ETHICS CHALLENGE C3 BTN 14-1 Assume that you are the managerial accountant at In

ETHICS CHALLENGE C3
BTN 14-1 Assume that you are the managerial accountant at Infostore, a manufacturer of hard drives, CDs,and DVDs. Its reporting year-end is December 31. The chief financial officer is concerned about having enough cash to pay the expected income tax bill because of poor cash flow management. On November 15, the purchasing department purchased excess inventory of CD raw materials in anticipation of rapid growth of this product beginning in January. To decrease the company’s tax liability, the chief financial officer tells you to
record the purchase of this inventory as part of supplies and expense it in the current year; this would decrease the company’s tax liability by increasing expenses.
Required
1. In which account should the purchase of CD raw materials be recorded?
2. How should you respond to this request by the chief financial officer?
ETHICS CHALLENGE P3
BTN 15-1 Assume that your company sells portable housing to both general contractors and the government. It sells jobs to contractors on a bid basis. A contractor asks for three bids from different manufacturers. The combination of low bid and high quality wins the job. However, jobs sold to the government are bid on a cost-plus basis. This means price is determined by adding all costs plus a profit based on cost at a specified
percent, such as 10%. You observe that the amount of overhead applied to government jobs is higher than that applied to contract jobs. These allocations concern you.
Required
Write a half-page memo to your company’s chief financial officer outlining your concerns with overhead allocation.
ETHICS CHALLENGE P1
BTN 16-1 Many accounting and accounting-related professionals are skilled in financial analysis, but most are not skilled in manufacturing. This is especially the case for process manufacturing environments (for example, a bottling plant or chemical factory). To provide professional accounting and financial services, one must understand the industry, product, and processes. We have an ethical responsibility to develop this understanding before offering services to clients in these areas.
Required
Write a one-page action plan, in memorandum format, discussing how you would obtain an understanding of key business processes of a company that hires you to provide financial services. The memorandum should specify an industry, a product, and one selected process and should draw on at least one reference, such as a professional journal or industry magazine.
BTN17-1 In conducting interviews and observing factory operations to implement an activity-based costing system, you determine that several activities are unnecessary or redundant. For example, warehouse personnel were inspecting purchased components as they were received at the loading dock. Later that day, the components were inspected again on the shop floor before being installed in the final product. Both of these activities caused costs to be incurred but were not adding value to the product. If you include this observation in your report, one or more employees who perform inspections will likely lose their jobs.
Required
1. As a plant employee, what is your responsibility to report your findings to superiors?
2. Should you attempt to determine if the redundancy is justified? Explain.
3. What is your responsibility to the employees whose jobs will likely be lost because of your report?
4. What facts should you consider before making your decision to report or not?
ETHICS CHALLENGE C1
BTN 18-1 Labor costs of an auto repair mechanic are seldom based on actual hours worked. Instead, this labor cost is based on an industry average of time estimated to complete a repair job. This means a customer can pay, for example, $120 for two hours of work on a car when the actual time worked was only one hour. Many experienced mechanics can complete repair jobs faster than the industry average. Assume that you are asked to complete such a survey for a repair center. The survey calls for objective input, and many questions require detailed cost data and analysis. The mechanics and owners know you have the survey and encourage you to complete it in a way that increases the average billable hours for repair work.
Required
Write a one-page memorandum to the mechanics and owners that describes the direct labor analysis you will undertake in completing this survey.