When should liabilities for each of the following items be recorded on the books of an ordinary business corporation?
(a) Acquisition of goods by purchase on credit.
(b) Officers' salaries.
(c) Special bonus to employees.
(d) Dividends.
(e) Purchase Commitments.
(a) Liability for goods purchased on credit should be recorded when control passes to the purchaser. If the terms of purchase are f.o.b. destination, title passes when the goods purchased arrive; if f.o.b. shipping point, title passes when the shipment is made by the vendor.
(b) Officers' salaries should be recorded when they become due at the end of a pay period. Accrual of unpaid amounts should be recorded in preparing financial statements dated other than at the end of a pay period.
(c) A special bonus to employees should be recorded when approved by the board of directors or person having authority to approve if the bonus is for a period of time and that period has ended at the date of approval. If the period for which the bonus is applicable has not ended but only a part of it has expired, it would be appropriate to accrue a pro rata portion of the bonus at the time of approval and make additional accruals of pro rata amounts at the end of each pay period.
(d) Dividends should be recorded when they have been declared by the board of directors.
(e) Usually it is neither necessary nor proper for the buyer to make any entries to reflect commitments for purchases of goods that have not been shipped by the seller. Ordinary orders, for which the prices are determined at the time of shipment and subject to cancellation by the buyer or seller, do not represent either an asset or a liability to the buyer and need not be reflected in the books or in the financial statements. However, an accrued loss on purchase commitments which results from formal purchase contracts for which a firm price is in excess of the market price at the date of the balance sheet would be shown in the liability section of the balance sheet.
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Accounting
- Distinguish between gross profit as a percentage of cost and gross profit as a percentage of sales price.
- What are the major uses of the gross profit method?
- Under what circumstances is relative sales value an appropriate basis for determining the price assigned to inventory?
- What approaches may be employed in applying the LCNRV procedure? Which approach is normally used and why?
- Why are inventories valued at the lower-of-cost-or-net realizable value (LCNRV)? What are the arguments against the use of the LCNRV method of valuing inventories?
- Why will the traditional LIFO inventory costing method and the dollar-value LIFO inventory costing method produce different inventory valuations if the composition of the inventory base changes?
- What advantage does the dollar-value method have over the specific goods approach of LIFO inventory valuation?
- What is the dollar-value method of LIFO inventory valuation?
- FIFO, average-cost, and LIFO methods are often used instead of specific identification for inventory valuation purposes. Compare these methods with the specific identification method, discussing the theoretical propriety of each method in the determination of income and asset valuation.
- Distinguish between product costs and period costs as they relate to inventory.
- Define "cost" as applied to the valuation of inventories.
- Where, if at all, should the following items be classified on a balance sheet?
- What is a repurchase agreement (product financing) arrangement? How should a product repurchase agreement be reported in the financial statements?
- What is the difference between a perpetual inventory and a physical inventory? If a company maintains a perpetual inventory, should its physical inventory at any date be equal to the amount indicated by the perpetual inventory records? Why?
- In what ways are the inventory accounts of a retailing company different from those of a manufacturing company?
- What is the fair value option? Where do companies that elect the fair value option report unrealized holding gains and losses?
- Indicate how the percentage-of-receivables method, based on an ageing schedule, accomplishes the objectives of the allowance method of accounting for bad debts. What other methods, besides an ageing analysis, can be used for estimating uncollectible accounts?
- What is the theoretical justification of the allowance method as contrasted with the direct write-off method of accounting for bad debts?
- What are the basic problems that occur in the valuation of accounts receivable?
- What are two methods of recording accounts receivable transactions when a cash discount situation is involved? Which is more theoretically correct? Which is used in practice more of the time? Why?
- What are the reasons that a company gives trade discounts? Why are trade discounts not recorded in accounts like cash discounts?
- What may be included under the heading of "cash"?
- State the generally accepted accounting principle applicable to balance sheet valuation of each of the following assets.
- Where should the following items be shown on the balance sheet, if shown at all?
- In what section of the balance sheet should the following items appear, and what balance sheet terminology would you use?
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