The departmental method for allocating manufacturing overhead involves establishing separate cost pools and calculating a distinct predetermined overhead rate for each production department. Wycliff Corporation's practice of creating cost pools for its assembly and shipping departments and then calculating a specific overhead rate for each one is the defining characteristic of this approach. This method provides a more refined and accurate product cost than a single plantwide rate, especially when departments have different cost drivers and resource consumption patterns.

A. Activity-based: This method is more granular, using numerous cost pools linked to specific activities (e.g., machine setups, inspections), not broad departments as described.

C. Plantwide: This method uses a single predetermined overhead rate for the entire factory, whereas Wycliff uses multiple rates for its different departments.

D. Process: This is a product costing system used for mass-producing identical units, not a specific method for allocating overhead using departmental rates.

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1. Heisinger, K., & Hoyle, J. B. (n.d.). Managerial Accounting. Chapter 3, Section 3.3, "Applying Overhead Using Departmental Rates." This text states, "The departmental approach allows each department to have its own overhead rate and its own allocation base... This approach is more accurate than using one plantwide rate if departments vary in the resources they consume."

2. Walther, L. M., & Skousen, C. J. (2009). Managerial and Cost Accounting. Bookboon. Chapter 4, "Accumulating and Assigning Costs to Products," pp. 43-44. The text explains that departmental rates are an improvement over plantwide rates, used when "different departments have different amounts and types of overhead."

3. University of North Georgia. (n.d.). Principles of Managerial Accounting. Chapter 3: Job Costing and Overhead Allocation, Section "Departmental Overhead Rates." The text defines the method: "A departmental overhead rate is an overhead rate calculated for a single department... overhead costs are traced to separate departments and an overhead rate is developed for each department."