ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

CheckPoint: Assessing Financial Statements

Resource:Ch. 2 of Understanding Financial Statements,and Ch. 1 PowerPoint^® (pp. 1-10, 1-11, and 1-13)

Searchthe Internet for the financial statements of your favorite company or your employer. You may either locate the corporate Web site for your chosen company, or you may select a company’s financial statements from the EDGAR database at http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm.

Posta 200- to 300-word response that includes the following information:

Three strengths and three weaknesses in the financial statements

Trends in net profit, debt ratio as a percentage of total assets, and debt as a percentage of total equity

A review of 2- to 3-year trends and an analysis of positive and negative trends

A confirmation of whether or not the company is discussing what it intends to do to correct negative trends

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Discussion Questions

Go to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Web site at http://www.sec.gov and the Financial Accounting Standards Board’sWeb site at http://www.fasb.org. Identify the mission and main activities of each organization. Then, analyze the similarities and differences between the roles of each entity. Which entity has more influence over financial statement reporting? Explain your answer.

Search the Internet or the Online Library for information about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. A useful guide to some of these provisions is located at http://www.soxlaw.com. Summarize at least two provisions of the law, and discuss your interpretation of these provisions with your classmates.

Do you think this law will make financial statements more reliable? Also, discuss how Sarbanes-Oxley establishes boundaries to ensure ethical practices. What does the law allow or prohibit, and why?

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

CheckPoint: Differentiating Depreciation Methods

Resource:Ch. 2 of Understanding Financial Statements

Compose a 200- to 300-word response to Question 2.4 on p. 74 (Ch. 2). In addition, include a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of using different depreciation methods, such as straightline versus accelerated.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Assignment: Lucent Technologies Case

Resource:Ch. 2 of Understanding Financial Statements

Read Case 2.1: Lucent Technologies on pp. 79-80 (Ch. 2) of the text.

Compose a 500- to 750-word paper that includes your answers to questions 2-4 on p. 79 (Ch. 2).

Format your paper according to APA standards.

Post your paper as an attachment.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

CheckPoint: Preparing an Income Statement

Resources:Ch. 3 of Understanding Financial Statements, andmultistep_template.xls

Complete Problem 3.10 on p. 109 (Ch. 3).

Use multistep_template.xls to prepare a multiple-step income statement.

Write a 200- to 300-word summary analyzing the implications of profitability and the net income of the company.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Discussion Questions

Postyour answer to Problem 3.5 on p. 109 (Ch. 3). How might the information contained within the stockholder equity statement be used for management and investor decision-making? Provide specific examples of situations in which the stockholder equity information might be used.

Provide an example from the text or the Internet that demonstrates a situation in which a company’s net profits appeared good in the statements, but the gross or operating profits presented a different picture. Discuss how this might have occurred.

Respond to the following question, addressed in Problem 3.6 on p. 109 (Ch. 3): “Why is the bottom-line figure, net income, not necessarily a good indicator of a firm’s financial success?” Look for indicators like liquidity or solvency to answer this discussion question.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

CheckPoint: Analyzing an Income Statement

Resource:Ch. 3 of Understanding Financial Statements

Complete Problem 3.16b on p. 111 (Ch. 3).

Analyze the income statement of Eastman Kodak, located at http://wps.prenhall.com/bp_fraser_financial_8. Select Chapter 1 from the top menu, then selectInternet Links in the left-hand menu to access the income statement.

Write a 200- to 300-word response to the problem. In addition, include your analysis of indicators such as earnings per share, operating income, and comprehensive income.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Assignment: Web Sites Search

Resource:Ch. 3 of Understanding Financial Statements

Research Web sites that contain examples of stock dividends, stock splits, and reverse splits. Yahoo! Finance at http://finance.yahoo.com is a helpful starting point for locating these Web sites.

Write a 750- to 1,050-word paper based on your findings. Include the following in your paper:

A description of the Web site examples you found, including the location, or URL, of the Web sites

Definitions of stock dividends, stock splits, reverse splits, and effects on per-share calculations

An analysis of the reasons for stock dividends, stock splits, and reverse splits

An explanation of how stock dividends, stock splits, and reverse splits affect the firm and the investor

Format your paper according to APA standards.

