Bedrock Cinder Block, Inc. $($BCB$)$ has been manufacturing and selling concrete cinder blocks to local and regional construction companies for over $50$ years. Since BCB is located in northwestern Pennsylvania, its sales are seasonal and follow the construction season, which runs primarily between April and November of any given year. Barney and Betty Rubble, owners of the family$-$run company, have been managing it for many years, but have decided to start turning over some of the operations to you, their trusted friend and adviser. The Rubbles have never done much formal planning from one year to the next; Barney stated recently: $$The Company has just run by itself for all these years, why mess it up$?$ You have heard them complain for years that money is tight during the first quarter of every year but they aren$$t sure how to deal with this issue. You state that, although the business has grown tremendously over the years and that they$$ve done a great job, they should consider doing some

formal planning for the upcoming year. They want to see what you$$ve learned at PennWest University and have charged you with preparing a business plan for $2025.$You meet with Barney and Betty to discuss some of the critical elements for the operating plan. They prefer a detailed, month$-$by$-$month, $12-$month budget, but ultimately decide that a quarterly budget with yearly totals will suffice. They

provide the following $2025$ estimates to get you started.

$1.$ Quarterly Sales Forecast with Expected Selling Prices:

$2.$ Barney has always liked to have some ending inventory units on hand $-$ just in case. He provides you with the following desired ending finished goods inventory requirements for each quarter. He states that these are the same figures as last year

$3.$ Expected direct materials usage is based on the input$-$output relationship determined by the $$mix$-$man$$ or the person in charge of mixing up the batch of dry and wet material that is used to form the cinder blocks. Each concrete block requires the correct amount of cement, sand, gravel, shale, pumice, and water. Over the years, the company has determined that each concrete block requires $26$ pounds of mixed material and each pound of

material costs BCB $$0\mathrm{.}01.$ In addition, it is company policy to have the following requirements for desired ending direct materials inventory on hand:

$4.$ Each batch of $100$ cinder blocks requires $1\mathrm{.}50$ direct labor hours to manufacture at a budgeted rate of $$14\mathrm{.}50$ per hour.

$5.$ Variable manufacturing overhead is forecasted to be $$9\mathrm{.}00$ per direct labor hour. Fixed manufacturing overhead is estimated to be $$320,000$ per quarter, of which $$120,000$ represents depreciation for the plant operations.

$6.$ BCB has three primary Selling, General, and Administrative functions: sales and marketing, research and development, and administration. The details for each of these areas follow:

Sales and Marketing:

Variable marketing expenses are $$0\mathrm{.}06$ per block. Fixed costs per quarter include salaries, $$10,000$; advertising, $$8,000$; depreciation, $$5,000$; travel, $$3,000.$

Research and Development:

The company incurs quarterly salaries of $$18,000$ and spends $$10,000$ per quarter on prototype design and development of new brick designs.

Administration:

The company incurs the following quarterly costs for administration: salaries, $$25,000$; depreciation, $$9,000$; travel, $$2,000.$ In addition, the company pays annual insurance costs of $$15,000$ during the third quarter every year

$7.$ Capital acquisitions: BCB has always upgraded equipment on an annual basis. During $2025$ they expect to spend $$600,000$ on new equipment during the first quarter of the year

$8.$ To get a better handle on their cash flow throughout the year, the Rubble$$s have determined the following:

a$)50\%$ of sales are cash sales with the remaining sales made on credit.

b$)70\%$ of the credit sales are collected during the quarter for which the sale is made and the remaining credit sales collected in the quarter following the sale. Bad debts over the years have been negligible.

c$)80\%$ of all direct materials are paid for in the quarter of purchase with the remaining portion paid for in the quarter following purchase.

d$)$ All other costs and expenses are paid for during the quarter incurred.

e$)$ Interest expense is recognized on the current quarter$$s LOC balance, but not paid until the following quarter $($i$.$e$.,$ cash interest paid lags interest expense by one quarter$).$

f$)$ The current tax rate is $40\%.$ Similar to interest expense, tax expense is recognized on income earned during

the quarter, but not paid until the following quarter. However, also assume that BCB does not realize tax

benefits from losses $($i$.$e$.,$ no carryforward NOLs to offset future taxable income$).$ Thus, in months where

Earnings$/$Income before Income Tax $($EBIT$)$ is negative, zero income tax expense will be recognized.

Conversely, in months where EBIT is positive, income tax expense will be recognized on the income

statement and paid the following month $($note: your formula should use an if statement to complete income tax expense