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The fictional company Airinit, now a division of the conglomerate ArgentAxis Holdings (AAH) after a recent merger, manufactures air fresheners, and at the start of the year it planned to generate a healthy profit. However, during the year, several events occur that cause the company's financial outcomes to deviate significantly, in an adverse way, from the original plans. To diagnose why the deviations occurred and more importantly whether any actions could be implemented to prevent the adverse outcomes from reoccurring, Airinit's accounting area has prepared a detailed variance analysis for consideration. This case is taught at the Darden School of Business as a full-class role-play in an Executive Education setting. It is also suitable for inclusion as a full-class role-play in an introductory core class in MBA or Master of Accounting management accounting. Alternatively, where the interpretation of a budget variance analysis has not been covered in a core course management accounting, the case is suitable for inclusion as a full-class role-play in an MBA, Master of Accounting, or undergraduate intermediate management accounting elective class. Students at all levels can relate to the fundamentals of the business and the value chain that the business develops-from raw inputs to an in-house manufacturing process and finally to the marketing and distribution of a product. The case takes on an enterprise approach so that the students can see how the budget variance analysis framework can be used to diagnose the internal financial health of an overall business.

This case is based on the real-life experiences of Matt Miner, who completed his MBA at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in 2009. After completing his degree, Miner realized that he and his growing family needed to prepare better financially for life post-MBA. This realization prompted him to pursue a program of household savings that would allow his family to be debt-free within five years. The case provides a short narrative along with exhibits containing quantitative information and assumptions. Students can work with the information and assumptions to address whether the Miner family could be debt-free within five years, even in the face of significant debt accumulated in the pursuit of Miner's MBA degree. Miner and his wife are contemplating significant household budgetary changes at the end of the third calendar quarter of 2010. The case is motivated by management accounting student anecdotes over many years, where the students claim to learn critical financial concepts in the course, yet they do not fully apply their learning to their personal lives. It also introduces a brief connection of management accounting to behavioral economics, specifically the literature on behavioral nudging via meaningful metrics that capture obscure information.

As You Are Seventh-Day Adventist Church (AYA) is located in Williamsburg, Virginia, in a low-income community, where it offers a wide range of primarily religious services. AYA is part of the River Seventh-Day Adventist Conference-East (RCE), which finds and pays for the pastors at each of its churches. In return, the RCE receives the weekly tithes as conference dues, and AYA keeps the offerings given by its members. This partnership has allowed AYA to expand its programming, serving community members facing homelessness, hunger, and financial difficulties. But over the years, AYA has had its own financial struggles, seeing a decline in tithes and offerings as its membership numbers have declined. It has been forced to end many of its community services in order to preserve church resources. And in 2015, the church's leader, Pastor Robert Haskins, announced his intention to leave his position early. The RCE decided to replace Haskins with Pastor Alexander Dean, who had a proven track record of turning troubled churches around. Dean begins his duties at AYA confident that he can correct the church's course. He quickly becomes a controversial figure, however, due to the changes he decides to make. AYA's volunteer treasurer wrestles with a conflict between her desire to support Dean in his effective efforts to welcome new members and higher cash donations and her misgivings about his aggressive insistence on increasing his budget as pastor and unilaterally signing off on expensive projects without church committee approval. The treasurer is deeply concerned about how AYA will survive financially under these new pressures, both from the new leader and from sources beyond the church's control.