...Thomas Individual Paper ACC/291 01/30/2013 My individual paper is going to focus on unethical accounting practices and how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is used in today's world to try and limit companies from falsifying accounting statements. One way that companies use unethical practices would be a practice known as cooking the books, this would involve a company falsifying information on their financial statements. There are numerous reasons why a company would do this but the number one reason that they do it is because they are having financial issues with their company and they don't want to go under or fill for bankruptcy or they are just doing it for greed. One way that the government is trying to limit the use of such practices is passing Acts like the one U.S. Congress passed in 2002 called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, this act mandated that there be stricter reforms on companies so that they can improve their financial disclosures, and preventing cooking the books and preventing accounting fraud. This Act was passed after all the early scandals in the late 1990's and early 2000's such as Enron. This act was named after their main architects, Senator Paul Sarbanes, and Representative Michael Oxley and it is used to deter and punish corporate and accounting fraud and corruption. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has eleven titles, that all have to do with the company remaining in compliance with the Act. Another way that companies use unethical practices would be embezzlement,...
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...IFRS: FASB and IASB Fair value measurements provide users of financial statements with an accurate picture of the value of a company’s assets. Both IFRS and GAAP require firms to include information regarding fair value measurement practices in the notes of financial statements. Under either system, companies will be required to report assets at either book value or fair value, depending on the situation. As a general rule of thumb, all assets in the same class must receive the same valuation treatment. In regards to the value of receivables, IRFS uses a two- tiered method that first analyzes individual receivables, and then looks at receivables as whole to determine if there is any impairment. Basic accounting and reporting issues related to recognition and measurement of receivables, allowance accounts, recording discounts, the allowance method to account for bad debt and factoring are pretty much all the same between GAAP and IFRS. However, IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) and FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) are taking steps by working to implement fair value measurement, the amount they currently could be sold for, for financial instruments. The FASB and IASB are facing opposition from various factors thus have adopted a piecemeal approach. Step one is to disclose the fair value information in the notes, and second step is the fair market option which permits companies to record some type of financial instrument at fair value in financial statements...
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...Financial Reporting Problem, Part 2 Monica Fiskerly, Christina Owenstog, and Michael Weemer ACC/290 May 13, 2014 Instructor Jackie Lelton Financial Reporting Problem, Part 2 This paper will take a closer look at Amazon.com, an American international e-commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world’s largest online bookstore but soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, videos, software, electronics, apparel, and more. The company CEO Jeff Bezzos incorporated the company in July 1994 and the site went online as Amazon.com in 1995. Current assets and liabilities provide an in-depth look at where they stand financially using balance sheets and income statements. Information on what cash equivalents are will also be included in this examination of Amazon. An explanation of why the information is important to potential creditors, investors, and employees will also be included in this analysis of Amazons financial standings. The assets listed under the Amazon’s current assets are listed in proper order because the assets are listed from most liquid asset to least liquid asset. Assets are the things a company owns. They are the resources of a company that have been acquired through transactions and have future economic value that can be measured in dollars. Assets are classified into Current and Non-Current. Current Assets are those that an entity expects to use within a year of when they were reported. Things that are current assets are cash, inventory...
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...Impact of Unethical Behavior Analysis Name ACC/291 Date Instructor Name The unethical practices & behavior in today’s business accounting often goes unchecked, because the actions directly affect management or executives, since they usually control this accounting hence the results. If someone thinks their job might be in jeopardy they may falsify thinks for these members of management. As it seems obvious, falsifying or altering business documents such as sales receipts, or tampering with reports would be considered unethical practices. According to Anonymous Employee (n.d.), "Among the most common unethical business behaviors of employees are making long-distance calls on business lines, duplicating software for use at home, falsifying the number of hours worked, or much more serious and illegal practices, such as embezzling money from the business, or falsifying business records.” (para. 1). Among those situational examples which include embezzlement of funds by an accountant from their employers for financial gain also include accountants receiving corporate pressure from their client to report false information and having unrealistic objectives and deadlines. “An accountant may decide to work for a company even though a conflict of interest may exist. If the accountant is owed money or has a significant stake in a firm, he or she may not be the ideal individual to prepare certain companies' financial statements.” (Jacobsen, 2008, para. 10). The Sarbanes-Oxley...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (Pub.L. 107–204, 116 Stat. 745, enacted July 30, 2002), also known as the 'Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act' (in the Senate) and 'Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act' (in the House) and more commonly called Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a United States federal law that set new or enhanced standards for all U.S. public company boards, management and public accounting firms. It is named after sponsors U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and U.S. Representative Michael G. Oxley (R-OH). As a result of SOX, top management must now individually certify the accuracy of financial information. In addition, penalties for fraudulent financial activity are much more severe. Also, SOX increased the independence of the outside auditors who review the accuracy of corporate financial statements, and increased the oversight role of boards of directors.[1] The bill was enacted as a reaction to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals including those affecting Enron, Tyco International, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems and WorldCom. These scandals, which cost investors billions of dollars when the share prices of affected companies collapsed, shook public confidence in the nation's securities markets. The act contains 11 titles, or sections, ranging from additional corporate board responsibilities to criminal penalties, and requires the Securities and Exchange...
