Financial Statements
Identify the four basic financial statements.

The four basic financial statements include: the balance sheet, income statement, owners' equity and cash flows. The balance sheet is when there is a focus on the current financial strengths or weaknesses inside a firm. This gives managers, employees, investors and regulators the ability to determine what issues are impacting the company. (Ingram, 2011) ("Four Financial Statements," 2010)

The income statement is concentrating on the profits or losses that were made by a company over a specified period of time. This is designed to provide stakeholders with more precise information about: the activities of the firm and their impact on the bottom line results. When this happens, the company is providing increased amounts of transparency and clarity during the process. (Ingram, 2011) ("Four Financial Statements," 2010)

The owners' equity is looking at how effectively the company is using the funds they receive from investors. This is…...

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References

Four Financial Statements. (2010). Quick MBA. Retrieved from:  http://www.quickmba.com/accounting/fin/statements/ 

Ingram, D. (2011). The Four Primary Financial Statements. Chron. Retrieved from:  http://smallbusiness.chron.com/four-primary-financial-statements-companies-use-11294.html 

Kimmel, D. (2010). Financial Accounting. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Financial Statement Differentiation
Analysis of the Use of Four Types of Financial Statements

The four fundamental types of financial statements include the balance sheet, income statement, statement of retained earnings and statement of cash flows and each meets a very specific series of needs within a business. Investors are most interested in the risk profiles of companies they are interested in investing in more than any other information element. Creditors are most interested in the cash flow of the business, and if the current level of liabilities and payments to keep them current also allow for payments on potential new debt or investment (Bordeianu, Bordeianu, 2009). Managers often have the most intensive information requirements, as they must balance the planning, organizing, leading and controlling of a business with all available financial information. Managers also have the added responsibility of managing risk on new business ventures while mitigating the costs of existing revenue-producing…...

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References

Bordeianu, G., & Bordeianu, S. (2009). The information offered by financial statements on the company's performances. Economy Transdisciplinarity Cognition, (1), 240-244.

Caramanolis-Cotelli, B., Gardiol, L., Gibson-Asner, R., & Tuchschmid, N.S. (1999). Are investors sensitive to the quality and the disclosure of financial statements? European Finance Review, 3(2), 131-159.

Glover, J.C., Ijiri, Y., Levine, C.B., & Liang, P.J. (2005). Separating facts from forecasts in financial statements. Accounting Horizons, 19(4), 267-282.

Kneer, D.C. (1985). Just how much should a financial statement really disclose? Business Horizons, 28, 65-71.

Financial statements are produced in order to help stakeholders understand the financial condition of the entity in question. Different types of entities, however, have different reporting requirements. A self-employed individual has very different needs from a limited company, and these are different from not-for-profit organisations as well. This paper will examine some of these differences.
The first class of business is the self-employed individual. There are no reporting standards for self-employed individuals. Such individuals, when engaged in business for themselves, need only report to Her Majesty's evenue and Customs their revenues and expenses for the year. A self-employed individual has no other stakeholder besides himself/herself and Her Majesty, so there is no need for complex standardized reporting. The self-employed individual can choose what method of accounting they want to follow -- accrual or cash basis. Cash basis accounting is accepted for the self-assessment tax return, whereas it would not be for…...

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References

BDO. (2010). International financial reporting standards for not for profit entities. BDO. Retrieved April 13, 2014 from http://static.bdo.uk.com/assets/documents/2010/03/International_finanical_reporting_standards_and_not_for_profit_entities.pdf

BDO. (2011). The future of UK financial reporting. BDO. Retrieved April 13, 2014 from http://static.bdo.uk.com/assets/documents/2011/10/The_Future_of_UK_Financial_Reporting_-_Implications_for_the_financial_services_sector.pdf

HMRC.gov.uk. (2014). Self-employed. Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs. Retrieved April 13, 2014 from  http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/self-employed/

The former deducts the inventory figure from the current assets value.
In the years under consideration, both the current ratio and the quick ratio of McDonald's decreased (see table 1). In that regard, the company's ability to settle its debts in the short run seems to have been impaired within the period under consideration. It is however important to note that with a current ratio and quick ratio of more than 1, McDonald's can still comfortably settle its short-term debts or obligations were they to suddenly become due.

Asset Utilization Analysis

In seeking to analyze how effective McDonald's is in the utilization of its assets, I will take into consideration two main ratios including accounts receivable turnover ratio and the inventory turnover ratio. The accounts receivable ratio according to Baker and Powell (2009) "measures how many times a firm's accounts receivable are generated and collected during the year." As the authors further…...

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References

Baker, H.K. & Powell, G. (2009). Understanding Financial Management: A Practical Guide. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Brigham, E.F. & Houston, J.F. (2009). Fundamentals of Financial Management (12th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Mowen, M.M., Hansen, D.R. & Heitger, D.L. (2011). Cornerstones of Managerial Accounting (4th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Table 1: McDonald's Corporation's Financial Ratios

Financial Statement Fraud Report: Rite-Aid
Fraudulent financial reporting can really have unfavorable results on companies, as well as, public confidence in capital markets. This paper will examine the financial statement fraud and will also investigate the financial statement fraud that happened at Rite Aid in the beginning of the 2000's. The outcome of Rite Aid's fraud, as well as a lot of other key accounting scandals, led to the formation of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002. SOX help the increasing need to reestablish customer confidence in reporting and accounting practices. AAER No. 1579 on June 21, 2002 discloses to the public the SEC's commands to Rite Aid appropriate to their activity that is fraudulent. Rite Aid's recounted financial statements were misleading and false, and its records and books were imprecise. Rite Aid was told that they to reaffirm stated cumulative pre-tax income by a total of $2.5 billion and increasing…...

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Works Cited

Anderson, R.T. (2004). Too Good to Be True CEOs and Financial Reporting Fraud. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 51(6), 35-43.

Bell, M. (2007). What Happened to Rite Aid? . Retrieved from  http://www3.villanova.edu/.../Mike%20Bell%20-%20Rite%20Aid.doc 

Callahan, D. (2004, Janurary 13). Prescription for Disaster. Baltimore SmartCEO. Retrieved from  http://smartceo.com/files/issues/Jan%2004.pdf 

Federwisch, A. (2007, September 30). Exploring Ethical Lapses During the Rite Aid Crisis . Retrieved from  http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusarea/business/rite-aid.html

Financial Statement Fraud eport - Enron
Financial Statement Fraud eport: Enron

The Enron case made the news when investors and employees realized that the company's accounting practices were not in line with what the company was actually telling them. Eventually, the dishonest accounting practices led to the bankruptcy of the Enron corporation and the dissolution of their accounting firm, Arthur Andersen (Foerstel, 2002). That accounting firm was among the five largest in the world, but its auditing of Enron and the deceit in which it was involved became their downfall. In order to clearly understand how this happened, it is necessary to describe the case. Also looked at here are the factors that led to the fraud, what specific fraud actually occurred, and what effects it had on specific groups of individuals who were affected - both directly and indirectly - by Enron's demise. It was not just the employees or the…...

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References

Anderson, A.A. (1999). Downsizing and the Meaning of Work. Babson College Business Ethics Program.

Borger, J., & Teather, D. (2002). As Enron scandal spreads, U.S. starts to question cash for influence culture. Guardian Unlimited.

Feinberg, L. (2002). The Enron scandal: the real crime. Workers World.

Foerstel, K. (2002). Campaign finance bill finds new energy in Enron ruins. Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 60, 168-170.

Financial Statements
All publicly-traded firms are required to produce financial statements. These statements are produced according to standardized guidelines, and their production is an essential component to the efficient function of modern capital markets in the west. This paper will discuss the nature of financial accounting statements, and will provide insight into how these statements provide a benefit to different stakeholder groups, both internal and external.

The production of consistent, reliable financial statements is essential to the function of modern capital markets. Financial accounting statements, which are constructed according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, are designed to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders, both internal and external, including regulators, investors, managers, competitors and creditors. There are four major types of financial accounting statements -- the income statement, the balance sheet, the cash flow statement and the statement of changes in owner's equity (SEC.gov, n.d.).

The income statement tracks the accounting income earned by…...

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Works Cited:

SEC.gov. (no date). Beginner's guide to financial statements. Securities and Exchange Commission Retrieved April 9, 2011 from  http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/begfinstmtguide.htm

Financial Statements
Accounting is a means of keeping track of a firm's financial transactions. There are two different types of accounting, financial and managerial. Financial accounting focuses on the construction of financial statements with the intention of providing an accurate overview of the firm's financial condition. The four major financial statements are the income statement, the balance sheet, the statement of changes in owner's equity and the statement of cash flows (Singer, 2007). Each of these four serves its own purpose. The income statement and balance sheet are the main statements, but the cash flow statement is important because sometimes it is valuable and necessary to separate out the non-cash transactions from the income statement; additionally the cash transactions are broken down into different types. For shareholder's, the statement of changes in owner's equity is a valuable statement to illustrate what happened to the book value of the owner's equity over…...

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Works Cited:

SEC.gov. (2007). Beginners' guide to financial statements. Securities Exchange Commission. Retrieved April 17, 2011 from  http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/begfinstmtguide.htm 

Singer, H. (2007). Purpose of financial statements. HBS Management Consultants. Retrieved April 17, 2011 from  http://www.hbsmc.com/purpose-of-financial-statements/

I agree with Harper (2009) on this, as well. Just scratching the surface of the financial statements will not help a person who is trying to invest in a company, because, as is often said, the devil is in the details. Something can look incredibly good on the first page and simply be terrible as one digs deeper into it. There might also be issues that a company has and that do not appear on the financial statements, but that is a risk that a lot of investors are willing to take if the financials look strong enough. Without being clear on how to examine the financial statements -- as well as what really matters to an investor and what does not -- it is possible to end up losing a great deal of money.

Knowing how to analyze financial statements does not guarantee investing success, though, and that is something…...

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Bibliography

Financial Statement Analysis (2009) Accounting for Management. management.com/accounting_ratios.htmhttp://www.accountingfor

Harper, D. (2009). Financial Statements: Introduction. Investopedia.  http://www.investopedia.com/university/financialstatements/Default.asp?&viewed=1

orking capital reduction is not always a bad thing -- tightening receivables and inventory turns is often considered to be good financial policy.
In the case of Unilever, it is important to synthesize the two statements. e can see, for example, that "unusual expense" is the category most responsible for the change in working capital. At this point, it would be advisable to delve deeper into the comments in the annual report to discern the precise nature of these unusual items, as they will reveal the cause for the steady decrease in "unusual items" that has fueled the widening gulf between net income and cash flow from operations in the past five years.

I would predict that Kraft will work in the next few years to reduce costs. Their revenues have experienced steady increase, but their net income has not. They will focus their efforts on reducing the selling/general/administrative expenses. The…...

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Works Cited:

No author. (no author). Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from  http://www.fasab.gov/accepted.html 

No author. (2009). Liquidity Ratios. Investopedia. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from  http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liquidityratios.asp 

Kraft financials from MSN Moneycentral. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from  http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=KFT 

Unilever financials from MSN Moneycentral. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from  http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/statemnt.aspx?Symbol=UL

Companies use the income statement to show how successful the company is during specific time frames. Investors often want to know how much money is being brought in, they want to know that the company has enough funds to pay the operating expenses and any liabilities the company has.
Those same investors oftentimes wish to receive dividends on their shares of stock. They can ascertain whether the company has the means to do this by perusing the retained earnings statement. The retained earnings statement shows how much money the company has paid out, as well as how much the company has kept for future growth. If investors wish to buy a company that is going to be a strong growth company, then retained earnings is important because it will show that the company has the funds to do so.

A company's cash flow is a high priority to bankers, venture capitalists…...

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References

The Book ***

Weinstock, M.; (2008) Where Main Street & Wall Street cross, Hospitals & Health Networks, Vol. 82, No. 6, pg. 41

Financial statements allow investors to compare the performance of different publicly-traded companies. This is because there are specific rules that govern how each company can compile and present its statements, and these rules are enforced by the SEC. Two companies that compete in the mobile operating system and online advertising businesses are Apple and Google. This report will compare these two companies, using the financial statements for each for the 2012 fiscal year. The balance sheet will be the specific area of comparison.
For both companies, the last few years have been exceptionally profitable, and this is noted on the balance sheets of each. Both companies have had their assets and their equities increase significantly over the past few years as a result of their profits. The current assets for both companies have expanded, indicating that the operating business of each company has grown significantly. As well, the total assets of…...

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Works Cited:

MSN Moneycentral: Apple (2013). Retrieved April 9, 2013 from  http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-balance-sheet/?symbol=us%3AAAPL&stmtView=Ann 

MSN Moneycentral: Google (2013). Retrieved April 9, 2013 from  http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-balance-sheet/?symbol=us%3AGOOG&stmtView=Ann

Financial Accounting
Accounting Concepts

Financial Statements (Regulatory oversight)

The rapid failure and bankruptcy of Enron has prompted severe criticism of the nation's financial reporting and auditing systems, which are fundamental to maintaining investor confidence in U.S. capital markets; there are four areas in which the Enron failure revealed serious problems: corporate governance, the independent audit of financial statements, oversight of the accounting profession, and accounting and financial reporting issues (GAO, 2002). The financial statements are the frontline in determining a company's integrity and accountability. hen a company makes its financial statements public, then they can be scrutinized by many external entities to be used in the market.

However, before financial statements are made public, they should be examined by an external auditor. Auditing is one of the most essential functions in the entire accounting business function and mistakes made in accounting can cost an organization everything. Therefore the auditing process serves as the last…...

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Works Cited

GAO. (2002, March 5). Protecting the Public Interest. Retrieved from U.S. Government Accountability Office:  http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-02-483T 

Guilding, C., Drury, C., & Tayles, M. (2005). An empirical investigation of the importance of cost-plus pricing. Managerial Auditing Journal, 20(2), 125-137.

III. RECOMMENDATION

The financial statements of IVK should be closely examined to determine how to increase revenues while decreasing expenses. Concerning the IT Department, the new manager needs to hire a good mix of people with various skills. There will, of course need to be staff members with exceptional technical skills that can develop new technologies to keep the firm growing at the steady rate that it did a few years ago. However, the department should not be saturated with technical staff. The new manager will need to hire individuals who have a strong business sense and are experienced in the fields of accounting, finance as well as other business areas. This is necessary because the technical staff person may favor a technology that seems to be best for the company because of its capabilities, but the person with a good sense of business can evaluate the technology to determine if…...

Financial Statements: Accounting
Accounting: Financial Statements

Are the assets included under the company's assets listed in the proper order? Explain your answer.

When it comes to the listing of current assets in a balance sheet, it is their liquidity that is taken into consideration. In that regard therefore, the assets that would ordinarily be turned into cash quickly come first. Looking at the company's current assets, one would conclude that based on my explanation above, the order of listing is proper and correct. Cash (which is the most liquid current asset in this case) comes first. The other current assets follow -- in the order of their liquidity.

How are the company's assets classified?

With regard to the classification of the company's assets, we first have the current assets followed by the fixed assets. While current assets in this case include all those assets the company would ordinarily expect to convert to cash in less…...

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References

Lasher, W.R. (2013). Practical Financial Management. 7th ed. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Principles of Business Essay Topics

Ethics and Social Responsibility

The Importance of Ethical Decision-Making in Business
Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility: Balancing Profits and Planetary Health
The Role of Business in Addressing Social Issues
Whistleblower Protection and the Ethical Obligations of Employees

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Role of Innovation in Driving Business Growth
The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Characteristics and Erfolgsfaktoren
Creating an Innovative Work Environment
The Impact of Technology on Business Innovation

Leadership and Management

Effective Leadership Styles: Authoritarian, Democratic, and Laissez-faire
Motivating Employees: Theories and Best Practices
The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in Management
Managing Organizational Change: Challenges and....

The Anatomy of Fraud in Local Government: A Deeper Dive into the Anatomy of Corruption

Introduction:
Fraud in local government, a persistent and insidious problem, erodes trust and undermines the integrity of public institutions. This essay delves into the anatomy of fraud in this critical setting, exploring its multifaceted nature and proposing novel approaches to combat it.

1. The Anatomy of Fraud:

Types of Fraud:
Procurement fraud: Inflated bids, kickbacks, collusion
Financial statement fraud: Misreporting or concealing financial information
Payroll fraud: Unauthorized payments to fictitious or ineligible individuals
Motivations for Fraud:
Greed and personal enrichment
Pressure to meet financial targets
Lack of accountability....

Accounting Theory: A Reflective Essay

Introduction

Accounting theory serves as the foundation for the principles and practices that guide financial reporting. It aims to establish a common framework for understanding and interpreting accounting information. As a student of accounting, I have delved into various accounting theories, each offering unique insights and perspectives. This reflective essay explores my reflections on accounting theory, its significance, and its implications for the accounting profession.

The Role of Accounting Theory

Accounting theory provides a conceptual framework that underpins accounting practices. It establishes the principles and standards that govern the recording, classification, and reporting of financial information. By providing a....

The Wirecard Scandal: A Case Study in Corporate Fraud

In June 2020, the German fintech company Wirecard filed for insolvency, revealing a massive accounting fraud scandal that shook the global financial community. As the dust settled, it became clear that the company's financial statements had been grossly inflated, and that executives had engaged in a sophisticated scheme to deceive investors and regulators.

The Scheme

Wirecard's fraudulent scheme involved several interconnected elements. Firstly, the company created fake subsidiaries in Southeast Asia to inflate its revenue and profits. These subsidiaries had no real operations but were used to process fictitious transactions. Secondly, Wirecard used third-party....