...ACC 557 Week 3 Assignment 1 Assignment 1: Review of Accounting Ethics Due Week 3 and worth 200 points Many organizations have been in the news over the past few years due to accounting ethical breaches that have affected their customers, employees, or the general public. Search the Internet or the Strayer Library to locate a story in the news that depicts an accounting ethical breach. You may select from any type of organization about which you have information or a curiosity. Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you: 1. Given the corporate ethical breaches in recent times, assess whether or not you believe that the current business and regulatory environment is more conducive to ethical behavior. Provide support for your answer. 2. Based on your research, describe the organization, the accounting ethical breach and the impact to the organization related to ethical breach. 3. Determine how the organizational ethical issue was detected and how management failed to create an ethical environment. 4. Analyze the accounts impacted and / or accounting guidelines violated and the resulting impact to the business operation. 5. As a CFO, recommend which measures could have been taken to prevent this ethical breach and how each measure should be implemented in the future. 6. Use at least four (4) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources. The specific course...
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...losses. Possibly the company could request the shareholders to buy off the loan by injecting more capital, or issue equity to the financiers. These decisions would need to be weighed carefully before a conclusion is reached. The investors’ confidence has waned over the past few years, with the stock price hitting an all time low. Directors and management need to move in to protect shareholders investments. A strategy change is required to turn around the company, more so during this volatile period. Accounting policies. The company prepares its financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, from which the local Companies Act heavily borrows. Therefore the company is in compliance with both the IFRS and the Kenya Companies Act. The company applies historical cost basis of accounting, except for some fair value instruments, which are revalued at the balance sheet date. Historical costs basis is the generally accepted and used basis of accounting across most companies. It’s easy to apply and eliminates ambiguity. Revenue is recognized upon delivery of the products, and...
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...Assignment 1: Review of accounting ethics 1 Assignment 1: Review of Accounting Ethics By February 1, 2013 ACC 557: Financial Accounting Oleksii Morgun Strayer University at Arlington Campus School of Business Administration (M.S. Accounting Program) Assignment 1: Review of Accounting Ethics 2 Abstract This research writing is to describe the following: 1. Given the corporate ethical breaches in recent times, assess whether or not you believe that the current business and regulatory environment is more conductive to ethical behavior. 2. Based on research, describe organization, the accounting ethical breach and the impact to the organization related to ethical breach. 3. Determine how the organizational ethical issue was detected and how management failed to create ethical environment. 4. Analyze the accounts impacted and/or accounting guidelines violated and the resulting impact to the business operation. 5. As a CFO, recommend which measures could have been taken to prevent this ethical breach and how each measure should be implemented in future. Assignment 1: Review of Accounting Ethics 3 Before the Enron and Andersen scandals, relatively little public attention was paid to the truthfulness of financial reporting. Of course, no one believed every...
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...Securities and Exchange Commission- protects investors and maintains integrity of the securities market- Oversees FASB and PCAOB FASB- Financial Accounting Standards Board- sets GAAP PCAOB- (public company oversight board) - sets auditing standards for CPA's Management of a company has responsibility for financial statements and related disclosures Board of Directors (audit committee) is responsible for ensuring that processes are in place for maintaining the integrity of the company's accounting, financial statement prep, and financial reporting Independent Auditors (CPA's) present Unqualified (clean) Audits Unqualified/Clean Audit- attests to the fairness of financial statements and related disclosures Institutional Investors- private and public pension funds, mutual funds, endowment and charitable funds, and trust funds Private Investors- individuals who purchase shares in the company Creditors- suppliers and financial institutions that lend money or supplies to the company Other Users of financial info include customers, suppliers, competitors, and employees. Each User evaluates the financial health of companies Guiding Principles for Communicating Useful Information: Information must be- Relevant - Reliable Consistent - Comparable All material amounts must be disclosed Conservatism Accounting Method is least likely to overstate Assets and Net Income Form 10-K Annual Report- includes detailed descriptions of products, development, sales...
