Red Line Railroad Inc. has three regional divisions organized as profit centers. The chief executive officer (CEO) evaluates divisional performance, using income from operations as a percent of revenues. The following quarterly income and expense accounts were provided from the trial balance as of December 31:

Revenues-East......................................$1,400,000

Revenues-West.......................................2,000,000

Revenues-Central....................................3,200,000

Operating Expenses-East.............................800,000

Operating Expenses-West..........................1,350,000

Operating Expenses-Central.......................1,900,000

Corporate Expenses-Shareholder Relations........300,000

Corporate Expenses-Customer Support............320,000

Corporate Expenses-Legal...........................500,000

General Corporate Officers' Salaries...............1,200,000

The company operates three service departments: Shareholder Relations, Customer Support, and Legal. The Shareholder Relations Department conducts a variety of services for shareholders of the company. The Customer Support Department is the company's point of contact for new service, complaints, and requests for repair. The department believes that the number of customer contacts is an activity base for this work. The Legal Department provides legal services for division management. The department believes that the number of hours billed is an activity base for this work. The following additional information has been gathered:

___________________________________East West Central

Number of customer contacts.................1,500..............2,800..............5,700

Number of hours billed...........................750..............1,750..............1,500

Instructions

1. Prepare quarterly income statements showing income from operations for the three divisions. Use three column headings: East, West, and Central.

2. Identify the most successful division according to the profit margin. (Round to the nearest whole percent.)

3. Provide a recommendation to the CEO for a better method for evaluating the performance of the divisions. In your recommendation, identify the major weakness of the present method.