Financial Control of your Business

Financial Control of your Business

Financial Control of your Business          “C” is the final letter of the POLC functions of management — Control. Financial control is an important means of controlling overall short term and long term success of a business. In your final Assignment concerning financial statements, you will interpret a statement based on given assumptions provided

 

You will need to use two files located in Doc Sharing.

Checklist:

1. Download two files from Doc Sharing: a) Unit 10 Assignment Spreadsheet (Excel file)     b) Unit 10 Assignment Assumptions (Word doc)

2. Then estimate a P&L statement based on the assumptions.

3. Answer the questions: Does the firm need to borrow money at the end of the year to meet expenses? Why or why not?

4. Submit your answer to the questions and your estimated P&L spreadsheet to the Dropbox before the end of this unit

 

Comparison of Financial Statements

Comparison of Financial Statements

Critical Analysis of Financial Statement Data In this week’s Discussion, you will be comparing the financial statements of two companies. Please select from the following list:

Wal-Mart® Kmart® Target® Carrefour Group® Tesco ® plc. To locate the financial statements, go to the Investors section of the company website and access the most recent annual report. Be sure when you are comparing the companies, the annual report selected is for the same year. Once you have made your selection, please answer the following:

What are the differences and similarities between their income statements? What are the differences and similarities between their balance sheets? What classifications are presented? Locate the notes the financial statements and highlight some of the notes you found would be of interest to investors about each company.

The Employment Process

The Employment Process

In week two, you figured out what positions needed filling and the job descriptions for each, and how much to pay. You have received 10 applicants for each of the three jobs that need to be filled. Now you need to determine your interview and hiring process. Make sure that you have completed the Learning Activity before starting your Assignment to enable you to be more successful in this Assignment.

1.  Analyze the process you will use from the time you have received the applications to the time you make a hiring decision (you need to conceive of at least four steps in the hiring process). Explain each of these steps including who will be responsible for each step and why

2.  Explain whether the employment process will be the same for each employment type. Why or why not?

3.  Write ten interview questions for each of the three positions. Remember to make sure these questions are open-ended and that at least 6 questions are unique to each of the three jobs. Open-ended questions are those that require more than a “yes” or “no” response

 Your minimum 2-page response (plus an additional title and reference page) in APA format and citation style should be submitted to the Unit 3 Dropbox. 

Hiring in a Small Business

Hiring in a Small Business

Recruitment

You will be learning about human resources issues concerning the employment process. You read about the employment process in your chapter reading and practiced with recruiting, screening, and hiring concepts in the Learning Activity. Now you will be writing about how you plan to find your employees for your real or imagined business.  First read about diversity accessed in the course Assignment area

The premise, of course, is that you will have employees. If you start out small, and the first employee is only you, imagine the business a number of years out. If you needed five employees, which positions would they most likely fill? What positions will need filling? Please imagine three positions and then respond in a 1–2 page explanation to the following

1. Determine the benefits and challenges of attracting a diverse pool of potential candidates

2. How would you go about hiring a diverse workforce and why would this be important based on your reading?

3. Indicate the job title and write a brief job description including pertinent job specifications for each of the three positions.

.4.  What will the pay range be for each of the three positions?

5. Explain where you will advertise for these three positions so you can collect an application pool to interview. Why?

 

 Submit your 1–2 page minimum response in a Word document using APA citation style and format (include an additional title and reference page) to the Dropbox before the end of the unit.

Liabilities Comparative Analysis Problem

Current Liabilities Comparative Analysis Problem

PepsiCo, Inc. versus The Coca-Cola Company This week’s Discussion topic comes from BYP11-2, p. 561 of your textbook. PepsiCo, Inc. and Coca-Cola Company financial statements are in Appendix C. Use their financials to answer the following questions:

(a) At December 31, 2011, what was PepsiCo’s largest current liability account? What were its total current liabilities? At December 31, 2011, what was Coca Cola’s largest current liability account? What were its total current liabilities?

(b) Based on information contained in those financial statements, compute the following 2011 values for each company:

(1) Working Capital

(2) Current Ratio

(c) What conclusions concerning the relative liquidity of these companies can be drawn from these data?

