Companies often try to keep accounting earnings growing at a relatively steady pace, thereby avoiding large swings in earnings from period to period. They also try to meet earnings targets. To do so, they use a variety of tactics. The simplest way is to control the timing of accounting revenues and costs, which all firms can do to at least some extent. For example, if earnings are looking too low this quarter, then some accounting costs can be deferred until next quarter. This practice is called earnings management. It is common, and it raises a lot of questions. Why do firms do it? Why are firms even allowed to do it under GAAP? Is it ethical? What are the implications for cash flow and shareholder wealth?
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- Which of the following is an example of “cookie jar” accounting? a) A company creates cash reserves in profitable years so the money can be used to offset poor earnings in bad years to give the impression that the company is consistently achieving earnings goals and meeting investor expectations. b)A company intentionally misapplies GAAP and, if caught, argues that the earnings effect is “immaterial” and the error is not worth correcting. c)A company takes a one-time charge against income in order to reduce assets, which results in lower expenses in the future. d) A company recognizes revenues before it is appropriate to do so.Accounting In a description of a fraud scheme at Sharefore Inc., an analyst writes: “The next quarter, analyst expectations are higher, but sales have not picked up. The firm provides additional incentives to its sales force, uses overtime to boost shipments but now has additional expenses to contend with (incentives and overtime), so it does not fully accrue all its consulting expenses. Third quarter rolls around and sales still haven't improved enough, but the analysts keep increasing targets. Because this time, operating tactics are not sufficient, management pressures the CFO to meet analyst forecast numbers. The CFO becomes aggressive in the interpretation of installment sales and expense accruals. As expectations keep rising, so does the firm's stock price.” What form or forms of financial statement fraud is this? Where would we expect to see the impact of this form of fraud in Sharefore Inc.’s financial statements?In a strategy meeting, the computer manufacturing company's president said, "If we raised the price of our product, the company's break-even point will be lower." The financial vice president responded by saying, "The company will also be less likely to incur a loss." As a management accountant would you agree or disagree with these statements and why?
- Consider the dilemma you might someday face if you are the chief financial officer of a company that is struggling to maintain a positive cash flow, despite the fact that the company is reporting a substantial positive net income. Maybe the problem is so severe that there is often insufficient cash to pay ordinary business expenses, like utilities, salaries, and payments to suppliers. Assume that you have been asked to communicate to your board of directors about your companys year, in retrospect, as well as your vision for the companys future. Write a memo that expresses your insights about past experience and present prospects for the company. Note that the challenge of the assignment is to keep your integrity intact, while putting a positive spin on the situation, as much as is reasonably possible. How can you envision the situation turning into a success story?Glencoe First National Bank operated for years under the assumption that profitability can be increased by increasing dollar volumes. Historically, First Nationals efforts were directed toward increasing total dollars of sales and total dollars of account balances. In recent years, however, First Nationals profits have been eroding. Increased competition, particularly from savings and loan institutions, was the cause of the difficulties. As key managers discussed the banks problems, it became apparent that they had no idea what their products were costing. Upon reflection, they realized that they had often made decisions to offer a new product which promised to increase dollar balances without any consideration of what it cost to provide the service. After some discussion, the bank decided to hire a consultant to compute the costs of three products: checking accounts, personal loans, and the gold VISA. The consultant identified the following activities, costs, and activity drivers (annual data): The following annual information on the three products was also made available: In light of the new cost information, Larry Roberts, the bank president, wanted to know whether a decision made two years ago to modify the banks checking account product was sound. At that time, the service charge was eliminated on accounts with an average annual balance greater than 1,000. Based on increases in the total dollars in checking, Larry was pleased with the new product. The checking account product is described as follows: (1) checking account balances greater than 500 earn interest of 2 percent per year, and (2) a service charge of 5 per month is charged for balances less than 1,000. The bank earns 4 percent on checking account deposits. Fifty percent of the accounts are less than 500 and have an average balance of 400 per account. Ten percent of the accounts are between 500 and 1,000 and average 750 per account. Twenty-five percent of the accounts are between 1,000 and 2,767; the average balance is 2,000. The remaining accounts carry a balance greater than 2,767. The average balance for these accounts is 5,000. Research indicates that the 2,000 category was by far the greatest contributor to the increase in dollar volume when the checking account product was modified two years ago. Required: 1. Calculate rates for each activity. 