URGERNT

	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4
Total paper, toner, printer
maintenance, and postage costs . . .	$633,000	$645,000	$780,000	$660,000
Total number of bills mailed . . . . . . . . . .	545,000	585,000	720,000	600,000

1.	Calculate the variable cost per bill mailed under the current paper-based billing system.
2.	Assume that the company projects that it will have a total of 800,000 bills to mail in the upcoming quarter. If enough customers choose the paperless billing option so that 25% of the mailings can be converted to paperless, how much would the company save from the paperless billing system (be sure to consider the cost of the paperless billing system)?
3.	What if only 5% of the mailings are converted to the paperless option (assume a total of 800,000 bills)? Should the company still offer the paperless billing system? Explain your rationale.

Sky Entertainment is a provider of cable, Internet, and on-demand video services. Sky currently sends monthly bills to its customers via the postal service. Because of a concern for the environment and recent increases in postal rates, Sky management is considering offering an option to its customers for paperless billing. In addition to saving printing, paper, and postal costs, paperless billing will save energy and water (through reduced paper needs, reduced waste disposal, and reduced transportation needs.) While Sky would like to switch to 100% paperless billing, many of its customers are not comfortable with paperless billing or may not have Web access, so the paper billing option will remain regardless of whether Sky adopts a paperless billing system or not.

The cost of the paperless billing system would be $112,800 per quarter with no variable costs since the costs of the system are the salaries of the clerks and the cost of leasing the computer system. The paperless billing system being proposed would be able to handle up to 1,040,000 bills per quarter (more than 1,040,000 bills per quarter would require a different computer system and is outside the scope of the current situation at Sky.) Sky has gathered its cost data for the past year by quarter for paper, toner cartridges, printer maintenance costs, and postage costs for the billing department. The cost data is as follows:

Requirement 1. Calculate the variable cost per bill mailed under the current paper-based billing system.

Using the high-low method, the variable cost per bill mailed under the current paper-based billing system is $...? .

Requirement 2. Assume that the company projects that it will have a total of 800,000 bills to mail in the upcoming quarter. If enough customers choose the paperless billing option so that 25% of the mailings can be converted to paperless, how much would the company save from the paperless billing system (be sure to consider the cost of the paperless billing system)?The company would save $........? from using the paperless billing system.

Requirement 3. What if only 15% of the mailings are converted to the paperless option (assume a total of 800,000 bills)? Should the company still offer the paperless billing system? Explain your rationale. (Enter any losses as a positive number.) If only 15% of the mailings are converted to the paperless option, the company ......? should continue to should no longer offer the paperless billing system because the company ........? loses saves $......? from using the paperless billing system.