LawnMate Company manufactures power mowers that are sold throughout the United States and Canada. The company use5 a comprehensive budgeting process and compares actual results to budgeted amounts on a monthly basis. Each month, LawnMate's accounting department prepares a variance analysis and distributes the report to ali responsible parties. Al Richmond, production manage, is upset about the results for May. Richmond, who is responsible for the cost of goods manufactured, has implemented several cost-cutting measures in the manufacturing area and is discouraged by the unfavorable variance in variable costs. When the master budget was prepared, LawnMate's cost accountant, Joon Ballard, supplied the following unit costs; direct material, $60; direct labor, $44; variable production overhead, $36; and variable selling expenses, $12. The total variable costs of $780,000 for May include $320,000 for direct material, $192,000 for direct labor, $176,000 for variable. production overhead, and $92,000 for variable selling expenses. Ballard believes that LawnMate's monthly reports would be more meaningful to everyone if the company adopted flexible budgeting and prepared more detailed analyses. Required: 1. Prepare a flexible budget for LawnMate Company for the month of May. 2. Determine the variance between the flexible budget and actual cost for each cost item. Prepare a flexible budget for LawnMate Company for the month of May. Determine the variance between the flexible budget and actual cost for each cost item. (Indicate the effect of each variance by selecting "Favorable" or "Unfavorable". Select "None" and enter " 0 " for no effect (i.e., zero variance).)