EXERCISE P-4 Ethics and the Manager
Richmond, Inc., operates a chain of 44 department stores. Two years ago, the board of directors of Richmond approved a large-scale remodeling of its stores to attract a more upscale clientele.
Before finalizing these plans, two stores were remodeled as a test. Linda Perlman, assistant controller, was asked to oversee the financial reporting for these test stores, and she and other management personnel were offered bonuses based on the sales growth and profitability ofthese stores. While completing the financial reports, Perlman discovered a sizable inventory of outdated goods that should have been discounted for sale or returned to the manufacturer. She discussed the situation with her management colleagues;the consensus was to ignore reporting this inventory as obsolete because reporting it would diminish the financial results and their bonuses.
Required:
- According to the IMA’s Statement of Ethical Professional Practice, would it be ethical for Perlman not to report the inventory as obsolete?
- Would it be easy for Perlman to take the ethical action in this situation? (CMA, adapted)
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Chapter 1 Solutions
MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING W/ACCESS >IP<
- Ethics and Revenue Recognition Alan Spalding is CEO of a large appliance wholesaler. Alan is under pressure from Wall Street Analysts to meet his aggressive sales revenue growth projections. Unfortunately, near the end of the year he realizes that sales must dramatically improve if his projections are going to be met. To accomplish this objective, he orders his sales force to contact their largest customers and offer them price discounts if they buy by the end of the year. Alan also offered to deliver the merchandise to a third-party warehouse with whom the customers could arrange delivery when the merchandise was needed. Required: Do you believe that revenue from these sales should be recognized in the current year? Why or why not?arrow_forwardEthics and professional conduct in business Erin Haywood was recently hired as a cost analyst by Wind River Medical Supplies Inc. Oneof Erin’s first assignments was to perform a net present value analysis for a new warehouse.Et-in performed the analysis and calculated a present value index of 0.8. The plant manager.ZuhairBarbat, is very intent on purchasing the warehouse because he believes that more storage space is needed. Zuhair asks Erín into his office and the following conversation takes place: ZubairErín, you’re new here, aren’t you? EHii: Yes, sir. Zubair: V.dl, Erin, let me tell you something. ¡m not at all pleased with the capital investment analysis that you performed on this new warehouse. T need that warehouse for my production. If I dont get it, where am I going to place our output? Erín: Hopefully with the customer, sir. Zithair: Now don’t get smart with me. Erín: No, really. I was being serious. My analysis does not support constructing a new ware- house. The numbers don’t lie: the warehouse does not meet our investment return targets. In fact, it seems to me that purchasing a warehouse dots not add much value to the business. We need to be producing product to satisfy customer orders, not to fill a warehouse. Zubair Listen, you need to understand sonwthing. The headquarters people will not allow mv to build the warehouse if the numbers dont add up. You know as well as I that many assump tions go into your net present value analysis. Why don’t you relax some of your assumptions so that the f́nancial savings will offset the cost? Erín: I’m willing to discuss my assumptions with you. Maybe I overlooked something. Zubafr Good. Here’s what I want you to do. 1 see in your analysis tha you don’t project greater sales as a result of the warehouse. It seems to me, if we can store more goxLs, then will have more to sell. Thus, logically, a larger warehouse translates into more sales. If you incorporate this into your analysis, I think you’ll see that the numbers will work out. Why don’t you work it through and come back with a new analysis? I’m really counting on you on this one. Let’s get off to a good start together and see if we can get this project accepted. What is your advice to Erin?arrow_forwardPlease answer all requirements thank youarrow_forward
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Once I have estimated sales in units, we then need to outline a promotional campaign that conforms to our budget and that will take us where we want to be. However, to compute the targeted sales revenue, I need to know the unit sales price, the unit variable cost, and the associated fixed production and support costs. I also need to know the tax rate. b. MANAGER: We have problems with our procurement process. Our accounts payable department is spending 80 percent of its time resolving discrepancies between the purchase order, receiving order, and suppliers invoice. Incorrect part numbers on the purchase orders, incorrect quantities ordered, and wrong parts sent (or the incorrect quantity) are just a few examples of sources of discrepancies. A complete redesign of the process has been suggested, which will allow us to eliminate virtually all of the errors and, at the same time, significantly reduce the number of clerks needed in purchasing, receiving, and accounts payable. This redesign promises to significantly reduce costs, decrease lead time, and increase customer satisfaction. c. MANAGER: This overhead cost report indicates that we have spent significantly more on inspection, purchasing, and production than was budgeted. An investigation has revealed that the source of the problem is faulty components from suppliers. A supplier evaluation has revealed that by selecting five suppliers with the best quality records (out of 15 currently used), the number of defective components will be dramatically reduced, thus producing significant overhead savings by reducing the demand for inspections, reordering, and rework. d. MANAGER: A large local firm has approached me and has offered to sell us one of the components used in our small enginesa component that we are currently producing internally. I need to know costs that we would avoid if this component is purchased so that I can assess the economic merits of this offer. e. MANAGER: Currently, our deluxe lawn mower is losing money. We need to increase profits. I would like to know how much our profits would be if we reduce our variable costs by 50 per mower while maintaining our current sales volume. Also, marketing claims that if we increase advertising expenditures by 1,000,000 and cut prices by 15 percent, we can increase the number of mowers sold by 25 percent. I would like to know which approach offers the most profit, or if a combination