The Lively Balloon Company produces party balloons that are sold in multi$-$pack cases. To follow is the company's performance report in contribution margin format for August: $($Click the icon to view the performance report in contribution margin format.$)$

Read the requirements.

Requirement $1.$ What is the budgeted sales price per unit?

The budgeted sales price per unit is

Data table

$\backslash$table$[[,$A$,B,$C$,$D$],[1,$The Lively Balloon Company$],[2,$Actual vs$.$ Budget Performance Report$],[3,$For the Month Ended August $31],[4,,$Actual,$\backslash$table$[[$Master$],[$Budget$]],\backslash$table$[[$Master$],[$Budget$],[$Variance$]]],[5,$Sales volume $($number of cases sold$),61,000,57,000,],[6,$Sales revenue,$$180,600,$$$,159,600,],[7,$Less: Variable expenses,$84,100,74,100,],[8,$Contribution margin,$$,96,500,85,500,],[9,$Less: Fixed expenses,$68,500,67,000,],[10,$Operating income,$$,28,000,18,500,]]$

Requirements

What is the budgeted sales price per unit?

What is the budgeted variable expense per unit?

What is the budgeted fixed cost for the period?

Compute the master budget variances. Be sure to indicate each variance as favorable $($F$)$ or unfavorable $($U$.)$

Management would like to determine the portion of the master budget variance that is $($a$)$ due to volume being different than originally anticipated and $($b$)$ due to some other unexpected cause. Prepare a flexible budget performance report to address these questions, using the actual sales volume of $61,000$ units and the budgeted sales volume of $57,000$ units. Use the original budget assumptions for sales price, variable cost per unit, and fixed costs, assuming the relevant range stretches from $52,000$ to $66,000$ units.

Using the flexible budget performance report you prepared for Requirement $5,$ answer the following questions:

a$.$ How much of the master budget variance $($calculated in Requirement $4)$ for operating income is due to volume being higher than expected?

b$.$ How much of the master budget variance for variable expenses is due to some cause other than volume?

c$.$ What could account for the flexible budget variance for sales revenue?

d$.$ What is the volume variance for fixed expenses? Why is it this amount?