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...Directions In Part I, next to each item listed, you will identify which statement the item would appear. You will need to determine whether it would appear on the income statement (I), balance sheet (B), or statement of cash flows (CF). Then, for each group, explain the difference among the items listed. Finally, in Part II, discuss the relationship between the three financial statements. Part I Set 1: ____B_ Inventory, ending balance ___I__ Cost of goods (inventory) sold during the period __B___ Cash paid to suppliers during the period __B___ Accounts payable, ending balance Difference: Accounts payable is purchases on credit, Inventory ending balance is amount of stock at end of year, cost of goods sold is an expense, cash paid to suppliers is cash flow Set 2: ___B__ Accounts receivable, ending balance ___B__ Cash received from customers ____I_ Sales Difference: Accounts receivable is money owed to a company by its debtors, cash received is cash flow Set 3: ___I__ Wage expense for the period __B__ Wages payable, ending balance _B____ Cash paid for wages during the period Difference: Wage expense is compensation earned by employees, wages payable is money not yet earned for work already completed. Set 4: ___B__ Property, plant, and equipment, ending balance __CF__ Cash paid for property, plant, and equipment during the period ___B__ Cash received from selling property, plant, and equipment during the period ____I_ Depreciation expense during...
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...Touro University International ACC403 Principles of Accounting Module 1 Case Assignment Dr. Paul Watkins Introduction, Review of Accounting Process and Financial Statements According to about.com (http://about.com), Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) refers to a set of extensively customary bookkeeping principles, established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) (http://www.fasb.org/), and used to regulate fiscal accounting of public corporations. The FASB was formed in 1973, replacing the Accounting Principles Board and the Committee on Accounting Procedure of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants before it. The FASB is a private body whose operation is to “institute and advance values of economic accounting and reporting for the supervision and instruction of the public, the FASB circulate GAAP. GAAP is important in accounting because it is the set standard for companies to follow. In its simplest terms, current assets are what you own and liabilities are what you owe. Current assets are those assets that can readily be converted to cash. Bank accounts are of course most readily convertible, but any assets that can be converted to cash within a short time are current assets. Current liabilities are those liabilities which have to be paid off within a short time. Equity is what is left over. It is your net worth. Non-current items are broken down into two categories non current assets and non-current...
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...| Assignment 1: Review of Accounting Ethics | | | | Assignment 1: Review of Accounting Ethics | | | Doing the right thing matters. Every day, workers make decisions that are vital to a company’s success. How those decisions are made is just as important as the decisions themselves. In every company there are shareholders, consumers, business partners, and employees who have placed their trust in workers to act sincerely, rationally, and in accordance with the utmost ethical and legal standards. Albert Einstein once said that “relativity apples to physics, not ethics.” I perceive this to mean that there should never be a relative situation when it comes to ethics; there is a right and wrong choice. We as human beings need to ensure that we remain exactly that, human beings. Unfortunately, the world is not perfect. There are criminals, liars, cheaters, and scammers who hide in plain sight everywhere we go. Less than 15 years ago, there was a time where multiple financial scandals had been reported taking place in very successful companies, including Enron, WorldCom, AIG, and others (Weygandt, Kimmel, Kieso, 2012, p. 7). The number and magnitude of these scandals resulted in great suspicion of financial reporting, which proved to be detrimental to a company’s success. In my opinion, the most memorable scandal to have taken place in the business world during that time was Enron. During its existence, Enron was an American energy company based in Houston...
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...Review of Accounting Ethics - Week 3 Alessio Brasile Strayer University Financial Accounting ACC-557 Dr. A. Golding April 28, 2013 Review of Accounting Ethics - Week 3 Given the corporate ethical breaches in recent times, assess whether or not you believe that the current business and regulatory environment is more conducive to ethical behavior: In the past several years, Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and others have committed financial scandals, which caused the stock market to take a hard hit. Investors and lenders learned from these scandals in the past, and just recently, have become hesitant to invest in any company that they think, or know for a fact, the company is corrupted and/or unethical. “United States regulators and lawmakers were very concerned that the economy would suffer if investors lost confidence in corporate accounting because of unethical financial reporting. In response, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX, or Sarbox)” (Weygandt, Kimmel, & Kieso, 2012, p. 7). SOX is in place to minimize unethical conduct in corporations and ultimately, scandals. “As a result of SOX, top management must now certify the accuracy of financial information. In addition, penalties for fraudulent financial activity are much more severe” (Weygandt et al., 2012, p. 7). With these standard rules and regulations in place, corporations are less likely to commit any fraudulent activity because there is more scrutiny from lawmakers. Also, corporations have a better chance...
