When the shareholders of Ann Taylor Stores, a national retailer of upscale women's clothing, brought suit against company management, the company was accused of misleading investors by hiding the fact that it had accumulated huge amounts of excessive and overvalued inventory. Although the company reported disappointing results, surprising Wall Street, management denied any wrongdoing. The financial press often reports incidents where management uses inventory accounting to manipulate earnings. What are the important topics and considerations related to inventory accounting?

When the shareholders of Ann Taylor Stores, a national retailer of upscale women's clothing, brought suit against company management, the company was accused of misleading investors by hiding the fact that it had accumulated huge amounts of excessive and overvalued inventory. Although the company reported disappointing results, surprising Wall Street, management denied any wrongdoing. The financial press often reports incidents where management uses inventory accounting to manipulate earnings. What are the important topics and considerations related to inventory accounting?

Auditing: A Risk Based-Approach (MindTap Course List)

11th Edition

ISBN:9781337619455

Author:Karla M Johnstone, Audrey A. Gramling, Larry E. Rittenberg

Publisher:Karla M Johnstone, Audrey A. Gramling, Larry E. Rittenberg

Chapter11: Auditing Inventory, Goods And Services, And Accounts Payable: The Acquisition And Payment Cycle

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 28CYBK

See similar textbooks

Similar questions

I need help with this question
When the shareholders of Ann Taylor Stores, a national retailer of upscale women's clothing, brought suit against company management, the company was accused of misleading investors by hiding the fact that it had accumulated huge amounts of excessive and overvalued inventory. Although the company reported disappointing results, surprising Wall Street, management denied any wrongdoing. The financial press often reports incidents where management uses inventory accounting to manipulate earnings. What are the important topics and considerations related to inventory accounting?
Which of the following is an example of fraudulent financial reporting? a. The treasurer diverts customer payments to his personal due, concealing his actions by debiting an expense account, thus overstating expenses. O b. An employee steals inventory and the "shrinkage" is recorded in cost of goods sold. O c. Company management changes inventory count tags and overstates ending inventory, while understating cost of goods sold. O d. An employee steals small tools from the company and neglects to return them; the cost is reported as a miscellaneous operating expense.
1. (Political Motivations for Policies) Ever since the unethical actions of some employees of Enron Corp. first came to light, ethics in accounting has been in the news with increasing frequency. The unethical actions of the employees essentially involved their selection of certain accounting policies for the company. In many instances, GAAP does allow firms some flexibility in their choice of legitimate accounting policies. This is true, for example, in choosing an inventory cost formula. However, the company's choice of policies may ultimately be influenced by several specific factors. Instructions State three of these factors and explain why each of them may influence an accounting policy choice.
A retail company's internal audit has revealed that the current stock management system is inefficient, leading to frequent stockouts and overstocking. What should be the auditor's recommendation? OA. Dismiss the current stock management team. O B. Recommend reducing the product range to simplify stock management. ○ C. Suggest a review and overhaul of the stock management system to improve efficiency. ○ D. Advise the company to ignore the issue as it is common in the retail industry.
Commercial Crimes Survey indicated that most of the times, the major commercial crimes are committed by the upper management especially the CEO and/or CFO. (a) Why do senior management overstate or understate business performance? Elaborate your answer. (b) Explain common ways in which business performance can be manipulated through financial statement fraud. Elaborate your answer.
You read that there is no generally accepted definition of ‘earnings management’. Using your accounting knowledge, your own research and textbook reading to define, describe, and analyze: When will earnings management be acceptable? When will earnings management become a fraud? Fraudulent earnings management is often identified by two adjectives. What are the two adjectives? How should each of the two adjectives be defined in the context of this week’s lessons on ‘financial reporting fraud’? Include a biblical application in your analysis.
Barber Technologies designs and develops software to be used for the management of inventory by both retailers and manufacturing firms. Over the past three years, the company has experienced significant competition and a declining market resulting in a significant deficit in retained earnings. In response to this condition, you have suggested that management consider the following: a. Recognize all asset impairments.b. Restructure the long-term debt by committing to make future payments that are less than the basis of the original debt.c. Adjust the par value of common stock to eliminate the deficit in retained earnings. Discuss how the above actions will likely affect: 1. The current ratio, debt-to-equity ratio, and return on equity. 2. The determination of net income in subsequent periods.
So, owner of a trading company engaged your services as auditor. There is a discrepancy between the company’s income and the sales volume. The owner suspects that the staff is committing theft. You are to determine whether or not this is true. Your investigation revealed the following: The physical taken on December 31, 2018 under your observation showed that cost was P26,500. The inventory on January 1, 2018 showed cost of P39,000. The accounts receivable as of January 1, 2018 were P13,500. During 2018, accounts receivable written off amounted to P1,000. Accounts receivable as of December 31, 2018 were P37,500. Outstanding purchase invoices amounted to P30,000 at the end of 2018. At the beginning of 2018, they were P37,500. Receipts from customers during 2018 amounted to P300,000. Disbursement to merchandise creditors amounted to P200,000. The average gross profit rate was 40% of net sales. Required: Total Sales Total Purchases Inventory Shortage
What are operations people’s primary complaints against the accounting procedures used in most firms? Explain how such procedures can cause poor decisions for the total company.
The SEC is trying to get companies to notify the investment community more quickly when a "material change" will affect their forthcoming financial results. In what sense might a financial manager be seen as "more ethical" if he or she follows this directive and issues a press release indicating that sales will not be as high as previously anticipated? A manager at a "Check Into Cash" business (see Focus on Ethics box on page 192) defends his business practice as simply "charging what the market will bear." "After all," says the manager, "we don't force people to come in the door." How would you respond to this ethical defense of the payday-advance business? Bond rating agencies have invested significant sums of money in an effort to determine which quantitative and nonquantitative factors best predict bond defaults. Furthermore, some of the raters invest time and money to meet privately with corporate personnel to get nonpublic information that is used in assigning the issue's bond…
Kim Company, a CPA firm, conducted an audit for the 2020 financial statements of Erin Corporation. The auditors found that the accounting manager changed the journal entry for estimating bad debt expense to a smaller number to hide the poor results from extending credit to high risk customers. This made income materially higher than it otherwise would have been. This is an example of: Embezzlement Employee fraud Larceny Management fraud O None of the above