What factors might determine the extent to which a firm has fixed rate debt on its balance sheet? 

(a) What factors might determine the extent to which a firm has fixed rate debt on its balance sheet?  Your discussion should include the firm specific and economy wide factors that might influence the percentage of fixed rate debt. (20 marks)
(b) Critically evaluate the survey and empirical evidence in relation to the fixed-floating interest rate structure decision. (20 marks)
Part 2:
(a) Explain the meaning of fair value risk and cash flow risk in relation to the use of debt by non-financial firms. (5 marks)
(b) Explain the meaning of fair value hedging and cash flow hedging in relation to the use of interest rate swaps by non-financial firms. (5 marks)
(c) Using data and information contained in the annual reports you have been assigned, describe and where possible quantify the interest rate risk faced by the firms.  You should attempt to use data/information from annual reports over the period 2015 to 2020. You can also source data for your firms from a financial database. (20 marks)
Hints: Your discussion should include where possible the following:
(i) An assessment of whether the firm’s cash flows or profits are in any way correlated with market rates of interest and if so the sign of the correlation. No calculations required.
(ii) Does the firm have borrowings?
(iii) What is the relative size of these borrowings or other measures of the extent of the firm’s financial obligations? Does the firm disclose its leverage ratios? If not try to calculate them. How do they compare with the industry average?
(iv) Is the firm able to generate cash/profits so that it can pay its financial obligations? Does the firm disclose its interest coverage ratios? If not try to calculate them. How do they compare with the industry average?
(v) Is the interest payment on the borrowings a fixed or floating rate?
(vi) What is the percentage of fixed or floating rate debt before the effect of hedging? If possible provide this data from 2015 to 2020.
(vii) What are the trends in various financial obligations ratios?
(Leverage, interest coverage ratios etc)
(d) Using data and information contained in your firms annual reports describe and explain the interest rate hedging strategy employed by the firms. (30 marks)
Hints: Your discussion should include where possible the following:
(i) Relate back to part 2 c) on the interest risk faced by your firm.
(ii) Does the firm have a target for the fixed-floating interest rate debt structure? What is this target ratio? Does the firm provide a reason for this target ratio?
(iii) Which types of interest rate hedging instruments is the firm using?
(iv) Explain whether the firm is carrying out a fair value or cash flow interest rate hedging strategy. Is the firm swapping into fixed rate or floating rate debt?  Is it doing a bit of both? If you cannot determine then indicate this.
(v) Explain why the particular hedging strategy might have been adopted.
(vi) What is the percentage of fixed or floating rate debt after the effect of interest rate hedging instruments? If possible show the trend in this ratio in a graph over the period 2015 to 2020. Does the firm report this ratio in total debt or net debt terms?

How might Enron’s harsh Performance Review Committee have aided company executives in committing the fraud?

I. Read Chapter 12, Case Study – The Enron Fraud, then answer the following questions:

1.What important internal controls were ignored when LJM1 was created?

2.How might Enron’s harsh Performance Review Committee have aided company executives in committing the fraud?

3.The fraud at Enron is one of many major financial statement frauds that have occurred in recent years (Qwest, Global Crossing, WorldCom, etc.). What are some factors that could explain why the falsifying of financial statements is occurring so frequently? List four factors.

4.Suppose you are a certified fraud examiner but enjoy investing in the stock market as an additional source of income. On the research of Enron’s stock, you notice that although its stock has a history of strong growth and a seemingly promising future, Enron’s financial reports are unclear and, frankly, confusing. In fact, you can’t even explain how Enron is making money. Could this lack of clarity in its financial reporting serve as a red flag in alerting you to the possibility of fraud at Enron? Why or why not?

5.How could the auditor, Arthur Andersen in this case, have performed Enron’s audits and not caught the fraud? Is it possible for a financial statement auditor to perform an audit in compliance with generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS) and not catch major financial statement fraud? How would GAAS auditing need to change to guarantee that all frauds are caught?

II. Based on your answers to the above 5 questions, prepare 15-20 pages slides for “The Enron Fraud” case, then present them online.

Note: A word or excel file should be submitted as your answer and analysis (40 points), and a PPT file should be submitted as your ” online presentation” (20 points)

Complete a SWOT analysis and Porter’s Five Forces analysis. 

Strategy Formulation and Implementation

In lieu of the current discussion questions at the end of the “Issue for Debate” on page 323 regarding Tata Motors and Tesla students will develop a strategic plan with recommendations for future implementation. For this assignment, students will walk through the strategic management process. The strategic management process enables organizations to achieve objectives through three stages: strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation. Your strategic plan/recommendations should aim to innovate. Throughout the development of your strategic plan consider your organization’s responsibility in the greater social good from a Christian perspective and how your plan address ethics, social responsibility and sustainability. Imagine you need to present your initial pitch for your Strategic Initiative Plan to Tesla. Develop a 5-7-page paper that outlines your strategic plan and recommendations. In your presentation, address the following: Provide the vision, mission, and core values of the organization. Complete a SWOT analysis and Porter’s Five Forces analysis. What is your competitive advantage? Moving forward what specific recommendations would you suggest for Tesla to implement?  How will these efforts be evaluated? Is Tesla trying to build an ambidextrous organization?  Should it be doing so?  If yes, what actions can it take to build an ambidextrous firm? How would you evaluate those actions? Provide 3-5 sources in your paper in addition to your textbook. Proper APA format is required for this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines.

Submit the document via the link provided. Include your name, class, section number, and the assignment on the attachment. Be sure that the assignment is in a business-professional format; include current APA citing and referencing.

Describe the accounting cycle with specified details.

Introduction

Have you looked at the balance sheet or income statement of companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or Facebook? What is their cash situation? How much profit are they making? What is their stock price? Investors and market participants examine such information on regular basis through a company’s financial statements.

When an organization reports its financial results to the world, the external users look to see if the organization made any money during its most recent year. Will the assets the organization owns, minus the debts it owes, result in any leftovers that can be put back into the organization to make more money, or reward the shareholders for their investment in the organization?

You have studied the business language of accounting and financial statements, and now you will explore the accounting cycle and its first few steps, including:

  • Recording of business transactions.
  • Using general journal entries.
  • Learning how a trial balance is used to prove the work completed in the first few steps in the accounting cycle.

Overview

In this assessment, you are required to answer questions about the accounting cycle and prepare general journal entries.

Preparation

Note: Accuracy in accounting is paramount. Take your time and double-check your work for errors or omissions.

Instructions

Step 1: Describe the accounting cycle with specified details.

Step 2: Create required journal entries.

Complete both parts using the Assessment 2 Template.

Part 1: Accounting Cycle

Respond to the short-answer questions found in the template on the Accounting Cycle tab using proper grammar and language.

Part 2: Journal Entries

Prepare specified journal entries.

Prepare a flexible budget.

Assignment Content

  1. For this assignment, refer to the scenario located in “Problems – Series A,” section 8-19A of Ch. 8, “Performance Evaluation,“ of Fundamentals of Managerial Accounting Concepts. This scenario puts you in charge of preparing a budget for the Redmond Management Association annual public relations luncheon.

    Read the scenario in the textbook and complete the activity below.

    Use Excel—showing all work and formulas—to complete the following:

    • Prepare a flexible budget.
    • Compute the sales volume variance and the variable cost volume variances based on a comparison between the master budget and the flexible budget.
    • Compute flexible budget variances by comparing the flexible budget with the actual results.
    • Create a 6- to 8-slide presentation for the budget committee meeting. Complete the following in your presentation:
    • Summarize the results of the sales volume and variable cost volume variances computations based on the comparison between the master budget and the flexible budget.
    • Summarize the results of the flexible budget variances computations based on the comparison between the flexible budget and the actual results.
    • Justify the favorable or unfavorable budget variances.
    • Since this is a not-for-profit organization, address why anyone should be concerned with meeting the budget.
    • Make recommendations for what can be done differently to stay on budget for future luncheons. Provide specific examples to support your recommendations.
    • Cite references to support your assignment.

      Format your citations according to APA guidelines.