Accounting Cycle

Accounting Cycle Assignment

At this point, you should have an understanding of the basic foundation of accounting. The steps to the accounting cycle are crucial to the success and accuracy of preparing financial information for internal and external stakeholders.  When sharing information about your studies with your friends and family, suppose one of them asks you about your accounting course. How would you explain each of the steps of the accounting cycle to them if they have little or no knowledge of accounting?  You are to write a 2–4 page paper explaining the accounting cycle and each of the nine steps.  Your paper should be in terms that someone without much knowledge of accounting can understand. You should address what information is needed and how it is processed at each step. Be sure to address the consequences of inaccuracies and the ramifications of omitting any of the steps. An introduction and conclusion should be included in your paper. This Assignment should be typed and follow APA guidelines for document format and citations of resources. For APA resources and assistance, please visit the Kaplan University Writing Center at https://kucampus.kaplan.edu/Platform/AcademicSupport/AcademicSuccess/Pee… r.aspx.  The following checklist will assist you with completing this Assignment:  1.  Introduction – provide background information and an overview of the accounting cycle 2.  The Accounting Cycle: 9 Steps – provide an explanation of each of the nine steps, address the information needed and how it is processed at each step, provide information regarding the consequences of inaccuracies or the effect of leaving out individual steps 3.  Conclusion – summarizes the accounting cycle and provides a review of the importance of following the steps and providing accurate financial information  Also, make sure the paper provides these critical elements:  • Write your original response in Standard English, paying special attention to grammar, style and mechanics. • Respond to the questions in a thorough manner, providing specific examples of concepts and topics from the checklist. • Ensure that your viewpoint and purpose are clearly stated. • Demonstrate logical and appropriate transitions from one idea to another. • Your paper should be highly organized, logical and focused.

Submit your Assignment to the Unit 9 Assignment Dropbox.

Forecasting and Dividends

Forecasting and Dividends

Part 1: “Forecasting” Please respond to the following
Assess the financial performance forecasting process, identifying the assumptions made that are most likely to cause a gap between the forecast and actual performance. Indicate how these gaps may be minimized. Provide support for your rationale.
Create an argument supporting the value of forecasting to an organization. Provide support for your argument.

Part 2: “Dividends” Please respond to the following:
Assess the market and shareholder behaviors when a publically traded company makes the decision not to pay dividends to its shareholders, suggesting how management should react to these behaviors. Provide support for your rationale.
Evaluate the factors that an investor may consider when deciding whether or not to invest in a company with a policy of non-dividend payments. Indicate whether or not you believe this a prudent choice for some investors. Provide support for your rationale.

Strategic management and control

Accounting for strategic management and control

Community Children’s Hospital can invest in one of two different projects. The first project is to purchase and operate a hotel that is located two blocks from the hospital. The CEO of the hospital has no experience operating a hotel, but the hospital does provide rooms for in-patients, and so she is familiar with cleaning requirements and managing housekeeping staff. However, the hospital does little advertising and does not have a large public relations staff. In addition, the hospital and hotel are located in a part of town that is deteriorating.

The other investment opportunity is to replace the heart monitors in the neonatal intensive care unit (critical care for newborns and infants). The new monitors would provide a range of functions, including monitoring the body temperature and blood pressure of infants, as well as monitoring heart functions. Each monitor can be used for up to four infants with information about each infant forwarded to one computer that is monitored by a special technician. The current monitors are bedside monitors that need to be read every 10 minutes by nursing staff.

Required

(a)Prepare a list of uncertainties that the CEO faces if she buys the hotel.

(4 marks) (b) Prepare a list of uncertainties the CEO faces if she replaces the heart monitors.

(4 marks)

(c) Which scenario appears to have a greater degree of uncertainty? Why?

(2 marks)

Investment in a new wine variety

Kilgors Case study: Investment in a new wine variety

Following the success of two earlier innovations, Kilgors management had considered a potential investment in a new wine blend, designed to attract the Chinese consumer.  They had found that the Chinese market was a significant area of growth.  For example, other winemakers, such as Penfolds, were not able to meet demand for some of their high-end wines like Grange Hermitage, even with dramatic price increases. For Kilgors, this was a relatively untapped international market that demanded attention.  The R&D manager, who was also Kilgors senior wine-maker, was asked to pull together a budget proposal for this new product development project.

