...Finance and Accounting Industry By Cheryl Yeager June 15, 2012 Saint Leo University MBA 525 Dr. Craig Winstead The Finance and Accounting Industry is a very broad and integrated program that prepares individuals to function as accountants and financial managers and various types of analysts. This industry encompasses banking, financial advisors, A few major players: http://www.fins.com/Finance/Articles/SB128448692525537761/Finance-Firms-Top-100-Best-Companies-List “Statistics from official reporting agencies, such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Institute for Certified Practicing Accountants (ICPA), continue to reveal a robust future for job seekers in finance and accounting and the companies willing to hire them, despite an unemployment rate that's still hovering around 9 percent (White, 2011, para. 1).” There are typically a vast amount of finance and accounting jobs available, but hiring officials find it difficult to match skills with job requirements. The typical educational requirements for finance and accounting vary according to the type of job the applicant is seeking. Ever job does not require continuing educations, but the more specialized the job becomes means having additional education. A great example of this would be the Government sector. The requirements to be hired and promoted within the finance arena did not require a degree for accountants, budget analyst, or financial managers. As jobs have become increasingly...
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...generates from its Finance and Accounting departments. All of the plant locations have different kinds of Finance and accounting systems, which may be the main reason Riordan Manufacturing has a hard time maintaining the data received. The company’s three operating locations each have their own Finance and Accounting systems. The plant in Pontiac, Michigan and the plant in Albany, Georgia feed data to the corporate headquarters in San Jose, California. Riordan Manufacturing also has a joint venture in Hangzhou, China. Although there is no mention of China’s data output on the company’s Intranet site, the company has facilities there that manufactures plastic fan parts. There should be data coming from that headquarters must there but the status of the Finance and Accounting system used in China is currently unknown. Corporate headquarters currently has a license for an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that is fully integrated and Windows based. It is designed specifically for plastics processing and assembly manufacturers. The ERP software has a financial management application included, along with manufacturing and distribution applications. The license the San Jose location has is from proprietary software, so it does not include the source code. Because the software does not come with a source code there is no way to modify the software for customization purposes. When Riordan Manufacturing acquired the plant Michigan, the facility’s Financial and Accounting system was...
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...CHAPTER ONE 1.0 INTRODUCTION Accounting software packages have become common place for many organizations in recording business transactions, preparing financial statements and analyzing operations. Accounting software has freed accountants from the manual recording and presentation of financial data. By using accounting software, financial transactions would be recorded more quickly and accurately at a relatively low cost. Moreover, accounting software packages increased overall operational effectiveness by improving both the quantity and quality of management information available (Collins, 1999; Fisher and Fisher, 2001; and Abu-Musa, 2004). Years ago, when personal computers were just coming into their own, accounting software was relatively simple. Its single function was to automate the task of double-entry accounting and produce a straightforward balance sheet. As computers became more robust and integrated databases standardized, accounting software developers added more functions-including cost accounting, manufacturing resource planning, customer resource management, human resources, and payroll (Jones, 2002). Mattingly (2001) stated that choosing the right accounting software is becoming more difficult as the software market becomes increasingly fragmented. In many cases, more product information makes decision-making more difficult rather than less. The risks of leaping into an expensive purchase decision are hard to assess. Collins (1999) also confirmed...
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...Introduction to Accounting and Finance - Guidelines for Costing data Note: If you have already produced costing information for your assignment – just use this document to check that your costs are realistic in relation to your selling price. These guidelines are optional and intentionally very general. Marginal Costing Statement / Income Statement On average, the Cost of Sales for footwear is 58-62% of the sales figure. Cost of sales is the best estimate of variable cost, as this will include direct materials, direct labour and any direct overheads. If cost of sales is 58-62% of sales, then gross profit margin (gross profit as a percentage of sales) will be 38-42%. The net profit margin (net profit as a percentage of sales) for footwear is anything between 17% and 20%. The difference between gross profit margin and net profit margin will be a good estimate of fixed costs. (Remember to include depreciation in your fixed costs.) Other useful statistics: Direct materials is usually approximately 43-45% of sales figure Direct labour is usually approximately 15-17% of sales figure More about the Income Statement.. Cost of Sales: There are two options: 1. Use a simplified (trading) Cost of Sales which is just materials: Cost of Sales = opening inventory (which will be zero) + purchases – closing inventory I recommend you use Option 1 if you have not done any accounting before. 2. Calculate the cost of sales based on variable cost...
