Company E is a retailer of commercial and residential plumbing products. Steven Owens, the company’s staff accountant, is in the process of making year-end adjusting entries for uncollectible accounts receivable. Recently, the company has experienced an increase in accounts that have become uncollectible. As a result, Owens believes that the company should increase the percentage used for estimating doubtful accounts from 2% to 5% of credit sales. This change will significantly increase bad debt expense, resulting in a drop in earnings for the first time ever for the company. The company president, Thomas Williams, is under considerable pressure to meet the earnings goals for the fiscal year. He suggests to Steven that this is “not the proper time” to change the estimate. He instructs Steven to keep the estimate at 2%. Steven is confident that 2% is way too low, but he follows Thomas' instructions. Evaluate the decision to use the lower percentage to improve earnings. Are Thomas and Steven acting in an ethical manner?
Bad Debts
At the end of the accounting period, a financial statement is prepared by every company, then at that time while preparing the financial statement, the company determines among its total receivable amount how much portion of receivables is collected by the company during that accounting period.
Accounts Receivable
The word “account receivable” means the payment is yet to be made for the work that is already done. Generally, each and every business sells its goods and services either in cash or in credit. So, when the goods are sold on credit account receivable arise which means the company is going to get the payment from its customer to whom the goods are sold on credit. Usually, the credit period may be for a very short period of time and in some rare cases it takes a year.
Company E is a retailer of commercial and residential plumbing products. Steven Owens, the company’s staff accountant, is in the process of making year-end
Evaluate the decision to use the lower percentage to improve earnings.
Are Thomas and Steven acting in an ethical manner?
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