Pack-and-Go Delivery Service: A Multi-Component Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP) Learning Resource

This educational case, in two parts (A and B), requires students to assume the role of a business consultant and to use Excel to develop a profit-planning or a cost-volume-profit (CVP) model for a package-delivery company opportunity currently being evaluated by a client. The name of the proposed business is Pack-and-Go, which would provide an intra-city package delivery service similar to that provided by large competitors such as FedEx. To complete the task students are asked to respond, in the form of a consulting report, to a specific set of questions posed by the client. The required report includes numerous calculations associated with the profit-planning models created by students, as well as interpretive insights and evaluations of two cost-structure alternatives (in Case A) that the client is considering, and whether the client should engage in a single service line or in dual service lines (in Case B). For both Case A and B, students are required to use various functions in Excel and to use Excel to perform some elementary sensitivity analysis. A set of optional/advanced requirements allows Pack-and-Go to be used in a variety of accounting courses, both graduate and undergraduate.