Fantastic Sky Tours Pty Ltd is a small sightseeing tour company in Sydney that specialises in aerial tours of the New South Wales area. Until recently, the company had not had an accounting department. Routine bookkeeping tasks, such as billing, had been handled by a person who had little formal training in accounting. As the business began to grow, however, the owner recognised the need for more formal accounting procedures. Miranda Jenkins, a CPA, was recently hired as the new management accountant, and she has the authority to hire an assistant.

During her first week on the job, Miranda was given the performance report on the next page. The report was prepared by Robert Smith, the company's manager of Aircraft Operations, who was planning to present it to the owner, David Lowry, the next morning.

'Look at these favourable variances for fuel and so forth,' Robert pointed out as he showed the report to Miranda. 'My operations people are really doing a great job.'

Later that day, Miranda looked at the performance report more carefully. She immediately realised that it was improperly prepared and would be misleading to the company's owner.

Fantastic Sky Tours Pty Ltd Performance Report for the month of April 2020 Formula flexible Actual Static budget (32 000 budget Variance (per air-km) air-km) (35 000 air-km) Passenger revenue $3.50 $112 000 $122 500 $10 500 U Less Variable costs: Fuel 0.50 17 000 17 500 500 F Aircraft maintenance 0.75 23 500 26 250 2 750 F Flight crew salaries 0.40 13 100 14 000 900 F Selling and administration 0.80 24 900 28 000 3 100 F Total variable expenses $2.45 $ 78 500 $ 85 750 $ 7 250 F Contribution margin $1.05 $ 33 500 $ 36 750 $ 3 250 U Less Fixed costs: Depreciation on aircraft $2 900 $ 2900 $ 2 900 $ O Landing fees 900 1 000 900 100 U Supervisory salaries 9 000 8 600 9 000 400 F Selling and administrative 11 000 12 400 11 000 1 400 U Total fixed expenses $23 800 $ 24 900 $ 23 800 $ 1 100 U Net profit $ 8 600 $ 12 950 $ 4 350 U