.