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...Accounting and Finance: Managerial Use February 19, 2011 Class Project: Ratio Analysis The gross profit percentage is one of several key measurements a company uses in evaluating its financial performance. It helps a company to see what percentage of its earning after costs (for products and/or services) is profit. A higher gross profit percentage is generally preferred as it provides the company with financial resources to pay for research, product development, and other costs associated with running and growing a business. A company that has little gross profit has limited resources. Tootsie Roll and The Hershey Company both operate above the food processing industry average. Tootsie Roll operated at 36%, 5.6% higher than the industry average in 2009. The Hershey Company operated at 38.7%, 8.3% higher than the industry average and 2.7% higher the Tootsie Roll in 2009. Profit margin is very useful when comparing companies in similar industries. A higher profit margin indicates a more profitable company that has better control over its costs compared to its competitors. Tootsie Roll has Net Sales of $499,331 and a Net Income of $53,475 giving them a 10.7% Profit Margin Ratio resulting in 11 cents of every dollar of sales resulted in Net Income for 2009. The Hershey Company has Net Sales of $5,298,668 and a Net Income of $435,994 giving them a 8.2% Profit Margin Ratio resulting in 8 cents of every dollar of sales resulted in Net Income for 2009...
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...Module: Accounting and Finance Coursework Assignment 2014-2015 Company: Sports Direct PLC Contents 1.1 Background of Sports Direct 1.2 Comparison of Sports Direct to the Industry 1.3 Comparison of Sport Direct to the Market 1.4 Sports Direct News October 1.1 Background of Sports Direct Sports Direct was founded in 1982 by owner Mick Ashley in Maidenhead, England. The company went in to the London Stock Exchange in 2007 after 25 years of building a portfolio which includes acquiring other sports brands which include Donnay, Lonsdale, and fashion brands such as Kangol while buying out other companies such as JJB Sports and acquiring shares in Blacks Leisure Group, Matalan and of recent times, a 4.6% share in Debenhams (London Stock Exchange, 2014). The companies international expansion started in 2000 with stores opening in Belgium, followed in 2011 with stores in Portugal and 2013 where the company entered the Austrian and Baltic retail markets. Sports Direct current strategy and business model is to: * Identify – Brand acquisitions and property enhancement * Invest – Store portfolio and employees * Develop – Website and m-commerce, enhanced product ranges * Promote – Group owned brands (Source: Sports Direct PLC, 2014) Sports Direct is the UK’s largest sports retailer worth an...
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...CHAPTER 3 The Accounting Information System ASSIGNMENT CLASSIFICATION TABLE (BY TOPIC) Topics 1. 2. 3. 4. Transaction identification. Nominal accounts. Trial balance. Adjusting entries. Questions 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 4, 7 6, 10 8, 11, 13, 14 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 2, 3, 4 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20 11, 12, 15, 22, 23 12 9 11 13, 14, 16 14, 15 1, 2, 6, 12 15, 16, 17 18 19 12 13 18, 19 20 21, 22, 23 12 11 1, 2, 7, 8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 1, 2, 4, 6 1, 4, 9, 10, 12 Brief Exercises 1, 2 Exercises 1, 2, 3, 4, 17 Problems 1 5. 6. 7. 8. *9. *10. *11. Financial statements. Closing. Inventory and cost of goods sold. Comprehensive accounting cycle. Cash vs. Accrual Basis. Reversing entries. Worksheet. *These topics are dealt with in an Appendix to the Chapter. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Kieso, Intermediate Accounting, 14/e, Solutions Manual (For Instructor Use Only) 3-1 ASSIGNMENT CLASSIFICATION TABLE (BY LEARNING OBJECTIVE) Learning Objectives 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Understand basic accounting terminology. Explain double-entry rules. Identify steps in accounting cycle. Record transactions in journals, post to ledger accounts, and prepare a trial balance. Explain the reasons for preparing adjusting entries. Prepare financial statements from the adjusted trail balance. Prepare closing entries. Differentiate the cash basis of accounting from the accrual basis of accounting. Identify adjusting entries that may be reversed. Prepare a 10-column worksheet...
