This is the 2nd of five projects you will write to incorporate course concepts with information found within your corporation’s SEC10K report. Focus on telling a story about your corporation and its financial performance and position.

SCENARIO: You are a new hire for a major corporation completing your eight-week rotation relating to accounting, financial reporting, budgeting, cost control, and profit maximization. As part of your rotation you are learning how accounting information is used by managers throughout the organization to make managerial decisions. This report will address the below topics, providing senior management a report introducing, explaining, and providing analysis of the financial reports. Assume senior management does not understand basic accounting concepts and unable to read and interpret the reports without your assistance. Incorporate and explain accounting concepts learned within the course material (readings and discussions) and provide financial analysis as completed within the SEC10K discussion posts.

REQUIREMENT: Prepare a report for your chosen corporation’s senior managers to interpret and explain the SEC10K financial reports. The report should be one to two full in pages in length: single spaced, 12 pt. font, one-inch margins, and in your own words. Make note of the grading rubric which requires you to address project questions, display critical thinking, analysis, research, application of course concepts, write in your own words, and demonstrate a high degree of effective communication (i.e., formal business writing with proper grammar and punctuation).

The following are concepts you should consider for discussion within your report:

• Accounts Receivable:
Your SEC 10-K company should have accounts receivable and inventory, both typically large dollar values within the balance sheet.
• Who owes money to your SEC 10-K company?
• How is the inventory described?
For these questions read the Notes to the Financial Statements presented immediately after the financial statements. This is usually part of section 8 of the SEC 10-K.

• Analysis of Accounts Receivable and Inventory:
Using the resources of our course materials calculate and consider the concept of the financial ratios: days sales in Accounts Receivable (AR) and Inventory. Due to limited information presented within the report, use the ending balances of inventory and accounts receivable when calculating these ratios (and not the average balance as the formulas require). This should allow you to compare this year to last year. Some companies require and analyze these values each month.

Formulas:
Days Sales in A/R = Ending Balance in Accounts Receivable/ [Sales Revenues / 365]

Days’ Sales in Inventory = Ending Inventory Balance/[Cost of Goods Sold / 365]

Calculating ratios is only the first step in the analysis process, the ratios results need interpretation.
• What do the result indicate about the financial performance?
• Consider how these values are changing. Interpret these changes as positive or negative for the corporation. What can be done to counteract negative trends, or continue with positive trends? What actions do you recommend management take?
• Also, relate changes in revenues and cost of goods sold values to changes in accounts receivable and inventory from year to year. Do the changes in revenues and cost of goods sold agree with the changes in accounts receivable and inventory?

ACCT 301 – Weekly Homework
The primary reading material source is http://www.principlesofaccounting.com/
(For additional information, use the OpenStax textbook available within LEO as a secondary resource.)
SCENARIO: You are a new hire for a major corporation completing your eight-week rotation related to accounting, financial reporting, budgeting, cost control, and profit maximization. As part of your rotation you are learning about the accounting process and how to use accounting information to make managerial decisions.
Read the assigned chapters to learn the accounting concepts, then submit a written report in the LEO assignment folder summarizing your knowledge of the week’s concepts. You should create this report to provide documentation/evidence of your assigned chapter readings and self-assessment exercises (Fill in the Blanks, and Multiple Choice questions at end of each chapter). (A series of projects focused on your SEC10K corporation will be completed and submitted separately.)