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?
no aAI use
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.
An accounting scandal at British retailer Tesco in 2014 led to fraud charges being filed against three former employees. At the time of the fraud, Tesco suspended eight managers thought to be involved in a scheme to book revenues early and delay reporting of expenses. Such a practice would lead to overstating profits and making company performance look better than it actually was. Although criminal charges have been filed, the company did not believe that the managers benefited personally. Some managers resigned before the scandal broke feeling "...'compromised' as a financial professional." Others were "too scared to speak out because they're worried about losing their jobs and paying their mortgages." Tesco paid a fine of $162 million and compensation to shareholders as a result of the activities. In the case of Tesco, managers made choices about the timing of revenues and expenses that led to fraud charges. In order to avoid that, perhaps accountants should always assume the…
The net realizable value of Lake Corporation’s inventory has declined below its cost.Allyn Conan, the controller, wants to use the loss method to write down inventory because itmore clearly discloses the decline in the net realizable value and does not distort the cost ofgoods sold. His supervisor, financial vice president Bill Ortiz, prefers the cost-of-goods-soldmethod to write down inventory because it does not call attention to the decline in net realizablevalue.Instructions Answer the following questions:(a) What, if any, is the ethical issue involved?(b) Is any stakeholder harmed if Bill Ortiz’s preference is used?(c) What should Allyn Conan do?
A former chairman, CFO, and controller of Donnkenny, Inc., an appeal company that makes sportswear for Pierre Cardin and Victoria Jones, please get guilty to financial statement fraud. These manager used false journal entries to record fictitious sales, head inventory and public warehouses so that it could be recorded as sold and required sales orders to be backdated so that the sale could be moved to an earlier period.the combined effect of these actions caused 25 million out of 40 million and quarterly sales to be phony. A. Why might control procedures listed in this chapter be insufficient in stopping this type of fraud? B.Would an audit committee made up of representatives from Senior Management be effective in stopping this type of fraud?
The net realizable value of Lake Corporation’s inventory has declined below its cost. Allyn Conan, the controller, wants to use the loss method to write down inventory because it more clearly discloses the decline in the net realizable value and does not distort the cost of goods sold. His supervisor, financial vice president Bill Ortiz, prefers the costof-goods-sold method to write down inventory because it does not call attention to the decline in net realizable value.InstructionsAnswer the following questions.(a) What, if any, is the ethical issue involved?(b) Is any stakeholder harmed if Bill Ortiz’s preference is used?(c) What should Allyn Conan do?
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.
An accounting intern for a local CPA firm was reviewing the financial statements of a client in the electronics industry. The intern noticed that the client used the FIFO method of determining ending inventory and cost of goods sold. When she asked a colleague why the firm used FIFO instead of LIFO, she was told that the client used FIFO to minimize its income tax liability. This response puzzled the intern because she thought that LIFO would minimize income tax liability. Required: What would you tell the intern to resolve the confusion?
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.
As the controller of Take No Prisoners Perfume Company, you discover a misstatement that overstated net income in the prior year’s financial statements. The misleading financial statements appear in the company’s annual report, which was issued to banks and other creditors less than a month ago. After much thought about the consequences of telling the president, Jeb Wilde, about this misstatement, you gather your courage to inform him. Jeb says, “Hey! What they don’t know won’t hurt them. But, just so we set the record straight, we’ll adjust this year’s financial statements for last year’s misstatement. We can absorb that misstatement better in this year than in last year anyway! Just don’t make such a mistake again.” Instructions Who are the stakeholders in this situation? What are the ethical issues in this situation? What would you do as a controller in this situation?