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...GUIDELINES...............................................................................7 REAR YARD FENCE GUIDELINES ......................................................................................9 PLAY EQUIPMENT GUIDELINES ......................................................................................11 SATELLITE RECEIVER (DISH) GUIDELINES ..................................................................13 GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS, LANDSCAPE & MAINTENANCE GUIDELINES..........14 LIST OF RECOMMENDED PLANT SPECIES ....................................................................19 EXHIBIT A REQUEST FORM 2 CHRISTENBURY MASTER ASSOCIATION, INC. ARCHITECTURAL CONTROL COMMITTEE INTRODUCTION The Architectural Control Committee (ACC) is providing the attached Architectural Design Guidelines (“Guidelines”) in accordance with that Declaration of Covenants, Easements, Conditions and Restrictions (“Declaration”), for purposes of establishing and maintaining exterior design elements throughout Christenbury. This document should be filed with the homeowners’ copy of the Declaration received at closing. It is the responsibility of each homeowner to pass along the Declaration and Guidelines to any future buyer of their home at Christenbury. It is important to note that the Guidelines are applicable to most all future building exterior and property...
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...Jose Cando ENGL-2327 April 26, 2014 Balcones Fiction and Poetry Winners Reading Event: Natalie Diaz’s Reading of When My Brother Was an Aztec Outside the ACC Theater on April 9th, the public was greeted by tables of refreshment including fruits cheeses and crackers which was a nice surprise. Although, I had expected a packed theater, only about forty people were waiting inside. The event started at 6:30 pm when Charlotte Gullick, the chair of the creative a writing department took the stage. After promoting some of creative writing classes at ACC, she described the significance of the Balcones prizes. A teacher from the English department took the stage next to talk a little more about the Balcones prize. He pointed out that Natalie Diaz was the sixteenth winner of this prize. He described Ms. Diaz as a woman with her foot “in three different worlds.” Her childhood was spent on the Mojave reservation in the California Desert. She attended college in Virginia on a basketball scholarship, and from there she played professional basketball in Europe and Asia. After injuring her knee, she left basketball to study poetry in graduate school. Therefore, he claimed, she has a foot in the worlds of the reservation, basketball and poetry. With that, he welcomed Nathalie to the stage. Nathalie jumped into reading her poem, “When My Brother Was an Aztec.” I was shocked to hear the bitterness and resentment in her voice as she describe her brother as a nasty and careless force which...
