1. How are past performance and industry norms useful in evaluating a company's performance? What are their limitations?
2. In a five-year trend analysis, why do the dollar values remain the same for their respective years while the percentages usually change when a new five-year period is chosen?
3. Why does a decrease in receivables turnover create the need for cash from operating activities?
4. Why would ratios that include one balance sheet account and one income statement account, such as receivables turnover or return on assets, be questionable if they came from quarterly or other interim financial reports?