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General Mills, Inc. A. What is the nature of General Mills business? That is, based on what you know about the company and on the accompanying financial statements, how does General Mills make money? * Nature of General Mills business is to have people eat their brands for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. * General Mills uses LIFO method for their inventory inside the US and use FIFO outside the US. * General Mills makes money through their brand (inventory) and their investments (goodwill/intangible assets), and research and development of new products

B. What financial statements are commonly prepared for external reporting purposes? What tittles does General Mills give these statements? What does “consolidated” mean? * Balance Sheet and Statement of Earnings * Consolidated Statement of Earnings and Consolidated Balance Sheets * Consolidated – combining assets, equity, liabilities and operating accounts of a parent firm and its subsidiaries into one financial statement.

C. How often do publicly traded corporations typically prepare financial statements for external reporting purposes? * They report yearly, every fiscal year in May.

D. Who is responsible for the financial statements? Discuss the potential users of General Mills financial statements and type of information they are likely interested in. * Management is responsible for financial statements. * Potential users of statements are stockholders, investors, employees, and competitors because it gives a snapshot of the company’s financial earnings. * Information they are interested in are is statement of earnings (net sales) and balance sheet (assets, liabilities, and owners’ equity) to see what the overall profitability of the company is.

E. Who are General Mills external auditors? Describe the two opinion letters that General

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