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Fae3e SM ch05
Fae3e SM ch05
QUESTIONS
Income statement: Five percent of net income or three percent of net sales
Balance sheet: Three percent of total assets
There is no right or wrong answer here, but we often find it instructive to get a
sampling of answers from students on the board to see the variability in views
of what is (or is not) material. The takeaway point is that the variance that they
see on the board is probably also taking place among the firms they want to
invest in, work for, or read about.
Q5.4 Revenue Recognition, the Matching Principle, and the Bad Debt Expense.
Given Urcarcos target market (i.e., customers with bad or no credit rating), the
company should use the installment basis to recognize revenue. The
installment method is appropriate in this case because cash collection is
uncertain and the probability of default (and repossession) is high. If Urcarco
adopts the installment method as its basis of revenue recognition, there is no
need to estimate the bad debts expense since no uncollected revenue is
recognized.
Q5.5 Revenue Recognition in the Air Transportation Industry. U.S. Airways could
recognize revenue at the point of ticket sale (i.e., when cash is collected and is
nonrefundable), at the point when a flight is actually taken, or at the end of one
year when the ticket expires. Revenue recognition at the point of sale would not
be GAAP, however, as no service has yet been provided. Thus, for purposes of
the GAAP financial statements, U.S. Airways policy choice is limited to either
when a flight is actually taken or at the end of the one-year expiration period.
Q5.6 Managing Earnings and the Bad Debt Expense. This discussion question is
based on the Nortel Networks Corporation illustration in Chapter 5:
2008 2009
Allowance for doubtful accounts gross
accounts receivable 25% 13.6%
Total Networks allowance for doubtful accounts as a percentage of gross
accounts receivable declined by nearly 50 percent. This would imply that there
had been a 100 percent improvement in the accounts receivable payment
behavior of Totals customers, which of course is unlikely to happen in such a
short period of time. An alternative explanation is that Total lowered its
probabilities of non-collection when estimating its bad debt expense for 2009.
Reducing the bad debt estimate for 2009 allows Total to report a higher pretax
net income. Assuming that the companys customers did not change their
payment behavior, the bad debt expense for 2009 would be underestimated by
$125 million and pretax net income over-estimated by the same amount.
Thus, the question is whether the upgrade cycle will be sufficient to absorb
the excess of the shipment to subscriber sign-up difference.
Q5.8 Sales Forecasts and Share Prices. It is generally agreed that revenues are
the key driver of share price. Thus, it is not surprising to see a firms share price
take a substantial hit when revenues are forecasted to decline. At issue here,
however, is whether the decline in sales forecast for 2006 for Bausch & Lomb
will persist after 2006. If the company is able to recover the temporarily lost
market share in 2007 and, thereafter, then perhaps the 15 percent share price
drop was excessive. At the time, according to Yahoo Finance, Bausch & Lomb
traded at a price-to-sales multiple of 1.12 times; thus, a drop in sales of 4.6
percent could translate into a share price reduction of 5.15 percent. In short, the
price drop of 15 percent seems excessive in this instance.
Given the length of the production cycle for these firms (i.e., nine months or
more), most analysts expect to see these companies use the percentage-of-
completion basis, especially since cash collection is unlikely to be an issue for
the companies (i.e., because of the down payment of $100 million).
Q5.11 (Ethics Perspective) Ethics and the Tone at the Top. The role of the leader
is to provide guidance and rules for their employees, in addition to providing a
direction in which the organization wishes to move. If ethical behavior is part of
that vision, and he or she emphasizes this, then we will expect to see a more
ethical culture.
But what if the leader does not walk the way they talk? There are two theories
that explain behavior in organizations: espoused theory and theory-in-use. The
espoused theory is what people claim to do. For example, when leadership
publicly states that a company values ethical behavior, this is espoused theory.
Theory-in-use, on the other hand, is what actually occurs, and it may or may
not be in line with espoused theory. Leadership may claim to value ethical
behavior, but in reality it is unethical behavior that is rewarded. In such cases,
where there is a discrepancy between espoused theory and theory-in-use, the
saying actions speak louder than words applies. Employees may nod their
heads and smile when they hear espoused theory, but if the mechanisms in the
organization dont support ethical behavior, it is unlikely that ethical behavior
will be practiced. The point is that it is not enough to simply claim to act
ethically. Action at the top needs to match the tone at the top.
(Note: This answer was based on the writings of Jasper Matt Jarman and
Liliane Contreraz.)
2. Given that the $1,500 is paid in full at the time of purchase of the
warranty contract, revenue recognition should occur at that time. However, a
related issue is matching: Global Motors must estimate its future costs to
service the warranty agreements. If it is unable to do so, then a partial
recognition approach would be needed, wherein the $1,500 would be pro-
rated over the warranty period.
Year 1 Year 2
Allowance for uncollectible accounts
gross accounts receivable 3.0% 3.5%
An increase in this ratio indicates that Lincolns customers are taking a longer
time to pay their bills, increasing the riskiness of the companys accounts
receivable and reducing the likelihood of collecting the full value of the
outstanding accounts receivable.
If the bad debt expense for Year 2 did not equal $2,700, it was because there
was an existing balance in the allowance for uncollectible accounts after
considering the write-off of known uncollectible accounts. The existing balance
in the allowance account would cause the bad debt expense to be higher or
lower than $2,700.