At the same time Kilgors management were reviewing the need to replace equipment in the winery, as the old equipment was at the end of its useful life. The senior winemaker had mentioned the potential for new flexible bottling system that would enable them to adapt more readily to changing consumer demand for the different wine varieties.  He explained how he had seen the new bottling system in action and had visited a Singapore food manufacturing company who was currently installing this state of the art equipment.  He said it would enable Kilgors to operate more on a demand-driven basis and switch wine production according to updated rolling forecasts.  The other managers thought this proposed investment linked nicely with the R&D investment idea being floated, as introducing a new wine blend would impact on the winery’s current throughput capacity.

They asked the senior accountant to generate a capital budget that would enable them to evaluate the NPV of the flexible bottling system against standard machine replacement.  This as important as the two projects was quite different.  For example, the initial outlays for the two options were significantly different, with the new technology being a lot more costly.  The flexible bottling system also required $1.5 million investment in training on the new equipment comprising, flying Kilgors key wine makers and production managers to France to train for several weeks with the equipment experts.  However, the proposed system also provided cost savings, such that the wastage was minimised, cutting the cost per litre of wine by $3.00.  The machinery didn’t require as many operators, thus cutting the direct labour costs overtime.  Similarly variable overheads were reduced with the new technology.  Due to the enhanced safety features of the flexible bottling system, the insurance premiums were lower, thus reducing the fixed overheads.  Table 1 provides an overview of the information gathered by the accountant.

 

Table 1: Winery Bottling Equipment – Capital Investment Options 

  Replacement Bottling Equipment  Flexible Bottling System
Project life 10 years 10 years
Initial Outlay $10 million $43.5 million
Employee training costs Nil $1.5 million
Selling price per litre $20 $20
Direct wine cost per litre $6.00 $5.00
Direct labour per litre of wine $8.00 $7.00
Variable overhead per litre $4.00 $3.00
Fixed Overhead $1.5 million $1.2 million
Expected Volume (per annum) 1,800,000 litres 1,950,000 litres

Marginal Tax Rate: 32%; Discount Rate: 10%

Required: 

 

  1. What factors do you consider important for the budgeting process?  In your response, make sure you outline the strategy of Kilgors (differentiation or cost leadership) and what is important for Kilgors to achieve their mission? 

(4 marks)

 

  1. To date, you have studied more traditional forms of budgeting (i.e. incremental adjustments to the budget each year to determine next year’s budget). Rather than take a traditional approach to budgeting would more contemporary approaches, such as zero-based budgeting, be suitable for the R&D department to use?  Explain why or why not and the approach you would take to budgeting for Kilgors proposed R&D investment. 

 

(4 marks)

  1. Calculate the NPV of the two proposed investments.  Which option should Kilgors adopt?  Explain why?

                                                                                                                                (6 marks for NPV calculation)

                                                                                                                                (6 marks for Explanation)

Why do companies offer stock options

Why do companies offer stock options

Prepare a 700- to 1,050-word response to the following questions:

Must include thorough introduction and conclusion

  • Why is it important to keep paid-in capital separate from earned capital?
  • As an investor, is paid-in capital or earned capital more important? Explain why.
  • As an investor, are basic or diluted earnings per share more important? Explain why.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

 

This is the book we are using in class: Kieso, D.E., Weygandt, J.J., & Warfield, T.D. (2013). Intermediate accounting (15th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

PART II- THIS PART I NEED BY FRIDAY AUGUST 19,2016

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

 

Stock Options

Why do companies offer stock options?  Should stock option compensation be included as an expense when calculating an organization’s net income?  Explain why or why not.  If so, how should the amount of expense be calculated?

 

Dividends

What are the different types of dividends that a company can pay out?  Which type would you prefer?  Explain why.  When should a company pay dividends?

Stock

What are some similarities and differences between common stock and preferred stock?  As a shareholder, would you want preferred or common stock?  Explain why.  As a corporation, would you rather issue preferred or common stock?  Why?

Stock Split

What is the purpose of a stock split?  What are some benefits of a stock split for a company?  What are some benefits for an investor?  What is the effect to the market value of a stock?