Thursday, May 6, 2010

Chapter 6 BLOG

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Liquor+thief+breaches+house+arrest+sent+jail/3144320/story.html

Summary:

Vincent Mark Barton a 41 years old man was sent to jail eleven days after being handed an 18-month conditional sentence for seven counts of theft under $5000. He was caught stealing two bottles of liquor from a provincial government liquor store. He violated his conditional sentence which forbids him to leave his residence, to enter a liquor store and to keep the peace. As the result, Barton was given an additional one-month sentence for this theft. Barton claimed he had to steal bottles of gin and rum to pay for morphine because he had a very painful infected foot. He also argued that the sentence was unfit, but the judge didn’t agree because Barton had a long criminal record - 150 convictions, many theft.

Connection:

The connection that I made with this article and chapter 6 was on theft and cash. Barton had convicted seven theft under $5000. These theft will cause businesses to lose assets. This will effect cash and inventory. Each time the goods are stolen less cash will be generated due to less produces will be sold. Businesses usually tightens their internal control when a theft had occurred. An element on internal control that will be tighten is “physical measures”. Physical Measures aimed at protecting the assets from theft, diversion, damage or destruction. Businesses usually counters theft by installing alarm, purchasing locks and setting up metal bars. This falls under tightening internal control.

Reflection:

This article made me realize that many businesses need to improve their physical measure by installing alarm and using locks to limit the activities of thieves like Barton. Barton stole seven times before he actually got caught for stealing. It also showed me that businesses need to improved their security because Barton had a long criminal record or stealing, but continued to steal shows the weak security of many businesses these days. The government should make the alarm system mandatory for every business, so the number of theft will be lowered.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Chapter 5

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/04/13/con-lexus-don-not-buy.html



Summary

Toyota has another problem with their car. On Tuesday 13, 2010, Toyota announced that they will suspend sales of the 2010 Lexus GX 460 SUV. The problem with the SUV is that there could be a possibility of the car flipping over during an unusual turn. This problem was discover during the handling tests. Before the problem was discovered, Toyota already sold 149 GX 460 SUV in Canada. In order to get back the SUV from their owners, Toyota will supply owners of the faulty car with a loan car.


Reflection

The connection I had made between this article and chapter 5 is the cash-to-cash cycle and the lead/lag relationship. The problem of the SUV is going to cause a problem with Toyota’s cash-to-cash cycle because Toyota used cash to purchase the materials to build the car (outflow of cash), but they will have a hard selling their inventory of cars due to the danger the vehicle presents. Since won’t be sales, so there will be no cash inflow. Without cash inflow, they won’t be able to generate new cash to purchase new materials. This causes a knot between the “inventory purchased” and “inventory sold” phase.


Reflection

The problems of Toyota cars are just piling up over the pass year. First the brakes and now the rolling over issue. These aren’t minor car problems. These are problems that have a high impact on the passengers lives. Personally, I think the reason for these problems is that there is problem with the management level of the company. Now Toyota will have a hard time recovering from these faults. The reputation that they had build up for years had suddenly gone down the drain. In order for Toyota to recover, I think Toyota has to first bring back the confidence of the customers to the Toyota cars.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Chapter 4 BLOG

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/business/story.html?id=437be4c2-ef54-4cd6-8f0b-9d4b6895bfac



Summary:

This is not a recent article. it is an article back in 2007. CV technologies had to restate their earnings to account for reported revenue that will not materialize. The financial reports for all of the 2006 and first quarter of fiscal 2007 had to be restated due to disappointing sales. The estimated sales at first, was $8.6 million, but the actual sales were $1.5 million to $2.5 million. The revenue for the third quarter had to be reduced 11 to 12 percent and the fourth quarter revenue had to be reduced by 6 to 8 percent. After this incident the company changed its reporting policy so revenue from products with a right of return will be deferred.

Connection:

The connection that I have made with this article is revenue recognition. CV Technologies had to restate their earnings because their earning reported don’t match the earning they had actually generated. CV technologies pretty much broke the three criteria of Revenue Recognition. Firstly, the revenue that they stated could not be recognized because it is not earned. Secondly, the amount could not be measured because the amount that they had stated is just an estimate. Thirdly, they aren’t sure that amount stated can be collected because it is just an estimate. CV Technologies stated its revenue before it is even generated; therefore, their financial statements are overstated.

Reflection:

CV Technologies should not have stated the estimated earnings in the first place because they broke the accounting rule in and they have to waste extra time restating all their financial statements. This caused unnecessary media for the company and caused the image of the company to look bad. I am glad that they decided to change their policy after this incident because it demonstrated that they learned their lesson. This would also do well for the company because they weren’t following the criteria of revenue recognition.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Chapter 3

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/01/15/consumer-corporate-haiti-donations.html



Summary:
A natural disaster had struck Haiti about a week ago causing thousands and thousands of deaths and thousands buried underground. Canadian Businesses have committed millions of dollars in aid for victims of the earthquakes. Companies like BMO, Roger, National Bank of Canada, TD Bank, IKEA, etc have donated money to help aid the situation. Credit Card Company such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express will suspend interchange fees on Haitian relief donations to certain organizations. Western Union and Money Gram have suspended fees on transactions for charitable donations to the relief effort. Air Transat has temporarily suspended its weekly flight to Haiti because the airport is unable to receive it.
Connection:
The connection I have made with this article to chapter 3 is that the donation that the companies are donating to aid the earthquake are consider infrequent event. Infrequent events are a special thing that is infrequent and unusual. It is always recorded in a separate section in the multi-steps income statement. The companies that have donated money to aid the Haiti earthquake crisis should record their donations during the “Prepare Financial Statements” section of the accounting cycle. The donations should be recorded in the infrequent event section of the multi-steps income statements. This will show that the company had done something with their money, instead of not knowing where the money went. Natural disaster like this does not happen often; therefore, donations like from these companies should be considered infrequent events.
Reflections:
The Haiti earthquake was a sad and unpredictable event. It is nice to see that people from all around the world are doing something to help out the ones who are needed. Many large companies had donated money to aid the crisis. Credit card companies are willing to earn less money by suspending transaction fees for charitable donations. Even people who are not from big companies are contributing to aid the people in Haiti. It was an event that devastated the whole world. The amounts of people who died and buried are increasing.