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...Week 3 Team Reflection Nereyda Bravo, Kolton Wentworth, and Randolph Rodarte ACC/291- Principles of Accounting September 09, 2013 Stephen Wilson Week 3 Team Reflection The issuance of different stocks by corporations is a topic that we are getting a better understanding of through reading the text and studying the Wiley plus texts. Authorized stock is the amount of stock that a corporation is authorized to sell as indicated in its charter, and within that broad spectrum are many different kinds of stock that the corporation can chose to sell. Examples of those stocks are par-value stock and no-par value stock. A par value stock is capital stock that has been assigned a value per share in the corporate charter, and a no par value stock is stock that has not been given a value. Preferred stock is capital stock that has some contractual preferences over common stock. With regards to the name “preferred”, it means that the corporation gives an unsecured dividend and does not have to pay that dividend back, however preferred stockholders have to be paid dividends before common stock holders. Public corporations issue various forms of stock to meet specific internal requirements and to satisfy public demand. From initial public and secondary offerings to different classes of stock, companies access the public markets to raise funds for expansion and debt repayment, as well as to allow original investors and owners to cash out and diversify their portfolios. Each of the different...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Many occupations have the potential for unethical behavior in the workplace. The accounting profession specifically can have an enormous impact on an organization. In many cases this impact can affect other companies and even the general public. Unethical behaviors in the accounting industry are often difficult to detect. Some of the more common items include understating or not reporting liabilities, exaggerating income or other revenue, understating operating or other expenses, and exaggerating assets. These behaviors also include kickbacks, insider trading, embezzlement, and bribery. With individuals, the most common items are misuse of funds and providing misleading information on financial reports for personal gain. Many of the issues we face with the current economy are blamed on the unethical behavior in the accounting industry. Two of the most famous companies that were eventually caught and prosecuted for unethical accounting behaviors were WorldCom and Enron. The falsification of financial statements and fraudulent activity in the stock market causes thousands of public investors to lose money. During these scandals, some of the people inside the companies were earning millions of dollars at the expense of others. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 or commonly referred to as Sox is named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and the Representative Michael Oxley. Sox was introduced...
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...Weekly Reflection ACC/291 March 17, 2014 ABSTRACT Week 4 brought on the discussions of analyzing financial statements. We looked at how to use the indirect and direct methods when putting together a statement of cash flows. It was also discussed how one would use ratios and vertical and horizontal analysis in regards to deciphering financial statements. Lastly, we talked about preferred and common stocks are issued, placed as journal entries on financial statements and the paid out in dividends. With these topics we got to see why financial statements are compiled the way they are and it gave us a better understanding of how they work for a company. Each week the understanding is getting greater on financial statements. Financial statements are analyzed by corporations so that they are able to see and identify their strengths and possible weaknesses. Identifying the relationship with the balance sheet and a company’s profit and loss accounting will help in the decision making process on whether to proceed with certain things or to either change or eliminate them all together. External users of a company look at the information on financial statements to decide whether or not they want to invest or issue credit but the company also uses these statements to help make the hard decisions that management needs to build a company with staying power. Through issue of common and preferred stocks we must pace the journal entries on our statements and then we use that information...
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...Ratio Analysis Memo ACC/291: Principles of Accounting II University of Phoenix MEMORANDUM TO: Dr. Riordan, Founder and All Employees FROM: Team A DATE: August 15, 2011 SUBJECT: Ratio Analysis CC: Board of Directors Team A has completed a ratio analysis for Riordan Manufacturing. The team analyzed liquidity ratios, profitability ratios, and solvency ratios. The team also did a horizontal and vertical analysis for company’s balance sheet and the income statement. Liquidity ratios are the temporary capabilities of a business to compensate for its established requirements and unanticipated needs for cash. Suppliers and bankers are the short-term creditors who are mostly interested in liquidity ratios. The acid-test ratio, current ratio, inventory ratio, and receivables turnover are the ratios used to establish the company’s short-term capability. To determine the current ratio, divide the current assets by the current liabilities (Weygandt, Kimmel, & Kieso, 2011). Liquidity ratios reveal whether or not the company is capable of paying their debts. Riordan’s 2.09 ratios signify that for each dollar of current liabilities, Riordan has $2.09 of current assets. The current ratio of Riordan has declined slightly since 2004. Current ratio 2005 2004 $14,555,092 $14,643,456 $6,974,094 = 2.09 $6,029,696 = 2.43 The acid-test ratio is an evaluation of a business’s direct short-term liquidity. To determine...
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...In the file ACC 291 Week 5 Huffman Trucking you will find overview of the following parts: Memo Huffman Trucking Liquidity Ratios Huffman Trucking Profitability Ratios Huffman Trucking Solvency Ratios Business - Accounting ACC 291 Week 5 Huffman Trucking Project Paper Week Five Assignment Project Overview Huffman Trucking is a large organization that provides transportation of goods and services to its customers. In order to better serve these customers and to compete and stay at a high level above other suppliers, Huffman Trucking management enlisted the assistance of Team B to upgrade their companies systems to be able to create, maintain, and report on a database, which tracks the servicing of Huffman Trucking vehicles. Huffman Trucking has a number of business needs that should be met. The system should not require more than a few days of supervision to learn. It should be usable on modestly priced computer systems. Most of all, it should be simple and convenient for the users. The current system is not meeting business objectives because they are not able to tracks the servicing of the vehicles at Huffman Trucking. Huffman employees usually scan alphabeticly for vehicles . This is a fairly simple procedure if the exact name of the vechilce is available. However, many new employes may only know the few words of the vechile type. A tracked vehicle could possibly be misfiled, which requires a full stock review to find it. With the...
