Hartman Company's Lucas plant manufactures thermostatic controls. Plant management has experienced fluctuating monthly overhead costs and wants to estimate overhead costs accurately to plan its operations and its financial needs. Interviews with plant personnel and studies reported in trade publications suggest that overhead in this industry tends to vary with labor-hours. A member of the controller's staff proposed that the behavior pattern of these overhead costs be determined to improve cost estimation. Another staff member suggested that a good starting place for determining cost behavior patterns is to analyze historical data. Following this suggestion, monthly data were gathered on labor-hours and overhead costs for the past two years. No major changes in operations occurred over this period of time. The data are shown in the following table. Overhead. Costs Month 1 Labor-Hours 251,630 $2,741,620 238,530 2,375,430 193,000 2,400,350 271,500 2,590,850 324,000 3,072,020 291,030 2,618,370 271,500 2,480,440 251,650 2,745,760 232,000 2,821,550 10 343,650 3,437,910 11 186,030 2,210,540 12 231,980 2,550,880 13 382,900 3,603,920 14 376,500. 3,404,990 15 291,020 3,016,700 16 396,030 3,638,540 17 356,650 3,554,100 18 323,850 3,191,820 19 389,475 3,481,920 20 317,280 3,219,720 21 343,540 3,495,630 22 336,970 3,207,460 23 382,910 3,600,830 24 376,350 3,636,850