Tony’s Income Tax Service is determining its staffing requirements for the next income tax season.

Income tax preparers work 50 hours per week from January 15 through April 15 (assume four weeks per month). There are two major tasks: preparation of short forms and preparation of long forms. The time normally needed to prepare a short form is 15 minutes; long forms takes 50 minutes if all customer records are in order. Fifteen percent of customers using the long form have complicated problems that require approximately one-half hour of additional work. The usual mix of customers requiring long versus short forms is 40 to 60 percent.

Preparers work at 85 percent efficiency, meaning that only 85 percent of their time is productive. Tony expects 1,000, 3,500, and 5,000 customers for each of the three months, respectively. How many preparers are needed each month to meet that demand?