Marco shows you the following chart to help him argue that while his division’s sales numbers aren’t as high as those of the other divisions, he’s actually not that far behind them, when you look at the data visually. How is Marco using a chart to lie to you? What would a more accurate representation of Marco’s performance look like?

Doogan corporation makes a product with the following standard costs: standard quantity or hours standard price or rate direct materials 2.0 grams $ 7.00 per gram direct labor 1.6 hours $ 12.00 per hour variable overhead 1.6 hours $ 6.00 per hour the company produced 5,000 units in january using 10,340 grams of direct material and 2,320 direct labor-hours. during the month, the company purchased 10,910 grams of the direct material at $7.30 per gram. the actual direct labor rate was $12.85 per hour and the actual variable overhead rate was $5.80 per hour. the company applies variable overhead on the basis of direct labor-hours. the direct materials purchases variance is computed when the materials are purchased. the materials quantity variance for january is: