Finance & Accounting Essays

Qualitative research is the methodology adopted for the study. This is done by case studies, focus groups, and literature review, the latter being a form of secondary research. Primary search in the form of live case studies, interviews, and focus groups are redundant now as there is considerable literature already available for the proposed study.

Nordstrom’s business philosophy has been based on quality, value, exceptional service, and selection. The company has built a devoted customer base, and has more than 180 stores across 27 states in America. Nordstrom now has a stock market value of more than $12 billion.

The core banking system of any bank is at the very epicenter of its activities and through this dissertation, the researcher has tried to pose relevant questions that will help in taking a critical stand and perspective on the SOA process as developed by Microsoft so as to find ways to improvise the same.

If the company decides to issue dividends, the policy will outline whether or not the dividends will be issued on an ongoing basis, or if the dividend payout will be infrequent”. The dividend policy of the firm is determined by the fact that the manager’s depression to influence the capital structure of the firm by leveraging would allow him to independently act.

While there is a wide acceptance that the stock market is weak form and strong form efficient, it has not been feasible or possible to produce specific theoretical constructs or models of the behavior of share prices across time. Most theorists also agree that information affecting stock price movements is rather randomly generated.

You must let your profits run and cut your losses quickly if you are to have any chance of being successful. Trading discipline is not a sufficient condition to make money in the markets, but it is a necessary condition. If you do not practice highly disciplined trading, you will not make money over the long term.

In this chapter, the researcher attempts to suggest an appropriate research methodology. The chapter also includes the background of the study, research problem, objectives, and hypothesis. The chapter is concluded with the limitations of the study, which could not be avoided by the researcher at any cost.

The adequacy of budgeting, thus, depends upon the adequacy of managerial judgement. Beyond Budgeting is a management tool a way of managing not the management: the presence of a budgeting system should not make. A skilfully prepared budgetary programme will not itself improve the management of an enterprise unless it is properly implemented.   

Once the proposed hospital’s capital has been decided, the desired method of the capital funding needs to be determined. In the US hospital industry, approximately 50% of the assets are financed through equity and 50% through debt.

For example, China uses the policy of dumping goods into foreign markets, which has resulted in the closure of several small businesses all over the world. This leads to unemployment and the closure of local industry means that all the money will flow out of the company to the parent company and little will be left for further investment. 

Demutualization is the process through which organizations like building societies and mutual insurance companies convert themselves into profit-making companies. In the case of insurance companies, it was the normal practice to form these companies with the ownership vested in the policyholders as a group.   

There are numerous other uses of the financial statements created by accountants and as the world economy grows and businesses become more interdependent, Accountancy gains further importance.In recent years an important topic of discussion has been the adoption of global accounting standards

The unethical part about this situation is that thought Stan Sewall paid only $50,000/- for the franchisee he has been able to window dress his balance sheet by 10 times without actually investing the funds into the enterprise at all. This is very similar to the Enron saga where the balance sheet was "pumped up" to hide the huge debts of the company and keep the investors, majority of the employees, and government in dark about the true state of affairs.

It may be noted that the mass media have played an important role in describing and making known to people the activities of financial institutions. There has been a considerable increase in the number of newspaper articles, radio, and television programs that provide consumer advice and guidance towards financial services

 Income Statement basically lists and categorizes all expenses and revenue incurred by the firm during the accounting cycle. It starts with Sales or revenue generated, in case of service organizations; then subtracts all expenses and losses from sales and adds up all revenue and income. The difference is net income and net loss. 

There is a new regulation in place, as a result of the announcement made by the Government in the 2007-08 Federal Budget, of various steps taken to enable small businesses to have more flexibility and a less complicated taxation system. Due to the regulation, a GST registered entity can to claim GST credits for purchases with any GST-inclusive amount of $82.50 or less, without having to hold a recognized tax invoice.

Environmental changes which have taken place after a plan has been made, and actual achievements during the recent past, are taken into account during budgeting. Control, coordination, and feedback are the 3 primary advantages of such an elaborate budgeting system. The budget serves as a kind of navigation tool.

British Airways' stability can be threatened if there are sudden adverse circumstances like 9/11. It could find itself unable to meet its current debts if the receivables become uncollectible. Gearing has improved in BA by 23.5pp. However, EasyJet has resorted to borrowing to fund the capital expenditure.

Accounting is the process of identifying, measuring, handling and communicating the financial information about different economic entities for being used by the concerned parties. How this information is used by the company and the persons handling the information helps in classifying it in managerial and financial accounting.

One hiring challenge is rarely an innovative one for those in HRM that will a company better off establishing and training specialized workmen in-house or hiring skillful workmen from outside the firm. This question holds great significance in fast-paced, technology-based industries who keep investment in human capital as crucial.

However, it is also critical to understand that sourcing of financing the healthcare do not only include just the money but it also include the voluntary sources such as rendering of voluntary services as well as gifts received in kind.

Bush in the 2000 presidential election.Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on January 30, 1941, the son of Marjorie and Richard H. Cheney. He was raised in Casper, Wyoming, where the elder Cheney worked as a soil conservationist for the Department of Agriculture.

However, recently the company has required a new client: a homeowner's association with a total of 150 homeowners.The firm has agreed to provide the homeowner's association with several services.

An investment entails risks and returns. In order to gain from an investment, an investor chooses among a wide range of opportunities in the market where the expected benefits offset the inherent risks (Keown et al 2004). Currently, an investor is faced with various investment alternatives. With only a limited fund to invest, a prospective investor should utilize financial tools.

Some of those problems include fraud, abuse, incompetence, and laxity and those have been discussed many times over the years.The focus of this paper would have been to find methods to prevent such problems in place of explaining them or focusing on the criminal aspects.

The importance of the analysis is that it enables the top management to set up goals, make quality decisions and set up strategies that are crucial for the growth and development of an organization (Grant 2005). Commerzbank is a financial institution that offers banking services and other different products to their customers.

To have trouble-free and more efficient ways of deciding which financial strategies to implement, various applications have been created and are available for companies. These applications help mitigate risks that the companies face when choosing the right strategies. We are now in the information age.

I have taken up advanced level courses in financial economics at IIT Bombay and management of technology at the University of Cambridge. However, I strongly felt the need to have a deeper understanding of mathematics as well to understand the analytical processes decision making. I took up advanced levels of math courses.

The cy-pres doctrine is this regard was very narrow until the Charities Act 1960 and was available only where it was impossible or impractical to carry out the purposes of the trust. Thus, trusts for the distribution of loaves of bread to the poor or stocking for poor maidservants continued until modern times.

A reduction in the general availability of loans is known as a “credit crunch.” Its occurrence is related to the onset of economic recession when the prices of previously valuable assets start to collapse. Banks perceive a greater risk and tighten the conditions required for obtaining a loan, thus dropping the overall number of approved loaners.

The implementation of international accounting standards (IAS’s) has been an issue of much debate since the 1960’s, but has come to the fore in recent years, after the 2002 decision of the EU to make the adoption of IAS’s compulsory for listed companies from the 1st of January 2005, when compiling consolidated financial statements. 

Given the spurt of accounting scandals in the past and the current financial crisis witnessed in the US, the UK, the Europe and the rest of world, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has modified the desired accounting standard under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) from “costing” of an item to “fair valuation” of the item vide statement number 159.

Defining the problem is not as simple as it looks, more so since the case details are mum on crucial information like inflation rates, interest rates, the balance of trade, our buying power and demographic profile, employment and so on. In the absence of such data, we have to resort to assumptions and predict the worst that can happen.

 Many companies have adopted corporate governance. It has a Combined Code that recommends things that should be done by those companies or organization that chooses to use it. However, some companies do not comply with this Combined Code and they go further to explain why they don’t comply.

These items indicate the firm's financial position. (McClure, 2008).If a company extends credit to its customers, and they are not able to pay off their invoices on time, working capital of the company gets trapped; meaning that it is part of accounts receivable but cannot be used for immediate purposes.

CIMA London defines management accounting as “the process of identification, measurement, accumulation, analysis, preparation, interpretation and communication of information used by management to plan, evaluate and control within an entity and to assure appropriate use of and accountability for its resources”.

There are a number of factors to take into account at first with regard to the reasons companies must invest abroad, and several broad aspects can be associated with the general degree of risk a specific host country has for a multinational company (MNC) planning to or attempting to invest abroad. Such aspects include the country’s recent history, the form of external and internal demands, etc.

The paper starts by describing the meaning of corporation and its nature and this will be followed by describing the company business, products and operations. The paper will also outline how the company will be funded as well as tracing the company development from sole proprietorship to a major corporation.

The main problem of the paper is that many countries are coming now to one common currency. 16 states of EU have Euro as their official currency. All these states collectively form the ‘Eurozone’. Some other countries are also focusing on converting their official currencies to Euro. One state, which is of major concern today, is the Czech Republic.

The elasticity of demand measures the extent of the inverse relationship between the price and the quantity demanded of the commodity. According to Alfred Marshall, “the elasticity of demand in a market is great or small according to as the amount demanded increases much or little for a given rise in price”.

Each company sets its own minimum wage taken into considerations country’s laws and regulations. Almost all the countries in the world have similar kind of minimum wage laws and legislation.

Generally, unsold goods are valued a cost price or market price whichever is lower by businesses concerns, However, in some cases like precious metals, mineral oils, the unsold goods may be valued at market price. As per the convention of consistency, the same accounting methods should be adopted every year in preparing financial statements.

In the UK, ethical banks provide a range of banking services that include current accounts, credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, deposit, and business account as well as insurance services such as a car, home, life, and health insurance. The major banks that set their firms apart as ethical banks are Triodos, Co-operative Bank, Reliance Bank. 

The world has been recovering from a very serious financial problem. The auditors are being blamed for not being able to inform about the same earlier. The main question which arises is: would it have helped if they had given these companies, which are now bankrupt, an adverse going-concern opinion? Wouldn’t the market have fulfilled this prophecy?

 The research paper by Gerald J Lobo and Jian Zhou closely studies the enhanced conservatism in financial reporting, post the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Through various surveys and reports, it has been found that the 2002 act and the resultant SEC certification requirements have essentially affected management’s discretionary reporting of financial reports.

Provide support for your answer. 2. Based on your research, describe the organization, the accounting ethical breach and the impact to the organization related to ethical breach. 3. Determine how the organizational ethical issue was detected and how management failed to create an ethical environment.

Financial planning, the acquisition of funds to finance planned activities by the Financial Planner, is the practice of determining present and future financial goals. In Australia, it has risen dramatically over the last decade. A Financial Planner is always set and has capabilities to help others in dealing with various financial issues.

Meanwhile, a pair of ski binding will cost $10.5. Total production cost will be lower at $895,000 per 10,000 pairs. Thus, it is better to outsource the ski bindings than to produce them in-house. 2. Looking at the cost structure of Minnetonka Corporation, the difference between producing in-house and outsourcing the binding is $5,000.

Reg Vardy’s Board and management should undertake all measures to ensure that shareholders’ value is maximized.  They should cautiously consider if the proposed acquisition terms would truly bode well for its current stakeholders and use sound judgment to determine the effects on the overall well being of the company.

Although detailed provisions are there in the Act, the purpose of this letter is to provide a basic understanding of the provisions affecting the company. This letter shows the calculations of the income of the company for the purposes of corporation tax and also the various deductions available under the Act.