Assignment: Accounting Methods
Purpose of Assignment
Activity illustrates the role a company's accounting method plays in financial statement reporting. In this assignment, students evaluate the events occuring in a business setting and determine how to properly analyze those events to identify the impact on both cash and accrual accounting methods. I will post additional information in the class conversations including a grading rubric for the assignment. See the person with a flag in the upper right hand corner of the page. Please ask questions about the assignment in the class conversation.
Resources
• Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• Tutorial help on Excel and Word functions can be found on the Microsoft Office website. There are also additional tutorials via the web offering support for Office products.
Assignment Steps
Scenario: BizCon, a consulting firm, has just completed its first year of operations. The company's sales growth was explosive. To encourage clients to hire its services, BizCon offered 180-day financing - meaning its largest customers do not pay for nearly 6 months. Because BizCon is a new company, its equipment suppliers insist on being paid cash on delivery. Also, it had to pay up front for 2 years of insurance. At the end of the year, BizCon owed employees for one full month of salaries, but due to a cash shortfall, it promised to pay them the first week of next year.
As the senior accountant, the Chief Financial Officer has asked you to prepare a memo to be sent to management notifying them of the delayed wage payments.
Prepare the memo in a maximum 700 words including the following information to better outline the situation:
• Explain how cash and accrual accounting differs for each of the four events/transactions listed above and describe the proper accrual accounting.
• Assess how at the end of the year, BizCon reported a favorable net income, yet the company's management is concerned because the company is very short of cash. Explain to management how BizCon could have positive net income and yet run out of cash.
There are three requirements for each of the four business transactions above: For the first bullet point regarding the four transactions, explain the cash accounting, explain the accrual accounting and give the accrual debits and credits for each transaction.
For the second requirement bullet, you need to answer the question in the last sentence. How can BizCon report favorable net income but be short of cash.
In past classes, the majority of the class has failed this assignment because they do not answer the three questions about each transaction including the accrual debit and credit entry.
This case is not about BizCon's strategy, providing general information about cash and accrual accounting, etc. There are good examples of all four scenarios in the text which provide the answers and entries for this assignment.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.