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...Running head: Review of Accounting Ethics 1 Review of Accounting Ethics Cynthia Harley Dr. Julie Hamm Acc 557 5/1/2014 Review of Accounting Ethics The WorldCom Scandal Vikalpa: The Journal For Decision Makers provides us with the following excerpt from WorldCom’s 2002 press release: CLINTON, Miss., June 25, 2002 –- WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq: WCOM, MCIT) today announced that it intends to restate its financial statements for 2001 and the first quarter of 2002. As a result of an internal audit of the company’s capital expenditure accounting, it was determined that certain transfers from line cost expenses to capital accounts during this period were not made in accordance 2 with the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The amount of these transfers was $3.055 billion for 2001 and $797 million for the first quarter of 2002. Without these transfers, the company’s reported EBITDA would be reduced to $6.339 billion for 2001 and $1.368 billion for the first quarter of 2002, and the company would have reported a net loss for 2001 and for the first quarter of 2002 (Pandey & Verma, 2004, p. 113). This information came at a time where the company had reached an all time high in the industry, second only to AT&T. The company originally started out as a small provider of long distance telephone service in Mississippi under the name LDDS and later changed its name to WorldCom. During the 1990’s the company took on an aggressive acquisition strategy acquiring the likes...
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...Review of Accounting Ethics Dr. ACC 557: Financial Accounting May 22, 2013 Table of Contents 1.0 Corporate ethical breaches in recent times. 3 2.0 Accounting ethical breaches and their impacts 3 2.1 The Scandal of Enron 3 3.0 Organizational ethical issues and the management failure 5 4.0 Breach of the accounting practices and its impacts 5 5.0 Recommendations by the CFO 6 6.0 References 8 1.0 Corporate ethical breaches in recent times. Ethics is an important aspect of business in today’s enironment. Sometimes management ignores or leaves to state laws to govern the code of ethics within a company. Companies have faced a lot of issues regarding ethical situations in modern times. According to Baker (2012) contrary to the popular belief of the recent global financial crisis resulting from failures of accounting ethics, he argues that there is not enough evidence to support this connection. 2.0 Accounting ethical breaches and its impacts Breaches of the accounting ethical policies have become a source of concern for the firms today. The proper application of IFRS and GAAP standards is vital for each firm. In recent years as more scandals have come into the spotlight firms have taken more and more internal measures in addition to the policy making at the governmental level to ensure breach of consumers’ trust and laws does not take place in the future. There has been a tremendous increase in the interest in accounting ethics (Cowton, 2013). 2.1 The Scandal of Enron...
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...Review of Accounting Ethics Ileana M. Castro Dr. Mohammad Sumadi ACC557-Financial Accounting Establishing principles for ethical behavior frequently starts with a policy on ethics. Businesses acquire a policy on ethics to guide their measures and to set up a general meaning of correct versus incorrect. According to the American Library Association, code of ethics is a handbook for suitable behavior (2012). Given the corporate ethical breaches in recent times, assess whether or not you believe that the current business and regulatory environment is more conducive to ethical behavior. Provide support for your answer Existing businesses and regulatory environment is more conductive behavior because some companies and managers feel as though they can get away with it. The unpredictable increase and collapse of the Enron Company set off a long-burning fire under the American social conscience. From every crevasse and corner, voices rose demanding increased accountability, demanding tighter regulation, and demanding that the unethical be brought to justice. Clearly, in such estimation, those at fault should have been punished. In order for ethical principles to apply to such industries, it must be shown that they are inherently moral or ethically responsible institutions. Secondly, an adequate discussion of what business ethics is just be provided before we can truly investigate why the situation does not...