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...SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, FINANCE AND MANAGEMENT MSc in Accounting, Finance and Management and Economics, Finance and Management ECON 70003 Quantitative Methods October 2007 Lecture Notes Part 1 Statistics David Winter D.Winter@bris.ac.uk 1 Some Basic Concepts 2 Expectations, Moments and Descriptive Statistics 3 Bivariate Distributions 4 Estimation 5 The Normal and Related Distributions and Interval Estimation 6 Hypothesis Testing These notes provide a summary of the lectures. They are not a complete account of the unit material. You should also consult the reading as given in the unit outline and the lectures. 1 10 19 26 35 43 Chapter 1 Some Basic Concepts 1.1 Probability It is customary to begin courses in statistics with a discussion of probability and then go on to derive certain propositions in probability theory. The problem with this approach is that probability is a difficult and potentially confusing subject. The foundations of probability theory are not well established. There are at least three different ways of thinking about probability. (a) (b) (c) Relative Frequency Subjective belief Mathematical theory The relative frequency idea of probability is the oldest concept and dates back to the eighteenth century (and probably before) when European mathematicians become interested in analysing games of chance. The basic idea is that the probability of an event occurring is the relative number of times the event...
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...INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING SEMINAR (1) TRUE/FALSE (NOTE: Show any required calculations in your answers) 1. A corporation is a business that is legally separate and distinct from its owners. 2. Primary users of accounting information are accountants. 3. Accounting is thought to be the "language of business" because business information is communicated to users. 4. The role of accounting is to provide many different users with financial information to make economic decisions. 5. Accounting information users need reports about the economic activities and condition of businesses. 6. The primary role of accounting is to determine the amount of taxes a business will be required to pay to taxing entities. 7. Stakeholders use only accounting reports as the source of information to base all of their business decisions. 8. Managerial accounting information is used by external and internal users equally. 9. Financial accounting provides information to all users, while the main focus for managerial accounting is to provide information to the management. 10. A business is an organization that provides goods or services to their customers in exchange for money or other items of value. 11. Managerial accounting is primarily concerned with the recording and reporting of economic data and activities of an entity for use by stockholders, creditors, governmental agencies, and the public. 12. The cost concept is the basis for entering the exchange...
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...Smarthinking's Tutor Response Form (Your marked-up essay is below this form.) HOW THIS WORKS: Your tutor has written overview comments about your essay in the form below. Your tutor has also embedded comments [in bold and in brackets] throughout your essay. Thank you for choosing Smarthinking's OWL; best wishes with revising your paper! Hi Denise! My name is Keren H., and I will be reviewing your submission today. Thank you for an interesting piece of research on Background Checks. In today’s review, we will revise sentence structure, word choice, and documentation. Strengths of the essay: Denise, “References” is the correct name for the heading of your page of sources. Good job! Sentence Structure: One or two of your sentences are “run-ons”. This means that two ideas “run on” into each other with no punctuation or links to separate them. Let’s see an example, and discuss how to correct the run-on: A background check is a must in today’s business world. You never know what you may find on the applicant. What two ideas do you see here? “A background check is a must in today’s business world” is one; the rest makes up another idea. The easiest way to separate two ideas (two main clauses) is to put each in a sentence of its own. What punctuation (such as a capital letter and period) will you add, so that you have TWO sentences instead of the run-on? Visit Run-ons and Comma Splices to find more ways to revise run-ons. Word Choice: Denise, I notice that you use...
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...Unit 7 Assignment 1) What is Pillbriar's WACC? Here is the formula for WACC. WACC = wd*kd(1 - T) + wps * kps + wce * kcs wd = weight of debt, kd = cost of debt, T = tax rate, wps = weight preferred stock. kps = cost preferred stock, wce = weight common stock, kcs = cost common stock. Retained earnings and the sale of new common stock are both used in regard to common equity. 2) What are three methods for estimating common stock cost from retained earnings? Capital-asset-pricing-model (CAPM) approach Bond-yield-plus-premium approach Discounted cash flow (DCF) approach 3) Which of these methods provides the most accurate and reliable estimate? CAPM is the most widely used method for estimating the cost of equity. However, other methods are also used because CAPM estimates may be subject to error, and people like to use different methods as checks on one another. If all of the methods produce similar results, this increases the decision maker's confidence in the estimated cost of equity. DCF tends to be the most reliable way to calculate the cost of equity when a company pays dividends. Source(s): http://www.investopedia.com/exam-guide/c… Unit 5 Assignment 1. A 30-year, $1,000 par value bond has a 9.5% annual payment coupon. The bond currently sells for $875. If the yield to maturity remains at its current rate, what will the price be 9 years from now? 2. Knapp Bros, LLC is planning to issue new 20-year bonds. The current plan is to make the bonds non-callable...
