Diego Company manufactures one product that is sold for $$76$ per unit in two geographic regions$$East and West. The following information pertains to the company$$s first year of operations in which it produced $58,000$ units and sold $54,000$ units.

Variable costs per unit:

Manufacturing:

Direct materials $ $23$

Direct labor $ $15$

Variable manufacturing overhead $ $3$

Variable selling and administrative $ $3$

Fixed costs per year:

Fixed manufacturing overhead $ $1,160,000$

Fixed selling and administrative expense $ $640,000$

The company sold $40,000$ units in the East region and $14,000$ units in the West region. It determined $$320,000$ of its fixed selling and administrative expense is traceable to the West region, $$270,000$ is traceable to the East region, and the remaining $$50,000$ is a common fixed expense. The company will continue to incur the total amount of its fixed manufacturing overhead costs as long as it continues to produce any amount of its only product. What is the company's net operating income $($loss$)$ under absorption costing?

What is the difference between the variable costing and absorption costing net operating incomes $($losses$)?$

Note: Enter any losses or deductions as a negative value.

a$.$ What is the company's break$-$even point in unit sales?

b$.$ Is it above or below the actual unit sales?

Below

Above