...Financial Statement Restatement Paper ACC537 April 13, 2015 Financial Statement Restatement Paper Most companies in the world use accounting principles to help them manage their cash flows that occur on a daily basis. It would be impossible for large companies to function without having an accounting department that measures all the data and ensures the company is profitable. Every transaction that occurs in the company needs to be recorded in an appropriate account to reflect everything that the company does. With so many transactions that occur on a daily basis, companies are prone to making an error in their accounting practices. Most of the time, the errors that occur are not discovered until a few years down the road. This can have a negative impact on the company because they are reporting incorrect data. In this paper, I will discuss Bridgestone Education Inc and the errors that they found in their accounting principles. I will analyze the accounting principles involved in the error; the effect of errors and changes on the financial statement, and the effect the errors have on the stockholders. In the year 2014, Bridgestone Education Inc released a statement claiming that they are looking into the accounting practices of the previous years because they found an error in the reports. According to “Street insider” (2014), “Management has concluded that there are material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, as we did not maintain effective controls...
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...Financial Statement Restatement Paper Justina Kabanuk University of Phoenix ACC/537 Financial Accounting Steven Hall July 5, 2010 Financial Statement Restatement Paper Financial statement users depend on accurate financial statements from corporations to make proper decisions in regard to financial activities. In rare situations, financial statement users find that the information they had depended on for their decisions was not accurate. Companies required to restate their financial reports risk losing the trust and confidence of the financial statement users. Overstock.com is an example of a company that knows the effects of restating their finances all too well. Following is an overview of the issues that led to the most recent restatements of Overstock.com’s financial statements. Additionally discussed are the accounting principles involved, the effect of the errors and changes to the financial statements, and the effects on the company’s stockholders. In October 2008, Overstock.com publicly announced that it would be restating financial results for a five-and-a-half-year period. The needed revisions to Overstock.com’s Q1 2003 to Q2 2008 financial statements were estimated to reduce revenues by $12...
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...Restatement of the Company Zynga is a social gaming company. Many of their games are seen on social media networks such as Facebook, or Google+. On August 11, 2011, Zynga restated their first quarter revenue to reflect an accounting error in their initial IPO (initial public offering) registration. Their second quarter revenue report was increased by 3% over what was reported in first quarter. The error was due to a previous policy estimate (Primack, August, 2011). Accounting Principles Involved In the first quarter, the company’s previous policy was to apply most current estimates of paying players to current period sales. The accounting department did not adjust the deferred revenue balance for revised estimates of related sales in previous periods. Zynga determined the adjustment of the deferred revenue ending balance was necessary according to ASC 250. March 31, 2011 financial statements were restated because Zynga found they had an internal control material weakness of financial reporting for the first quarter (Primack, August, 2011). Effects of Errors and Changes on Statements The effect of the error/change on the restatement was to increase revenue by $7.5 million, as well as an increase to a provision of income taxes by $2.5 million for January, February, and March 2011. In addition, Zynga decreased deferred revenue by $7.5 million as of the end of March 2011 (Primack, August, 2011). Stockholders The shareholders involved in Zynga include: o Kleiner Perkins Caufield...
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...Assignment 1 - Financial Statement Restatement and Ethics Write a two to three (2-3) page paper in which you: 1. Assess the factors that contributed to the financial statement restatement, signifying the executive management team’s attitude toward the restatement. Suggest how the restatement may have been avoided during the initial reporting process. 2. Explain the impact to the company’s stock price when the restatement was released and to future earnings forecast, indicating whether or not you believe the impact to the stock price was justified. 3. Evaluate the restatement in terms of management’s ethical violations according to the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, providing recommendations to management on how to avoid these problems in the future. Provide support for your recommendations. 4. Use at least two (2) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources. 5. Activity mode aims to provide quality study notes and tutorials to the students of ACC 573 Week 3 Assignment 1 in order to ace their studies. ACC 573 WEEK 3 ASSIGNMENT 1 To purchase this visit here: http://www.activitymode.com/product/acc-573-week-3-assignment-1/ Contact us at: SUPPORT@ACTIVITYMODE.COM ACC 573 WEEK 3 ASSIGNMENT 1 ACC 573 Week 3 Assignment 1 - Financial Statement Restatement and Ethics Write a two to three (2-3) page paper in which you: 1. Assess the factors that contributed to the financial statement restatement...
