Martin Cole, senior sales director at Sports-Strength was reviewing the latest corporate income statement prior to meeting with the company's chief financial officer. "I don't understand these numbers", Martin thought. "We fell short of our projected sales volume of jerseys by 10%, so I was anticipating net income to be 10% lower than expected as well. But that's not what the numbers are showing. How can I use this information to help me plan for the coming year?". The company had been preparing absorption costing income statements, which it used for external reporting. To shed some light on the situation, the new internal accountant prepared an additional income statement using variable costing - a contribution format income statement for the year.