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...Chap 1 for Grade 2012 in international school True/False Indicate whether the statement is true or false. ____ 1. Economics is the study of how evenly goods and services are distributed within society. ____ 2. Choosing not to attend a concert so that you can study for your exam is an example of a tradeoff. ____ 3. Efficiency means everyone in the economy should receive an equal share of the goods and services produced. ____ 4. Equality refers to how the pie is divided, and efficiency refers to the size of the economic pie. ____ 5. Government policies that improve equality usually increase efficiency at the same time. ____ 6. An individual deciding how to allocate her limited time is dealing with both scarcity and trade-offs. ____ 7. Tuition is the single-largest cost of attending college for most students. ____ 8. A marginal change is a small incremental adjustment to an existing plan of action. ____ 9. If the average cost of transporting a passenger on the train from Chicago to St. Louis is $75, it would be irrational for the railroad to allow any passenger to ride for less than $75. ____ 10. A rational decisionmaker takes an action if and only if the marginal cost exceeds the marginal benefit. ____ 11. A tax on gasoline is an incentive that encourages people to drive smaller more fuel-efficient cars. ____ 12. Trade allows each person to specialize in the activities he or she does best, thus increasing each individual's productivity. ____ 13. Trade with any nation...
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...Leadership Skills Assignment - 4 Due date: 20/1/2013 Instructions for Submitting your Assignments 1. Type your name and your ID number 2. Read the textbook for the course before answering any question. 3. Multiple choices; Choose the most accurate choice. 4. Essay questions: hand writing only. Don’t type the answers. 5. Submit your assignments before the due date, no exceptions. Name…Hamad Aldarei…….ID#............................................... Chapters covered; 13, 14, 15 Measurement | | | | CLO 1 | CLO 2 | CLO 3 | CLO 4 | Knowledge | Analysis | Application | Synthesis & Evaluation | Comprehension | | | | | | | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | MCQs | | | | Essay Qs | Essay Qs | Essay Qs | Essay Qs | | | | | Chapter 13 1. Female and male leaders evaluated favorably when they used a. a democratic leadership style b. a directive or autocratic style c. a goal-oriented style d. a situational style 2. Females evaluated unfavorably when they used e. a democratic leadership style f. a directive or autocratic style g. a goal-oriented style h. a situational style 3. Women were devalued when they worked in i. Female- dominated environments and when the evaluators were female j. Male-dominated environments and when the evaluators were men k. Male-dominated environments and when the evaluators were female l. Female- dominated environments and when the...
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...Research Topic IMPROVING THE PROCUREMENT PERFORMANCE OF UGANDA NATIONAL ROADS AUTHORITY (UNRA) BY SUSAN NABADDA ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to examine procurement performance at UNRA. The study adopted a cross sectional and quantitative survey design and the sample size of 122 was drawn for the study and the respondent were selected using the simple random and purposive sampling techniques. A self- administered questionnaire was used to collect the required data which was later analyzed using the SPSS software. The findings revealed that the quality of goods and services delivered were of poor quality and that the suppliers did not consider timeliness as a major factor. The results further revealed that there was dissatisfaction among internal customers with the suppliers. Among the challenges of procurement performance in UNRA, the findings pointed to the revealed lack of a clear understanding of the core-activities, unclearly defined objectives, goals and expectations, non involvement of key stakeholders' valuable knowledge, lack of integrative point of view of the stakeholders, unclear assignment of responsibilities, poor communication, poor monitoring and lack of needs assessment of the user departments affected the performance of the purchasing function of the company. Some of the suggested strategies that could be maintained to improve procurement performance included clearly defined objectives, goals and expectations for the purchasing function, effective...
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...Hi Joan, Thank you for emailing me about your situation. I have some suggestions maybe can help you. One suggestion I think you could talk to Thomas directly. Thomas might not know that the water and soda is only for clients. And may be he not realized how his actions affect you and his position at the company. If you talk to Thomas directly, it won’t affect his position. And after Thomas understands your situation, he maybe not does that again. You just give him a personal warning to avoid other employees to know his actions. On the other hand, you could go directly to Human Resources with this information. After you talking with Human Resources, they could deal with this situation based on the company’s rules. So it will be out of your hands and you won’t have to worry about it. It could be dealt with on a company wide level. Maybe people other than Tomas are doing this. Also it could avoid you have conflict and confrontation with Thomas. In the end, I think you should speak to Thomas directly. First I think you should speak to Thomas directly as a personal suggestion. It cannot effect on the relationship between you and Thomas. Second, if the Human Resources find what Thomas does. It is embarrassed for Thomas when Human Resources talk to him directly. The last reason I think it will leave a bad impression of Thomas in the other employees’ mind. So I think it is has the advantage on both of you and...
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