Which branch actually missed target
You are reviewing monthly figures for three sales branches before a regional meeting. East: target 8,000 (thousand yen), recorded 8,240. Central: target 6,500, recorded 6,450. West: target 5,000, recorded 5,180. The controller's memo notes two adjustments: East's figure includes a 700 order that the customer cancelled on the 28th but which was still booked that month; Central's figure includes 300 of inter-branch transfers that are not external sales; West has no adjustments. The regional manager's rule is that any branch missing target on an adjusted basis must present a recovery plan. Nobody has applied the adjustments yet, and the meeting is tomorrow morning.
1. Which branches must present a recovery plan tomorrow? Show the arithmetic.
Read the worked answer
Adjust first, then compare. East: 8,240 minus the 700 cancelled order = 7,540 against a target of 8,000, a shortfall of 460. Central: 6,450 minus 300 of inter-branch transfers = 6,150 against 6,500, a shortfall of 350. West: 5,180 with no adjustments against 5,000, ahead by 180. So East and Central must present recovery plans; West need not. Note that both misses are created by the adjustments: unadjusted, East appears 240 over target and Central only 50 under, so the sheet on its own points at the wrong branches.
2. The regional manager glances at the unadjusted sheet and says "only Central missed, and barely." What do you tell him?
Read the worked answer
That reading reverses East's position. East's 240 surplus is smaller than the 700 cancellation booked into it, so removing the cancellation turns a 240 surplus into a 460 shortfall - the largest miss of the three, 5.75% of target against Central's 5.4%. The severity order after adjustment is East, then Central, then West. Also flag that Central's miss is understated on the sheet: 300 of inter-branch transfers are not external sales and cannot count toward an external target, so the real gap is 350, not 50. West's 180 surplus is unaffected by either adjustment.
3. Which single figure would you verify before the meeting, and what turns on it?
Read the worked answer
The East cancellation. The memo says the order was cancelled on the 28th but still booked that month; the open question is whether the customer re-ordered into the following month, because that decides whether the sale exists at all and for which period it may ever be counted. Either way it cannot count for East this month. What turns on it is the 700 - 8.75% of East's target, enough to move East from comfortably ahead to the worst miss and to change who opens the meeting. Verify it in writing with the controller beforehand rather than correcting a branch head in the room.