Post your paper as an attachment.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

CheckPoint: Preparing a Statement of Cash Flows

Resource:Ch. 4 of Understanding Financial Statements

CompleteProblem 4.5 on p. 141 (Ch. 4). Refer to Exhibit 4.1 on p. 118 (Ch. 4) to create your statement of cash flows.

Submit your completed statement of cash flows and a 200- to 300-word analysis of the statement.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Discussion Questions

In what ways does the statement of cash flows relate to the balance sheet and income statement?

Discuss how the statement of cash flows is utilized by investors. If you were an investor reviewing a statement of cash flows, what section might interest you most? Why? Discuss the circumstances in which other sections of the statement might be important to an investor.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

CheckPoint: Analyzing Statements of Cash Flows

Resource:Ch. 4 of Understanding Financial Statements

Complete Research Problem 4.8a on p. 142 (Ch. 4); however, choose three companies to compare instead of five.

Post your table in a Microsoft^® Excel or Word document.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Assignment: Candela Corporation Case

Resource:Ch. 4 of Understanding Financial Statements

Compose a 500- to 750-word paper responding to questions 1 and 2 of the Candela Corporation Case on p. 146 (Ch. 4).

Format your paper according to APA standards.

Postyour paper as an attachment.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

CheckPoint: Findwhat.com Case

Resources:Ch. 5 of Understanding Financial Statements, and Exhibit 5.1: A Checklist for Earnings Quality on p. 153 (Ch. 5)

Compose a 200- to 300-word response to the Findwhat.com Case on p. 188 (Ch. 5).

Refer to the checklist, Exhibit 1, on p. 153 (Ch. 5) for assistance with identifying quality issues.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Discussion Questions

Post your answer to Study Question 5.2 on p. 180 (Ch. 5). As you read your classmates’ responses, consider the following scenario: If you compared two different companies that utilized two different valuation methods, how might the quality of the results differ? Also, comment on the difficulty of making comparisons between two firms that use different valuation methods.

Post your answer to Study Question 5.6 on p. 180 (Ch. 5). Discuss the consequences of poorquality reporting. What has the U.S. government done to improve the quality of reporting after recent financial scandals such as Enron?

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

CheckPoint: Analyzing Financial Data

Resource:Ch. 6 of Understanding Financial Statements

Complete Problem 6.6 on p. 232 (Ch. 6).

Submit your answers to questions A and B.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

CheckPoint: Interpreting Financial Ratios

Resource:Ch. 6 of Understanding Financial Statements

Complete Problem 6.2 on p. 230 (Ch. 6).

Submit your answer in 200 to 300words

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Assignment: Presenting to Stakeholders

Resource:pp. 192-193 (Ch. 6) of Understanding Financial Statements

Read the scenario in Problem 6.9 on p. 234 (Ch. 6).

Compose a 350- to 500-word response that includes a paragraph about the main ideas of the annual report and an explanation of how you might present these ideas to stakeholders.

Refer to the questions in the Objectives of Analysis section on pp. 192-193 (Ch. 6) for guidance on tailoring ideas to present to stakeholders.

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Capstone Discussion Question

What have you learned in this course about the process of analyzing financial statements?

ACC 230 ACC230 ACC/230 ENTIRE COURSE HELP – UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Final Project: Evaluating Financial Health

Resources: Appendix A, Ch. 1 PowerPoint^®, and Ch. 6 of Understanding Financial Statements

Write a 750- to 1,050-word paper evaluating the financial health of a company. Highlight the importance of industry comparisons and trends.

Conduct an industry comparison. In your paper, discuss how your company’s financial performance compares with others in your company’s industry.

Cite all of your sources, and provide Web site URLs.

Format your paper according to APA standards.

Post your paper as a Microsoft^® Word attachment.

Submit a 3- to 5-slide Microsoft^® PowerPoint^® presentation that highlights the financial data of your company and illustrates the comparisons you wrote about in your paper.