Strategic Workforce Planning

Strategic Workforce Planning [WLO: 2] [CLOs: 2, 3]Twitter

Prior to beginning work on this discussion,

The purpose of workforce planning is to anticipate needs, set priorities, and allocate scarce organizational resources (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019). Consider that you are the vice-president responsible for talent acquisition of a midsize organization located in the United States. You have been tasked with presenting a forecast of what the organization will need to hire within the next 12 months. Incorporate the four components of workforce planning, as outlined in the course textbook, as you address the key points below in your forecast:

  • How will you to anticipate needs, set priorities, and allocate scarce organizational resources?
  • Is it more prudent to hire contractors or in-house?
  • Which arrangement produces the highest return for the invested resource?

Your initial response should be a minimum of 220 words. Graduate school students learn to assess the perspectives of several scholars. Support your response with at least one scholarly resource in addition to the text.

Course text:
Cascio, W. F., & Aguinis, H. (2019). Applied psychology in talent management (8th ed.). Retrieved from https://www.vitalsource.com

THE HUMANITIES IN MY LIFE

THE HUMANITIES IN MY LIFE

In three paragraphs of at least 5 sentences each, address the following 3 questions.  You will reply to each question in a separate paragraph.  Please make sure you proofread and use proper grammar/conventions of academic writing.

  • Which of the six disciplines of the humanities did you most connect with and why? You are only discussing one discipline.
  • How can you you apply what you’ve learned about that discipline to your everyday life and your college career?
  • Think about the entire course, including the unit on Themes of the Humanities, how can you you apply this information/experience to your everyday life and your college career?

You must start a thread before you can read and reply to other threads

What is the purpose of the post-closing trial balance

What is the purpose of the post-closing trial balance

Post by classmate 1

 

What’s the difference between a current liability and a long-term liability? 

According to the text, the driving factor in the difference between the two is the length of time before the liability will be satisfied.  Typically, if it’s a year or less, it’s a current liability, and anything that will take longer than a year is a long-term.

As long-term liabilities get paid-off, and when their resolution date comes to be within a year, it then becomes a current liability.  If the long-term liability is something that are renewed every year instead of being paid off, they will continually be considered long-term.

Warren, Reeve & Duchac. (2019) Corporate Financial Accounting. 15th edition. Cengage

Post by classmate 2

What types of accounts are referred to as temporary or nominal accounts?

The  book defines a temporary/nominal account as accounts on the income  statement that are not carried forward from year to year. The accounts  that are considered to be temporary/nominal accounts are revenue and  expense accounts.  If a company didn’t close out revenue accounts, it  could give the appearance that they are more profitable than they really  are. This would be a result of reflecting previous years of revenue  balances. Similarly, with expense accounts, one might look and assume  that a company’s expenses appear to be out of control if this account  was carried forward.

Identifying a social change problem is the first task in policy development.

Identifying a social change problem is the first task in policy development.

Agenda Setting

Identifying a social change problem is the first task in policy development. Agenda setting is the next step. The agenda setting process is to establish one or more problems, and then consider several policy solutions to the identified problem.

Based on your reading of Simon’s Public Policy text, Chapter 5, discuss how the process works to transform a social change problem into a proposed policy solution. In particular, emphasize the following:

  1. Explain how issues are framed.
  2. Identify who might be the major policy actor, given Simon’s Chapter 5 examples (choose one).
  3. Choose and discuss the policy theory most relevant to the issue framed.

Briefly describe how policy is formulated in a government situation, knowing that the process is very similar in a for-profit or a non-profit organization.

  1. Briefly describe how policy is formulated in a government situation, knowing that the process is very similar in a for-profit or a non-profit organization.

How Is Policy Formulated?

How policy is formulated is the focus of this discussion. In particular, from the human services perspective, how would policy be formulated on the specific social change problem in the government example Simon offers in Chapter 6 of Public Policy?

  1. Briefly describe how policy is formulated in a government situation, knowing that the process is very similar in a for-profit or a non-profit organization.
  2. Identify the principal actors in the process (consult the Ryser “Elements of a Standard Policy Statement” reading from your Social Policy Toolbox).
  3. Discuss policy development group theory, as applied to your analysis.

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    Public_Policy_Preferences_and_Outcomes_—-_Part_II_Dimensions_of_Public_Policy.pdf