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...Running head: FINANCIAL STATEMENT RESTATEMENT Financial Statement Restatement Paper Financial Statement Restatement Paper Companies must often restate their financial statements to address certain issues that have occurred within the company including changes in accounting principles, changes in accounting estimates, changes in the reporting entity, and errors in their financial statements. “The FASB classifies changes in these categories because each category involves different methods of recognizing changes in the financial statements” (Kieso, Weygandt, & Warfield, 2007, p. 1153). Zynga is the social gaming company responsible for games including Farmville and Mafia Wars. In August of 2011 the company was faced with restating their financial statements for the first quarter of that year due to the detection of certain errors regarding their stated deferred revenue balances. Restatement On August 11, 2011 Zynga, “restated Q1 revenue to reflect an accounting error in its original IPO registration. The new Q2 revenue figure is $242.89 million, which represents more than a 3% increase over the previously-reported figure” (Primack, 2011). Zynga stated that they initially stated their most current estimate for paying players for the current period. However, they did not adjust their ending balance in the account deferred revenue to reflect estimates for the related sales of prior periods. The company determined that ASC 250 required this adjustment of the ending balance...
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...Financial Statement Restatement Paper ***** ****** ACC/537 January 13, 2014 Financial Statement Restatement Paper MicroStrategy, Inc. went public in June 2008. It is a software company that had been identified as, “a successful, growing company with positive net income” (Krishnan & Mintz, 2007). Like many managers, the managers at MicroStrategy, Inc. wanted to make a quick profit by using aggressive accounting techniques that artificially boosted revenues, inflated earnings, and raised the stock price of shares. The stock price rose from $20 to $333 in one year after the IPO. The company announced in March 2000, that they were planning to restate financial results for the fiscal years 1998 and 1999 (Krishnan & Mintz, 2007). The company needed to restate its financial statements due to improperly applying early revenue recognition in fiscal periods. The company had been recognizing revenues earlier than what was allowed under GAAP. The company would hold open contracts that had been signed by customers after the close of the quarter until the company obtained the desired quarterly financial results, the company would undersign the contracts and give them an effective date that was in the last month of the previous quarter (Krishnan & Mintz, 2007). The restatement of MicroStrategy, Inc’s financial statements reduced the companies combined revenues for the years 1998 and 1999 to $247 million down from $312 million. About 83 percent of this change was applied...
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...Financial Statement Restatement Financial Accounting/ ACC537 Myrtle Clark Sheila Haskins April 14, 2014 In this paper I will discuss the restatement of Diamond Food Inc.’s financial statements. The errors in accounting principles involved and what effect it had on financial statements. How changes affected the stockholders. In February 2012, Diamond Foods Inc., issued a statement that they have to restate the financial statements for 2010 and 2011. Diamond Foods Inc., was forced by the audit company y to restate earnings after an extensive investigation. It was discovered that “internal controls were inadequate and that certain grower payments for the 2011 and 2010 crops were not accounted for in the correct periods” (Harris, 2012). After the investigation, the Board of Directors took control of the company. The board dismissed the CEO and CFO and placing them on administrative leave. The pending deal where Diamond Foods were to acquire the Pringles brand from Proctor & Gamble is also in jeopardy. This deal was at a value of $1.5 billion which would have given Diamond Foods Pringles potato chips and other products. Diamond Foods remained confident that the financial statements were accurate. the terms The contract between Diamond Foods and Proctor & Gamble, gave Proctor & Gamble an option to withdraw from the deal based on any problems with the financial statements of Diamond Foods. The audit committee investigation was then taken up by the Securities...
