Under absorption costing, the net operating income of a particular period is dependent on both produc-tion and sales. For this reason, the controller’s explanation was accurate. He should have pointed out, however, that the reduction in production resulted in a large amount of underapplied overhead, which was added to cost of goods sold in the Second Quarter. By producing fewer units than planned, the company was not able to absorb all the fixed manufacturing overhead incurred during the quarter into units of product. The result was that this unabsorbed overhead ended up on the income statement as a charge against the period, thereby sharply slashing income