of the approaches may be best. f. MANAGER: We are implementing a major quality improvement program. We will be increasing the investment in prevention and detection activities with the expectation of driving down both internal and external failure costs. I expect to see trend reports for all categories of quality costs. I want to see if improving quality really does reduce costs and improve profitability. g. MANAGER: Our engineering design department has proposed a new design for our product. The new design promises to reduce post-purchase costs and, as a consequence, increase market share. I need to know the cost of producing this new design because it uses some new components and requires some different manufacturing processes. I would then like to have a projected income statement based on the new market share and new production costs. The planned selling price will be the same, or maybe even 10 percent lower. Projections based on the two price scenarios would be needed. h. MANAGER: My engineers have said that by redesigning our two main production processes, we can reduce move time by 90 percent and wait time by 85 percent. This would decrease cycle time and virtually eliminate the need to carry finished goods inventories. On-time deliveries would also increase dramatically. This would produce cost savings of nearly 20,000,000 per year. Market share and revenues would also increase. Required: 1. Describe each of the four managerial responsibilities. 2. Identify the managerial activity or activities applicable for each scenario, and indicate the role of accounting information in the activity.arrow_forwardSuppose that Kicker had the following sales and cost experience (in thousands of dollars) for May of the current year and for May of the prior year: In May of the prior year, Kicker started an intensive quality program designed to enable it to build original equipment manufacture (OEM) speaker systems for a major automobile company. The program was housed in research and development. In the beginning of the current year, Kickers accounting department exercised tighter control over sales commissions, ensuring that no dubious (e.g., double) payments were made. The increased sales in the current year required additional warehouse space that Kicker rented in town. (Round ratios to four decimal places. Round sales dollars computations to the nearest dollar.) Required: 1. Calculate the contribution margin ratio for May of both years. 2. 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- Lindell Manufacturing embarked on an ambitious quality program that is centered on continual improvement. This improvement is operationalized by declining quality costs from year to year. Lindell rewards plant managers, production supervisors, and workers with bonuses ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 if their factory meets its annual quality cost goals. Len Smith, manager of Lindells Boise plant, felt obligated to do everything he could to provide this increase to his employees. Accordingly, he has decided to take the following actions during the last quarter of the year to meet the plants budgeted quality cost targets: a. Decrease inspections of the process and final product by 50% and transfer inspectors temporarily to quality training programs. Len believes this move will increase the inspectors awareness of the importance of quality; also, decreasing inspection will produce significantly less downtime and less rework. By increasing the output and decreasing the costs of internal failure, the plant can meet the budgeted reductions for internal failure costs. Also, by showing an increase in the costs of quality training, the budgeted level for prevention costs can be met. b. Delay replacing and repairing defective products until the beginning of the following year. While this may increase customer dissatisfaction somewhat, Len believes that most customers expect some inconvenience. Besides, the policy of promptly dealing with customers who are dissatisfied could be reinstated in 3 months. In the meantime, the action would significantly reduce the costs of external failure, allowing the plant to meet its budgeted target. c. Cancel scheduled worker visits to customers plants. This program, which has been very well received by customers, enables Lindell workers to see just how the machinery they make is used by the customer and also gives them first-hand information on any remaining problems with the machinery. Workers who went on previous customer site visits came back enthusiastic and committed to Lindells quality program. Lindells quality program staff believes that these visits will reduce defects during the following year. Required: 1. Evaluate Lens ethical behavior. In this evaluation, consider his concern for his employees. Was he justified in taking the actions described? If not, what should he have done? 2. Assume that the company views Lens behavior as undesirable. What can the company do to discourage it? 3. Assume that Len is a CMA and a member of the IMA. Refer to the ethical code for management accountants in Chapter 1. Were any of these ethical standards violated?arrow_forwardThe Home Depot is a leading specialty retailer of hardware and home improvement products and is the second-largest retail store chain in the United States. It operates large warehouse-style stores. Despite declining sales and difficult economic conditions in 20X1 and 20X2, The Home Depot continued to invest in new stores. The following table provides summary hypothetical data for The Home Depot. REQUIRED a. Use the preceding data for The Home Depot to compute average revenues per store, capital spending per new store, and ending inventory per store in 20X2. b. Assume that The Home Depot will add 100 new stores by the end of Year +1. Use the data from 20X2 to project Year +1 sales revenues, capital spending, and ending inventory. Assume that each new store will be open for business for an average of one-half year in Year +1. For simplicity, assume that in Year +1, Home Depots sales revenues will grow, but only because it will open new stores.arrow_forwardThe three divisions of Yummy Foods are Snack Goods, Cereal, and Frozen Foods. The divisions are structured as investment centers. The following responsibility reports were prepared for the three divisions for the prior year: a. Which division is making the best use of invested assets and should be given priority for future capital investments? b. b. Assuming that the minimum acceptable return on new projects is 19%, would all investments that produce a return in excess of 19% be accepted by the divisions? Explain. c. c. Identify opportunities for improving the companys financial performance.arrow_forward
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