Year 1 Year 2
Allowance for uncollectible accounts
gross accounts receivable 3.5% 3.0%
A decrease in this ratio indicates that the payment behavior of the Couche
Corporation customers is improving (i.e., they are paying more quickly),
reducing the riskiness of the cash flows associated with the companys
receivables and increasing the likelihood of collecting the full value of any
outstanding receivables.
Since the Year 2 bad debt expense for The Couche Corporation did not equal
$4,100, there must have been an existing balance in the allowance for
uncollectible accounts caused by greater (or lesser) actual account receivable
write-offs in the prior period.
July 1 July 10
Order Order Total
Charles Smith Inc. is willing to offer a price discount to its credit customers as a
financial incentive to pay for any purchased equipment within ten days of the
original sale transaction. Customers who fail to pay quickly implicitly transfer
the cost of financing their credit purchases to Charles Smith, Inc. This hidden
cost lowers the profitability of Charles Smith by raising the companys cost of
financing. Sales discounts are valuable to the customers of Charles Smith
because it enables them to lower their cost of goods purchased.
Year 1 Year 2
Receivable turnover ratio 9.64x 10.38x
Receivable collection period 37.9 days 35.2 days
Year 1 Year 2
Additional cash flow in Year 2 if The Mann Corporation is able to reduce its
receivable collection period to 60 days (i.e., a turnover ratio of 6.08 times):
1. Item Effect
a. Revenue Decrease
b. Total assets No effect
c. Cash flow from operations No effect
d. Total liabilities Increase
Year 1 Year 2
Revenues $400,000 $600,000
Less: Cost of goods sold
Beg. Inventory $0 $120,000
Add: Purchases 360,000 480,000
Less: End. Inventory (120,000) (228,000)
(240,000) (372,000)
Gross margin 160,000 228,000
Less: Operating expenses (64,000) (88,000)
Net income $96,000 $140,000
2. Installment Method.
Year 1 Year 2
Revenues $180,000 $460,000
Less: Cost of goods sold
180/400 (240,000) (108,000)
460/600 (372,000) (285,200)
Gross margin 72,000 174,800
Less: Operating expenses (64,000) (88,000)
Net income $8,000 $86,800
1
The new construction receivable is an unbilled receivable.
2
$127,000 - $18,143 = $108,857.
3
$108,857 + $161,540 = $270,397.
1
$400,000 x .70 =$ 280,000.
2
$150,000 x .12 x 2/12 =$ 3,000.
3
$127,000 x (25,000/175,000) = $18,143.
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr 4 Total
Revenues -$0- -$0- -$0- $240,000 $240,000
Less: Expenses -0- -0- -0- (200,000) (200,000)
Net income -$0- -$0- -$0- $40,000 $40,000
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr 4 Total
Percentage complete 20% 30% 35% 15% 100%
Revenues
20% ($240,000) $48,000
30% ($240,000) $72,000
35% ($240,000) $84,000
15% ($240,000) $36,000
$240,000
Less: Expenses (40,000) (60,000) (70,000) (30,000) (200,000)
Net income $8,000 $12,000 $14,000 $6,000 $40,000
Similarly, even though the expenditures that are being made are not
being recognized currently on the income statement as an expense, they
are being reported on the balance sheet as an asset. For example, in
2011, the expenditure would be recognized by a decrease in cash for
$2.49 million and an increase in construction-in-progress, an asset, for
$2.49 million.
In 2013, when the contract is completed, both the deferred revenue and
the construction-in-progress accounts are transferred to the income
statement.
c. Cash basis.
Less: Expenses
Research & development (363,000) (529,000) (210,000) --
Net earnings (loss) $(363,000) $(479,000) $1,550,400 $146,040
1
$300,000 + present value of an annuity of $300,000 per period for seven periods at 10 percent.
Probability of Expected
Age Balance Noncollectio Loss
n
P5.28 Factoring versus Pledging of Accounts Receivable. Under the terms of the
factoring agreement, the sale of $2 million in accounts receivable on a non-
recourse basis would be accounted for by an increase in cash of $1.69 million,
an increase in financing expense of $310,000 (i.e., $2 million x 15.5%), and a
reduction in accounts receivable of $2 million.
Assuming that the bank loan was outstanding for 60 days, Global Markets
would incur interest costs of $36,617 ($1,690,000 x 13% x 2/12). Thus, the
financing costs under the borrowing option are $36,617 plus any fees the bank
might charge (assumed to be zero here) considerably less than the factoring
expense of $310,000. However, whether the borrowing option is superior or not
depends on the expected bad debt losses on the $2,000,000 in receivables. If
the expected bad debt expense exceeds $273,383 ($310,000 - $36,617), then
the sale of the receivables may be a preferable alternative because the risk of
non-collection is passed on to the factor.
2.
2003 2004
Revised receivable balance:
(60 x $2.56 billion)/365 $0.421 billion
(60 x $1.78 billion)/365 $0.293 billion
2003 2004
Based on 2012 net sales of $83,680, forecasted 2013 net sales would be
projected to be at $85,688. P&Gs actual sales growth was 4.6% in 2011
and 3.2% in 2012. The projected sales growth for 2013 is substantially
below that achieved in either 2011 or 2012.
2012 2011
Receivable turnover ratio 13.8 12.9
2012 2011
= 2.9% 3.2%
This ratio decreased from 2011 to 2012 and would indicate that the
proportion of uncollectible accounts encountered by P&G decreased slightly
from 2011 to 2012, reflecting the slight improvement in economic conditions
that characterized the time period.