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...inform us of the organisation you intend to study. We will not let 2 groups study the same organisation. The presentations will take place in week starting Monday 31st March. The presentation will be 10 minutes long, and everyone must speak. They will be in our normal rooms at normal class times. If the sessions are not long enough for all the groups that we have, we may have to move you to another time. This is likely to be a Wednesday morning. The presentation will be as follows; Choose an organisation of which you have some knowledge, or in which you are interested. Explain how management accounting can supply information to assist the management of the organisation. That’s it! Well of course there’s more to it than that. The organisation you choose should be a real one. You are not required to investigate and report on the organisation’s actual management accounting system (even if you can find out). Your presentation should have a number of stages and these will determine the work you have to do to prepare. 1 Background to the company –...
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...CHAPTER 1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING I. Introduction As professionals, CPAs perform an essential role in society. They are responsible to all those who use their professional services. They also have a continuing responsibility to improve the art of accounting, maintain the public’s confidence, and carry out the profession’s special responsibilities for self-governance. However, the role of a CPA in helping businesses come up with a good and effective decision-making is said to be one of the important responsibilities of a CPA. The many traditional roles of a CPA in assisting businesses take on even greater importance in a volatile economic environment. CPAs are relied upon so much because of not only their keen analytical and decision-making skills but also their objectivity, integrity and dedication to service. Many CPAs provide services well beyond accounting, auditing and reporting. The consumer often expects a CPA to be proficient at many specializations, even those just indirectly related to the traditional role of an accountant. The CPA's role has been quickly expanding, and one leading CPA proposed that the term CPA more appropriately stand for Certified Professional Advisor. (www.picpa.org) A CPA is much more than its definition of Certified Public Accountant. The term certified refers to the licensing to carry on business as a CPA and meeting the standards as promulgated by the American Institute of CPAs and the various state societies...
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...ACCOUNTING REVIEW NOTES Chapter 13 Corporations: Organization and Share Capital Transactions Page 688 Questions and Answers 1. Corporations can be classified in different ways. For example, they may be classified by purpose (e.g., profit, not-for-profit, or income trust) or by ownership (e.g., public or private). Explain the difference between each of these types of classifications. Ans. Corporations can be classified: • By Purpose -Profit: such as Tim Hortons’ -Not-For-Profit: such as Canadian Cancer Society -Income Trust: such as Yellow Pages • By Ownership -Publicly Held Corporation: –may have thousand of shareholders. -shares exchanged in TSX -e.g. Sears, Bombardier -Privately Held Corporation:-few shareholders -shares are not sold to the public -e.g. McCain Foods 2. Pat Kabza, a student, ask for your help in understanding the following characteristics of a corporation: (a) limited liability of shareholders, (b) transferable ownership rights, and (c) ability to acquire capital. Explain how these characteristics work together to create a significant advantage for the corporate form of organization. Ans. (a) Limited liability of shareholders: liability is limited to the amount invested on the corporation...
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...Compliance Program / Annual Procedure Review Rule 206(4)-7 of the Investment Advisers Act creates a fiduciary responsibility for investment advisers to review annually their policies and procedures to determine their adequacy and the effectiveness of their implementation. As part of this review, all policies, procedures and responsibilities of an adviser must be reviewed, and the findings documented. The review should consider all factors that might suggest a need to revise the policies and procedures including any compliance matters that occurred during the year, any changes in the adviser’s or its affiliates business activities, or changes to applicable regulations. Reviews should be conducted by independent individuals (e.g., the department manager) not immediately responsible for implementation of a particular procedure. An overall review and approval of the adviser’s policies and procedures should be completed by the Chief Compliance Officer and should be submitted to the adviser’s Management Committee or Executive Officers for Final Action. |Procedure | |Summary & |Recommended |Reviewer & | |Completion Date & | |Reviewed |Findings |Conclusions |Change/Update |Date of Review |Review by CCO |Final Actions ...
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