ACC 557 Improper or Illegal Methods
ACC 557 Discussion Questions
Week 1
DQ 1
“Improper or Illegal Methods” Please respond to the following:
From the e-Activity, identify the company, the accounting impropriety or illegality, how it was detected, the outcome, and propose a strategy that might have prevented the situation. Indicate how the strategy should be implemented.
Assess the impact to the company’s financial performance based on the impropriety and the resulting effect to stakeholder confidence in management, recommending how the company can minimize the resulting impact to the business.
DQ 2
“General Accounting Principles” Please respond to the following:
“Bookkeeping and accounting are the same.” In terms of your role in the provision of financial services, present data to support the accuracy of this statement and support your position.
Analyze the accounting equation as a concept that underpins the work of professional accountants and how an understanding of the equation can impact business decision making.
Week 2
“Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)” Please respond to the following:
From the e-Activity, recommend how the SOX framework can ensure reliable and complete financial information and how accounting professionals have benefitted from its use. Provide support for your response.
Evaluate how the SOX has reinforced investors’ and creditors’ confidence in companies and how these individuals can take steps to verify the accuracy of the financial statements of potential investments or loans. Provide support for your rationale.
DQ 2
“Accounting for a Specific Circumstance” Please respond to the following:
From the e-Activity research you gathered, analyze how you, as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a “big box store” that has potential pollution, environmental-disposal, or demolition problems, would handle these costs in your financial statements and communicate this proposed plan to your colleagues on the management team. Indicate how any resistance would be overcome. Support your stance with the information that you obtained through your research.
Recommend the advantages and disadvantages of recording the above-referenced costs in the financial statements and how this might alter the company’s public image.
Week 3
DQ 1
“Researching Financial Information” Please respond to the following:
From the e-Activity, analyze one company’s financial position and determine whether or not the stock potential will rise, remain stable, or decrease in value. Determine whether you would invest in it or not at this time. Provide a rationale for your response.
Assess how profitable the company has been over the past 5 years and determine how you would advise the company about its future profitability potential.
DQ 2
Most people are familiar with cash as a form of compensation to employees. To conserve cash, companies have devised creative methods (gift cards, barter,stock options, bonuses, free meals, etc) to pay employees and independent contractors. Using the Internet, analyze non-cash forms of compensation to employees and/or independent contractors.
As a CFO of a new company, analyze non-traditional compensation (or fringe benefits) to conserve cash.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages to using this type of benefit. For instance, assess the impact to employee morale, fraud, etc.
Week 4
DQ 1
“Accounting Methods” Please respond to the following:
Analyze the risks to merchandising that a business may experience and how they might be minimized. Determine if automation of accounting has had a positive or negative impact on business, in general, and how you arrived at that conclusion.
Create a corporate policy designed to minimize inventory shrinkage related to theft, stocking errors, shipping errors, etc., indicating how the policy will be enforced and procedures that may need to be implemented.
DQ 2
“Inventories” Please respond to the following:
Imagine you are accountable for a franchise fast-food restaurant. Evaluate the best method of inventory costing and make a recommendation to the company’s leaders about why it is best suited for your franchise fast-food restaurant to reduce the possibility of employee theft of product or other shrinkage concerns.
Inventory control requires constant attention. Propose a set of guidelines that reflect the necessary monitoring controls for three distinct types of business (e.g., a shoe retailer, a physician’s office, and a food vending truck) to minimize loss and waste. Indicate how each control will minimize risk of inventory loss.
Week 5
DQ 1
“Internal Controls” Please respond to the following:
From the e-Activity, analyze the situation from the company you selected and the internal controls that may have been compromised to allow the problem to occur and the resulting financial impact to the business. Propose a plan to prevent this type of situation in the future.
Match the situation with the primary components of the fraud triangle factor (opportunity, financial pressure, or rationalization) that best describes it and specifically create strategies to address this component of the triangle to prevent recurrence for the above-mentioned company.
DQ 2
“Receivables” Please respond to the following:
Assess the external and internal factors that influence credit policy and decision making within a company that extends credit to its customer when providing a good or service on account. Indicate the factor of most significance in today’s business environment. Provide support for your rationale.
Assuming that a certain percentage of customers will be deemed high risk, recommend a strategy to minimize a company’s bad debt exposure. Indicate how the company would implement the strategy. Provide support for your recommendation.
Week 6
DQ 1
“Information Protection and Privacy” Please respond to the following:
Based on the e-Activity, evaluate the circumstances that contributed to the privacy violation, the consequence to the company to the breach, and management’s response to the breach, indicating the appropriateness of the response. Suggest how the company may have presented the breach and / or responded differently once the breach was discovered. Provide support for your rationale.
