Question 1. What is vertical analysis? When would you use vertical analysis instead of horizontal? Do companies use one or the other? Please explain. What about industry averages? How do people use industry averages for comparative analysis?
Question 2. What are the formulas of the following liquidity ratios and their formulas and what does each ratio tell us?
- Working capital
- Current ratio
- Current cash debt coverage ratio
- Inventor turnover ratio
- Days in inventory
- Receivables turnover ratio
- Receivables turnover ratio
- Average collection period
Question 3. A great example of an extraordinary item in accounting is the BP oil explosion and subsequent oil spill. How would this be treated on BP's books? What about the organizations that were affected by the spill, do you think they would also have an extraordinary item to report? For example, what about resorts in the area? What about fishing companies in the area?
Question 4. Changes in accounting principles are mostly reported retroactively by companies, which includes both the current and previous periods. How far back do you have to go? Do you have any reporting requirements for future periods?