Mary Ellis owns a small manufacturing company and would like to develop more accurate estimates for overhead expenses when making planning decisions. She is pretty sure that overhead is a mixed cost that varies with direct labour-hours but she would like to do a proper analysis to determine the variable and fixed components. She collected the following information for the past 12 months on direct labour-hours incurred and total overhead expenses.

Month	Direct Labour-Hours			Total Overhead Costs
January		1,500		$	44,000
February		1,680		$	47,200
March		1,800		$	48,000
April		2,520		$	51,200
May		2,700		$	53,600
June		3,300		$	56,800
July		3,900		$	59,200
August		4,500		$	61,600
September		4,200		$	60,000
October		2,700		$	54,400
November		1,860		$	49,600
December		3,900		$	58,400

Required:

1. Using the least-squares regression method, estimate the variable overhead cost per direct labour-hour and the total fixed overhead cost per month. (Round Fixed cost to the nearest whole dollar amount and the Variable cost per direct labour-hour to 2 decimal places.)

2. Express the cost data derived in part 1 above in the form Y = a + bX. (Round Fixed cost to the nearest whole dollar amount and the Variable cost to 2 decimal places.)

3. Using the cost formula stated in part 2, estimate total overhead costs for a month where direct labour-hours are expected to be 3,900. (Round your Variable cost per direct labor hour to 2 decimal places and round your final answer to the nearest whole dollar amount.)