Notes On Cash And Cash Equivalents Essay

Macy operates in department store retail industry. The U.S. Department Store industry includes over 3500 stores with combined annual revenue of $70 billion representing 20% of the global industry. Department stores in the US increased at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.4% between 2004 and 2009. The US Department store product mix includes a variety of products such as women, men, and children apparel, shoes, cosmetics, and home and furniture. Clothing and footwear market sales accounted for a 53% share of the department stores retail format in 2009 (DataMonitor).

A situation in which a company using LIFO accounting sells its oldest inventory. LIFO liquidation happens when the company's sales outpace its purchases for inventory. By using the LIFO inventory method this will the older you have to go back, the higher the net income. Inventory is always reported on the balance sheet. As you liquidate older inventory with the LIFO method you decrease your cost of good sold which will increase profitability.

The “Money as Debt” was created by Paul Grignon in 2006. It is the most fascinating video I have ever seen. Moreover, I am just amazed how much I have learned in just 47 minutes. This video describes how basic banking system works and answers the question where the money comes from.

f. The largest use of cash from investing activities is for Capital Expenditures at $399 million. p. 42

After reading Chapter 6 of the textbook and the materials I found that I was struggling to understand the material more than usual. Before reading this chapter I had a slight idea of how much effort went into keeping track of the costs and inventory. The most that I knew was that you had to keep track of it, I didn’t know that there are different ways to keep track of those costs. After reading more into the different ways to keep track of inventory I found that the one that stuck out most to me and was the one that I spent the most time trying to understand was the LIFO (Last In First Out).

Accounts Receivable Turnover: This ratio decreased, but had a substantial jump to be at 6.35 in 2013.

Merchandising inventory is goods that have been acquired by a distributer, wholesaler, or retailer from suppliers with the intent of selling the goods to third parties. (Accountingtools.com, 2015) When choosing the type of method to use for merchandising inventory it is important for the business to understand what type of services or goods that are being provided. This can offer a better insight to the proper and most cost effective method. When deciding there are four types of inventory cost methods to elect from.

There are four accepted inventory methods: Specific Unit Cost, Average Cost, FIFO, and LIFO. Unique inventory items are recorded in inventory by the cost of that unit or specific unit cost. Non-unique items use one of the other 3 methods. The average-cost method is: average cost = cost of goods available / number of units available. The first-in, first-out (FIFO) method assigns the first costs into inventory to the first cost of goods sold. The last-in, first-out (LIFO) method assigns the last costs into inventory to the first cost of goods sold. Since inventory costs can vary, companies may choose an inventory method based on tax advantages. When prices are falling, FIFO will have the lowest taxable income. When prices are rising, LIFO has the lowest taxable

e LIFO cost flow method of inventory costing (Martin, J. R.). From Harry Davis’ article, a search for alternatives of the base stock method started, because of the base stock method was no longer apply to the income tax purposes, the acceptance of LIFO by professional groups represents the last part its early development. If the idea of LIFO was not being permitted, there will be a huge loss on the development of the accounting tools. Nobody will know that there is a method of inventory management could help company for the tax purpose. According to Steven Bragg’s article, nowadays, the LIFO method is not applying for IFRS. Although IRS allows the LIFO method, but it must apply for all parts of the financial reports (July, 2017). The Treasury claimed that is hard for them to management and regulate the information if LIFO were applied to a large group of people that using LIFO for the tax purposes. Congress compensated some industries with LIFO, because some of industries was unsuccessful in getting the internal revenue service to recognize of their business practices. The hearings for the 1938 Revenue Act indicate that LIFO was considered appropriate only under the conditions listed

The second types of inventory methods to value its inventory that CVS uses is the most common one used for most business the First-In, First-Out (FIFO). First-In, First-Out (FIFO) is defined as the first inventories bought are the first ones to be sold. CVS only uses FIFO for Some Retail Pharmacy and Rest of Business (Front store). CVS utilizes this method because; the fresher products have to be out the door first. Also, FIFO is an easier method than Weighted Average Cost. And most importantly it may over inflate cost because the last products bought and out the door first are usually the most expensive products.

How inventory costs are handled is another area in which the IFRS and U.S. GAAP differ. Under U.S. GAAP, a company can either use the last-in, first-out (LIFO) or the first-in, first-out (FIFO) inventory method. Under IFRS, the LIFO method is not allowed to be used. The advantage to having one accounting standard is enhanced comparability between countries. It also removes the need to have to adjust LIFO inventories to FIFO inventories in comparison analysis between companies that use different accounting standards.

The Total Asset Turnover or ROA (Return on Asset) lets us know how effectively assets generate revenue. Accounts Receivable Turnover tells us how effectively a company is collecting money from sales. As we can see, both companies are doing pretty comparable and so far, this does not explain the sudden cliff on Profit Margin.

Investing activities shows cash flows for the purchase and sale of assets not generally held for

Accounts receivable turnover is the second method by which a company’s trade receivables’ liquidity can be evaluated (Gibson, 2011). Žager et al. (2012) noted turnover ratios should be as high as possible as this indicates a firm’s ability to convert its assets more often. 3M’s accounts receivable turnover for years 2007 and 2008 is shown in Exhibit 2. In 2007, 3M turned its accounts receivable over 7.12 times and 7.70 times in 2008. This calculates into a turnover of its accounts receivable every 51.28 days in 2007 and 47.38 days in 2008. The increase in accounts receivable turnover times per year (decrease in number of days to turnover accounts receivables) from 2007 to 2008 is a positive trend for 3M. It suggests, along with the prior calculation, the management of receivables is likely to be improving in efficiency.

The management of cash is essential to the survival of any organization. Managing an organization’s financial operation requires knowledge of the economy and ways to maximize revenue. For any organization to operate on a daily basis adequate cash flow is required. Without cash management the organization will be unable to function because there is no cash readily available in case of inconsistencies in the market. Cash is also needed to keep the cycle of the company’s operations going.