Gary notices that his production department requires information from the sales division: in turn, the production budget is sent on to other departments. He sees how the budget pieces fit together and how the production area contributes to the bigger picture; after seeing these connections, he gathers the following information:

January February March April

Budgeted sales volume $($units$)2500230036003600$

Budgeted selling price is $$26$ per unit

Desired Monthly ending inventory is $15\%$ of the next months sales.

Beginning FG Inventory on Jan $1$ is $315$ unit.

a$)$: Prepare the sales forecast for the first quarter of the upcoming year.

b$)$: Prepare the production budget for the first quarter of the upcoming year.