Assess the ethical considerations for information privacy, indicating how these considerations should be addressed with a corporate policy. Provide support for your rationale.
DQ 2
“Debt Covenants” Please respond to the following:
Based on your research conducted in the e-Activity, assess the key components of the loan covenant typically used in business loans. Indicate the necessity of each covenant and the likelihood that default will be prevented. Suggest whether or not you agree or disagree with lenders using the covenant approach for protection. Provide a rationale for your position.
Create an alternative strategy for lenders to use to protect themselves for loan default. Indicate how this approach would be more desirable than debt covenants. Provide support for your strategy.
Week 7
DQ 1
“Effects of a Merger” Please respond to the following:
Based on the company you researched in the e-Activity, assess the key drivers of the merger. Indicate how the merger will most likely create more value for the company stakeholders, indicating whether or not you believe the value will be realized. Provide support for your rationale.
Assess the accounting complexities related to mergers and acquisition, indicating how management accounted for these complexities in the merger you researched. Suggest whether or not you agree or disagree with the accounting approach used in the merger. Provide support for your position.
DQ 2
“Retained Earnings” Please respond to the following:
The items contained in the Retained Earnings section of a balance sheet are often complex and confusing. Suggest an improvement for the reporting on this information that will help the users of the statement to have a better understanding of the activity. Provide support for your suggestion.
Evaluate what a cumulative loss in the retained earnings section of a company’s balance sheet might indicate about the financial performance in the future, indicating how this may influence decisions made about the company. Provide support for your answer.
Week 8
DQ 1
“Venture Capital” Please respond to the following:
Based on your research conducted in the e-Activity, evaluate the business decision to use a venture capitalist to raise funds, indicating whether or not you believe the company will benefit from this decision in the long run. Provide support for your position.
Assess the challenges for businesses using the resources of a venture capitalist, given that significant returns on the investment are likely to be impacted by the firm. Indicate how a business can manage these expectations. Provide support for your rationale.
DQ 2
“Investment Valuation” Please respond to the following:
While US GAAP requires assets to be valued at the lower of cost or market, there is a belief that assets with value fluctuations should be valued at market and adjusted on a regular basis. Create an argument supporting the use of market value for investment valuation. Provide support for your argument.
Assess the potential abuses of companies using a market value approach to investment valuation and how it may impact decisions made by the public relying on the information.
Week 9
DQ 1
“Cash Flow Reporting” Please respond to the following:
Given the complexities related to preparing and interpreting the statement of cash flow, evaluate the current requirement under GAAP and IFRS, indicating improvements that you would make to each method’s requirement to better serve the users of the information. Provide a rationale for your changes.
Analyze the impact of erroneous classifications in the Operating Activities section of the statement of cash flows, detailing how the distortion can impact the decisions made by financial statement users. Suggest how these errors may be minimized.
DQ 2
“Use of Cash Flows Statements” Please respond to the following:
Assess what information may be revealed about the sustainability of a company by review and analysis of a company’s statement of cash flows that may not be revealed in the balance sheet or income statement. Provide support for your rationale.
Create an argument indicating that the statement of cash flows contains the most valuable information related to a company’s performance for users of financial statement information. Provide support for your argument.
Week 10
DQ 1
“Financial Analyst Skills” Please respond to the following:
Based on the information presented in the e-Activity, recommend the skills that are required to be a successful Financial Analyst, indicating how the role of a Financial Analyst adds value to a company. Provide support for your answer.
Assess the key ratios used by Financial Analyst to evaluate the financial performance of company, indicating the ratio that you believe to be most indicative of future performance. Provide support for your rationale.
DQ 2
“Financial Analysis” Please respond to the following:
Determine three key ratios that should be used when evaluating the financial performance of a company, indicating what information this will reveal to an analyst and the impact to decisions made about the company.
Given that financial analysis is reactive based on events that have already occurred, suggest how financial analysis may obtain information to be proactive to the decision-making process. Provide support for your rationale.
Week 11
DQ 1
“Course Wrap-Up” Please respond to the following:
Explain two concepts in this course that provided the most value to you.
Indicate how these two new areas of knowledge will benefit you in your current job or future career/endeavors.
DQ 2
“Financial Accounting” Please respond to the following:
Predict one major change in financial accounting that may likely occur within the next 10 years.
As a CFO, recommend how you would integrate these changes into your business.
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