Bryan Eubank began his accounting career as an auditor for a Big 4 CPA firm. He focused on clients in the high-technology sector, becoming an expert on topics such as inventory write-downs, stock options, and business acquisitions. Impressed with his technical skills and experience, General Electronics, a large consumer electronics chain, hired Bryan as the company controller responsible for all of the accounting functions within the corporation. Bryan was excited about his new position— for about a week until he took the first careful look at General Electronics' financial statements. The cause of Bryan's change in attitude is the set of financial statements he's been staring at for the past few hours. For some time prior to his recruitment, he had been aware that his new employer had experienced a long trend of moderate profitability. The reports on his desk confirm the slight but steady improvements in net income in recent years. The disturbing trend Bryan is now noticing, though, is a decline in cash flows from operations. Bryan has sketched out the following comparison ($ in millions): 2018 2017 2016 2015 Operating income $1,400 $1,320 $1,275 $1,270 Net income 385 350 345 295 Cash flows from operations 16 110 120 155 Profits? Yes. Increasing profits? Yes. So what is the cause of his distress? The trend in cash flows from operations, which is going to the opposite direction of net income. Upon closer review, Bryan noticed a couple events that, unfortunately, seem related: (i)(i) The company's credit policy has been loosened, credit terms relaxed, and payment periods extended. This has resulted in a large increase in accounts receivable. (ii) The salaries of the CEO and CFO, are calculated based on reported net income. Required: (a) What is likely causing the increase in accounts receivable? How does an increase in accounts receivable affect net income differently than operating cash flows? (b). Explain why executive compensations for officers, such as the CEO and CFO, might increase the risk of earnings management. (c) Why is the trend of cash flows from operations, combined with the additional events, such a concern for Bryan? (d) What course of action, if any, should Bryan take
The Effect Of Prepaid Taxes On Assets And Liabilities
Many businesses estimate tax liability and make payments throughout the year (often quarterly). When a company overestimates its tax liability, this results in the business paying a prepaid tax. Prepaid taxes will be reversed within one year but can result in prepaid assets and liabilities.
Final Accounts
Financial accounting is one of the branches of accounting in which the transactions arising in the business over a particular period are recorded.
Ledger Posting
A ledger is an account that provides information on all the transactions that have taken place during a particular period. It is also known as General Ledger. For example, your bank account statement is a general ledger that gives information about the amount paid/debited or received/ credited from your bank account over some time.
Trial Balance and Final Accounts
In accounting we start with recording transaction with journal entries then we make separate ledger account for each type of transaction. It is very necessary to check and verify that the transaction transferred to ledgers from the journal are accurately recorded or not. Trial balance helps in this. Trial balance helps to check the accuracy of posting the ledger accounts. It helps the accountant to assist in preparing final accounts. It also helps the accountant to check whether all the debits and credits of items are recorded and posted accurately. Like in a balance sheet debit and credit side should be equal, similarly in trial balance debit balance and credit balance should tally.
Adjustment Entries
At the end of every accounting period Adjustment Entries are made in order to adjust the accounts precisely replicate the expenses and revenue of the current period. It is also known as end of period adjustment. It can also be referred as financial reporting that corrects the errors made previously in the accounting period. The basic characteristics of every adjustment entry is that it affects at least one real account and one nominal account.
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