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...Financial Statement Restatement Paper – Citizens First Bancorp, Inc. In 2009 Citizens First Bancorp, Inc. was forced to restate their earnings in the first and second quarters. The first quarter was revised due to “an accounting error on a $7.5 million impairment of its deferred tax valuation allowance” (Barba, R. October 20, 2009). The second quarter revision was a regulatory action by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which involved allegations of “inappropriate behavior at the company, including removing unfavorable appraisals from the loan files, in an attempt to avoid the recognition of additional loan losses” (Barba, R. October 20, 2009). Errors in accounting principles, along with the effects the restatements have on the company’s financials and stockholders are examined. The first quarter restatement involved the accounting error on deferred tax valuation. Citizens initially overstated their tax deferred asset allowance, and now “it must essentially write down the deferred tax asset, which it does by creating a “valuation allowance” on its balance sheet. That valuation allowance cuts into income reported to investors and can hit a portion of a bank’s regulatory capital, as well” (Alloway, T. November 4, 2010). The write down presented a problem for Citizens because of the financial crisis banks are being forced to hold more tier one capital. A good definition of Tier 1 capital is that it includes equity capital and disclosed reserves, where equity capital...
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...Description of the Industry Page 4-5 IV. Business Risk: Nature of the Industry Page 5 V. Business Risk: Economic Climate Page 5 VI. VeriFone Governance Structure Page 5-7 VII. NCR Governance Structure Page 7-8 VIII. Restatement Page 8-12 IX. Business Risks: The Company Page 12-13 X. Accounting Policies and Disclosure Practices Page 14-16 XI. Financial Statement Analysis Page 16- 18 XII. Conclusion Page 18-19 XIII. Exhibits Page 20 XIV. Reference Page 21 Executive Summary VeriFone Systems, Inc. is a company who was involved in fraudulent financial accounting. After examining their financial statements and other public information prior to the restatement, an analysis was done to determine whether information about the fraud was present. In addition, this paper will have a comparative analysis with a company called NCR Corporation, which is in the same electronic payment industry. A comparative analysis will be done on both financial and nonfinancial information regarding accounting policies and disclosure practices in regards to both companies. There are many business risks associated with VeriFone’s restatements that are addressed when describing the industry, the company, and the economic climate. VeriFone had many internal control weaknesses that provided management with the opportunity to commit fraud in regards to inventory and net revenue accounts. There is a...
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...* * Burns is at University of Georgia, Terry College of Business, Athens, GA. 30602, e-mail: nburns@uga.edu. Kedia is at Harvard University, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA 02163, e-mail: skedia@hbs.edu. This paper combines the results of two earlier papers: “Does performance-based compensation explain restatements” by Natasha Burns and “Do Executive Stock Options Generate Incentives for Earnings Management? Evidence from Accounting Restatements” by Simi Kedia. We thank Jean Helwege, Andrew Karolyi, and René Stulz for their comments and advice. We also thank Jim Hsieh, Kose John, Steven Kaplan, Kevin Murphy, Prabhala, Jeremy Stein, Christof Stahel, Ralph Walking, Karen Wruck, David Yermack, participants at the 2003 NBER Universities Research Conference of Corporate Governance, the 2004 AFA Meetings in San Diego, seminars at Arizona State University, Baruch College, Indiana University, Ohio State University, Penn State University, Rice University, Rutgers University, Southern Methodist University, University of Georgetown, University of Houston, University of Illinois, and University of Pittsburgh for helpful comments. All errors are the responsibility of the authors. The Impact of performance-based compensation on misreporting Abstract This paper examines the effect of CEO compensation contracts on misreporting. We find that the sensitivity of the CEO’s option portfolio to stock price is significantly positively related to the propensity to misreport. We do not...
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...Target Financial Reporting Quality and M&A Deals that Go Bust* HOLLIS A. SKAIFE, University of Wisconsin–Madison DANIEL D. WANGERIN, Michigan State University 1. Introduction This study investigates whether target firms’ financial reporting quality affects the likelihood that merger and acquisition (M&A) deals will ultimately be terminated. Managers looking to increase their market share, enter new markets, or diversify their operations will consider acquiring another company based on the company’s performance, geographic locations, and lines of business, respectively. If the potential target is a U.S. publicly traded company, an acquirer’s initial assessment of the expected benefits associated with the acquisition of the company is based on publicly available information. Generally, the acquirer obtains limited private information from the target prior to the signing of the acquisition agreement. Although an acquisition agreement creates a binding contractual obligation for both entities to go forward with the deal, it does not guarantee completion of the deal. The acquisition agreement typically contains a warranty by the target that its financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). If this warranty is breached, the deal can be terminated. We hypothesize that low-quality financial reporting by target firms prior to the announcement of a deal increases the likelihood that a target firm’s U.S. GAAP warranties stated in the acquisition...