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..." Reflection Summary" Week 2 ACC/291 In last week readings, this is what each of my Team members learned: We stated, it was a great experience learning about the basic issues that related to accounting for intangible assets. I also gained knowledge of the differences between revenue expenditures and capital expenditures within a company's financial statements. I just realize how important these basic issues are to the companies financial status. There are many businesses that have no earned income, which will be a liability to the company. I do seem to have great knowledge on intangible assets just by listening and comprehending in the readings and class discussion. There has been so much I have learned within in the first week of class. We the class was discussing the intangible assets, it was very interesting to me and I definitely wanted to learn more and I did. We stated, he was confident and knowledgeable about intangible assets like copyrights and franchising, mainly due to fact the owner of the independent restaurant I manage for has franchised the restaurant name to a restaurant management company and he receives a large amount of revenue from the company for using the concept and name of the restaurant for the foreseeable future. And the owner also copyrighted the name so that anyone wanting to use the name of the restaurant anywhere in America must pay him to use it. Another item that was interesting to learn about was...
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...Recognizing differences Checkpoint Despite its differences, depreciation, depletion and amortization are used as a basis to allocate the historical cost of an asset over its useful life in order to conform with the idea that the earnings of the company is matched accordingly with relative expenses including the wear and tear of the assets used in production, construction, and other purposes. When is it appropriate for businesses to calculate depreciation using two different methods and why?? Valuation is the process of estimating the market value of a financial asset or liability. Valuation refers to the asset being recorded and disclosed at the current market value regardless of whether the price is above or below cost. Depreciation is the calculation of the cost of an asset over what the business determines its useful life in a rational and systematic manner. Straight line method, unites of activity method, and the declining methods are the three different methods to calculating depreciation for tangible assets. Amortization is the systematic write-off of an intangible asset that has a useful life and it is classified as an operating expense in the income statement. It will reflect on the financial statement over time. Amortization of intangible assets is similar to depreciation of plant assets and the depletion of natural resources in that is a process of cost allocation. Depletion is the process of allocating the cost of a natural resource to the period when it is...
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...ACC 291 WEEK 1 DISCUSSION QUESTION 2 To purchase this visit here: http://www.nerdypupil.com/product/acc-291-week-1-discussion-question-2/ Contact us at: nerdypupil@gmail.com ACC 291 WEEK 1 DISCUSSION QUESTION 2 How are bad debts accounted for under the direct write-off method? What are the disadvantages of this method? Home Work Hour aims to provide quality study notes and tutorials to the students of ACC 291 Week 1 Discussion Question 2 in order to ace their studies. ACC 291 WEEK 1 DISCUSSION QUESTION 2 To purchase this visit here: http://www.nerdypupil.com/product/acc-291-week-1-discussion-question-2/ Contact us at: nerdypupil@gmail.com ACC 291 WEEK 1 DISCUSSION QUESTION 2 How are bad debts accounted for under the direct write-off method? What are the disadvantages of this method? Home Work Hour aims to provide quality study notes and tutorials to the students of ACC 291 Week 1 Discussion Question 2 in order to ace their studies. ACC 291 WEEK 1 DISCUSSION QUESTION 2 To purchase this visit here: http://www.nerdypupil.com/product/acc-291-week-1-discussion-question-2/ Contact us at: nerdypupil@gmail.com ACC 291 WEEK 1 DISCUSSION QUESTION 2 How are bad debts accounted for under the direct write-off method? What are the disadvantages of this method? Home Work Hour aims to provide quality study notes and tutorials to the students of ACC 291 Week 1 Discussion Question 2 in order to ace their studies. ACC 291 WEEK 1 DISCUSSION QUESTION 2 To purchase...
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