2. Using the rates computed in Requirement 1, calculate the cost of each product. 3. Evaluate the checking account product. Are all accounts profitable? Compute the average annual profitability per account for the four categories of accounts described in the problem. What recommendations would you make to increase the profitability of the checking account product? (Break-even analysis for the unprofitable categories may be helpful.)Consider the following conversation between Gary Means, manager of a division that produces industrial machinery, and his controller, Donna Simpson, a certified management accountant and certified public accountant: Gary: Donna, we have a real problem. Our operating cash is too low, and we are in desperate need of a loan. As you know, our financial position is marginal, and we need to show as much income as possibleand our assets need bolstering as well. Donna: I understand the problem, but I dont see what can be done at this point. This is the last week of the fiscal year, and it looks like well report income just slightly above breakeven. Gary: I know all this. What we need is some creative accounting. I have an idea that might help us, and I wanted to see if you would go along with it. We have 200 partially finished machines in process, about 20% complete. That compares with the 1,000 units that we completed and sold during the year. When you computed the per-unit cost, you used 1,040 equivalent units, giving us a manufacturing cost of 1,500 per unit. That per-unit cost gives us cost of goods sold equal to 1.5 million and ending work in process worth 60,000. The presence of the work in process gives us a chance to improve our financial position. If we report the units in work in process as 80% complete, this will increase our equivalent units to 1,160. This, in turn, will decrease our unit cost to about 1,345 and cost of goods sold to 1.345 million. The value of our work in process will increase to 215,200. With those financial stats, the loan would be a cinch. Donna: Gary, I dont know. What youre suggesting is risky. It wouldnt take much auditing skill to catch this one. Gary: You dont have to worry about that. The auditors wont be here for at least 6 to 8 more weeks. By that time, we can have those partially completed units completed and sold. I can bury the labor cost by having some of our more loyal workers work overtime for some bonuses. The overtime will never be reported. And, as you know, bonuses come out of the corporate budget and are assigned to overheadnext years overhead. Donna, this will work. If we look good and get the loan to boot, corporate headquarters will treat us well. If we dont do this, we could lose our jobs. Required: 1. Should Donna agree to Garys proposal? Why or why not? To assist in deciding, review the corporate code of ethics standards described in Chapter 1. Do any apply? 2. Assume that Donna refuses to cooperate and that Gary accepts this decision and drops the matter. Does Donna have any obligation to report the divisional managers behavior to a superior? Explain. 3. Assume that Donna refuses to cooperate; however, Gary insists that the changes be made. Now what should she do? What would you do? 4. Suppose that Donna is 63 and that the prospects for employment elsewhere are bleak. Assume again that Gary insists that the changes be made. Donna also knows that his supervisor, the owner of the company, is his father-in-law. Under these circumstances, would your recommendations for Donna differ?
- Consider the following conversation between Leonard Bryner, president and manager of a firm engaged in job manufacturing, and Chuck Davis, certified management accountant, the firms controller. Leonard: Chuck, as you know, our firm has been losing market share over the past 3 years. We have been losing more and more bids, and I dont understand why. At first, I thought that other firms were undercutting simply to gain business, but after examining some of the public financial reports, I believe that they are making a reasonable rate of return. I am beginning to believe that our costs and costing methods are at fault. Chuck: I cant agree with that. We have good control over our costs. Like most firms in our industry, we use a normal job-costing system. I really dont see any significant waste in the plant. Leonard: After talking with some other managers at a recent industrial convention, Im not so sure that waste by itself is the issue. They talked about activity-based management, activity-based costing, and continuous improvement. They mentioned the use of something called activity drivers to assign overhead. They claimed that these new procedures can help to produce more efficiency in manufacturing, better control of overhead, and more accurate product costing. A big deal was made of eliminating activities that added no value. Maybe our bids are too high because these other firms have found ways to decrease their overhead costs and to increase the accuracy of their product costing. Chuck: I doubt it. For one thing, I dont see how we can increase product-costing accuracy. So many of our costs are indirect costs. Furthermore, everyone uses some measure of production activity to assign overhead costs. I imagine that what they are calling activity drivers is just some new buzzword for measures of production volume. Fads in costing come and go. I wouldnt worry about it. Ill bet that our problems with decreasing sales are temporary. You might recall that we experienced a similar problem about 12 years agoit was 2 years before it straightened out. Required: 1. Do you agree or disagree with Chuck Davis and the advice that he gave Leonard Bryner? Explain. 