When companies allocate support department costs only to the producing department, they are using the direct method of allocation. The direct method is the simplest and most straightforward way to allocate support department costs. All costs of the support departments are allocated directly to producing departments in proportion to each producing department’s usage of the service. This method does not allocate any support costs to another support department, even if other support departments use the services of a support department. This usage of one support department by another is called support department reciprocity. Under the direct method, no support department reciprocity or interaction is recognized. Exhibit 7.7 illustrates the direct method’s lack of support department reciprocity. In Exhibit 7.7, we see that the direct method allocates support department costs only to the producing departments.