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...Financial Statement Insurance This is a proposal to increase the effectiveness of corporate governance in the post-Enron era through the implementation of financial statement insurance. This paper gives a brief history of the purpose of financial statements as well as the importance of external auditing of financial statements. It gives examples of the corporate governance failures of companies like Enron and WorldCom. It covers how and why these failures happened and reviews the grave consequences of the failures. It also takes a brief look at the laws that have been passed to prevent future failures, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002. It shows how the new laws have been helpful but have not solved the problem. Finally, it shows how the implementation of financial statement insurance will greatly improve the accuracy of external auditing of a company’s financial statements. Purpose of financial statements The purpose of financial statements is to give an overall picture of the health and profitability of the business. This overall picture of the business provides information on a company’s financial position and performance. Financial statements are also necessary to show changes in a company’s financial position. Financial statements are used internally by managers, shareholders and employees to make good business and investment decisions. They are used externally by prospective investors, financial institutions, suppliers, customers, competitors, and governments...
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...Specifically, we examined three oil and gas sample companies that have been required to restate their financial reports due to the oil reserve overestimation. After running the regression and comparing statistics with other oil and gas companies, we found that the sample companies do revise oil reserves to manipulate the DDA expenses, thus achieving their goals of earnings management. Some recommended auditing guidance to detect such manipulation were given at the end. Introduction/Assumption Earnings management, in accounting, is the act of intentionally influencing the process of financial reporting to obtain some private gain. Earnings management involves the manipulation of company earnings towards a pre-determined target. This target can be motivated by a preference for more stable earnings, in which case management is said to be carrying out income smoothing. Management may also overstate the income for personal interests. Other possible motivations for earnings management include the need to maintain the levels of certain accounting ratios due to debt covenants, boost earnings to beat analyst targets, or intentionally understate the earnings to get rid of the political pressure. Analysis of earnings management often focuses on management’s use of discretionary accruals. Such research requires a model that estimates the discretionary components of reported income. In this paper, we studied three companies from three different components of the US oil & gas industry:...
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...forth by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and SEC reporting requirements for publically traded corporations. Specifically, this paper analyzes the roles of the Board of Directors (BOD) and CEO’s regarding the establishment of an ethical workplace environment, which generates quality accounting information to be used by shareholders and other investors. Next, a proposed strategy will be recommended to a CEO of a publicly traded corporation, in regards to leading an ethical workplace environment which yields high quality accounting data on a consistent basis. Similarly, a suggestions to management will be made concerning providing assurance to investors with reference to upcoming performance forecasts or expected earnings. The next analysis will be focused on evaluating potential consequences to publicly traded corporations when there is a lack of quality within financial accounting and reporting, and making a recommendation on how to minimize those consequences will be provided. Lastly, the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will be assessed in regards to the sufficiency of protection placed on stockholders and potential future investors. Roles of the Board of Directors and CEO First and foremost, the roles of Executives and the Board of Directors include establishing a working environment in which ethical decisions regarding reliable financial reporting are made on a constant basis. Virtually any company can achieve such an ethical environment through the establishment...
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...abstract Available online 4 November 2010 Researchers have used various measures as indications of ‘‘earnings quality’’ including persistence, accruals, smoothness, timeliness, loss avoidance, investor responsiveness, and external indicators such as restatements and SEC enforcement releases. For each measure, we discuss causes of variation in the measure as well as consequences. We reach no single conclusion on what earnings quality is because ‘‘quality’’ is contingent on the decision context. We also point out that the ‘‘quality’’ of earnings is a function of the firm’s fundamental performance. The contribution of a firm’s fundamental performance to its earnings quality is suggested as one area for future work. & 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: G31 M40 M41 Keywords: Earnings quality Earnings management Review Survey 1. Introduction Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 1 (SFAC No. 1) states that ‘‘Financial reporting should provide information about an enterprise’s financial performance during a period.’’ Borrowing language from SFAC No. 1, we define earnings quality as follows: Higher quality earnings provide more information about the features of a firm’s financial performance that are relevant to a specific decision made by a specific...
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