2. Was there anything wrong or unethical in the behavior that Chuck Davis displayed? Explain your reasoning. 3. Do you think that Chuck was well informedthat he was aware of the accounting implications of ABC and that he knew what was meant by cost drivers? Should he have been well informed? Review (in Chapter 1) the first category of the Statement of Ethical Professional Practice for management accountants. Do any of these standards apply in Chucks case?Reed Kohler is in his final year of employment as controller for Quality Sales Corporation: he hopes to retire next year. As a member of top management, Kohler participates in an attractive company bonus plan. The overall size of the bonus is a function of the firm's net income before bonus and income taxes - the larger the net income, the larger the bonus. Due to a slowdown in the economy due to Coronavirus, the company has encountered difficulty in managing its cash flow. The company auditors have recommended that the company change its inventory method from FIFO to LIFO . The change would cause a significant increase in the cost of goods sold for the year. Kohler thinks the company shouldn't switch to LIFO b/c its inventory quantities are too large. After expressing this opinion to the firm's treasurer, Kohler is stunned at the treasurer's reply "Reed, I can't believe that after all these years with the company, you put your personal interests ahead of the companies…1. Margie Johnson is a staff accountant at ToolEx Company, a manufacturer of tools and equipment. The company is under pressure from investors to increase earnings, and the president of the company expects the Accounting Department to “make this happen.” Margie’s boss, who has been a mentor to her, is concerned that if earnings do not increase, he will be terminated. Shortly after the end of the fiscal year, the company performs a physical count of the inventory. When Margie compares the physical count to the balance in the inventory account, she finds a significant amount of inventory shrinkage. The amount is so large that it will result in a significant drop in earnings this period. Margie’s boss asks her not to make the adjusting entry for shrinkage this period. He assures her that they will get “caught up” on shrinkage in the next period, after the pressure is off to reach this period’s earnings goal. Margie’s boss asks her to do this as a personal favor to him. What should…
- Maple & Co, chartered accountants, is suffering from declining revenue, and as a result of this, another audit manager has been asked to consider how to improve the firm’s profitability. In a conversation with you this morning he mentioned the following:“We really need to make our audits more efficient. I think we should fix materiality at theplanning for all audits, as this would reduce the work we need to do. I also think we can cut the firm’s overheads by reducing our spending on training. We spend a lot on expensive training courses for junior members of the audit team, and on Continuing Professional Development for our qualified members of staff.We could also guarantee our clients that all audits will be completed quicker than last year.Reducing the time spent on each assignment will improve the firm’s efficiency and enable us to take on more audit clients.”Required:Comment on the practice of Maple & Co. and quality control issues raised by the audit manager’s suggestions…Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is facing difficulties due to longer average collection period as many of its customers are having liquidity issues and they are delaying payments well beyond the due dates. Furthermore, the bad debt ratio of the company is on the rise as lots of pharmaceutical companies have gone bankrupt or having financial difficulties. In order to address these issues, company is thinking to adopt stringent credit policy in order to reduce bad debt and average collection period. The Management has decided that it will not grant additional credit to any customer beyond 15 days past due on payments. However, such a change of policy has consequences, and it is expected that firm will reduce it current sales to $6.5 million (20% reduction from current level of sale). However, the policy will also help in reduction of bad debts losses by 4% (from 8% to 4%) and average collection period by 35 days (from 110 days to 75 days). The expected decrease in sales will result in…The SEC is trying to get companies to notify the investment community more quickly when a "material change" will affect their forthcoming financial results. In what sense might a financial manager be seen as "more ethical" if he or she follows this directive and issues a press release indicating that sales will not be as high as previously anticipated? A manager at a "Check Into Cash" business (see Focus on Ethics box on page 192) defends his business practice as simply "charging what the market will bear." "After all," says the manager, "we don't force people to come in the door." How would you respond to this ethical defense of the payday-advance business? Bond rating agencies have invested significant sums of money in an effort to determine which quantitative and nonquantitative factors best predict bond defaults. Furthermore, some of the raters invest time and money to meet privately with corporate personnel to get nonpublic information that is used in assigning the issue's bond…
