EC3: Russell Company is a pesticide manufacturer. Its sales declined greatly this year due to the passage of legislation outlawing the sale of several of Russell’s chemical pesticides. In the coming year, Russell will have environmentally safe and competitive chemicals to replace these discontinued products. Sales in the next year are expected to greatly exceed those from any prior years. The decline in sales and profits appears to be a one-year aberration. But even so, the company president fears a large dip in the current year’s profits. He believes that such a dip could cause a significant drop in the market price of Russell’s stock and make the company a takeover target.
To avoid this possibility, the company president calls in Zoe Baas, controller, to discuss this period’s year-end adjusting entries. He urges her to accrue every possible revenue and to defer as many expenses as possible. He says to Zoe, “We need the revenues this year, and next year can easily absorb expenses deferred from this year. We can’t let our stock price be hammered down!” Zoe didn’t get around to recording the adjusting entries until January 17, but she dated the entries December 31 as if they were recorded then. Zoe also made every effort to comply with the president’s request.
Weygandt, J.J., Kimmel, P.D., & Kieso, D.E (2021). Accounting Principles (14th Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Assignment Instructions
Respond thoroughly to the following questions in your PowerPoint presentation:
Who are the stakeholders in this situation?
What are the ethical considerations of (a) the president’s request and (b) Zoe dating the adjusting entries December 31?
Can Zoe accrue revenues, defer expenses, and still be ethical?
Can Zoe’s accrued revenues and deferred expenses be illegal?
Who do you think can discover Zoe’s accrued revenues and deferred expenses?
Prepare a Microsoft® PowerPoint® Presentation answering the questions presented in this Assignment. This presentation should inform the audience about the connection between revenues, expenses and adjusting entries with the profession’s commitment to ethics and the impact in the financial statements. Make sure to cite at least one source and reference it (in your separate reference slide) following APA guidelines.
A minimum of seven slides including the title, abstract and reference slides are required. Your presentation should be attractive and must include a slide for your abstract, which should include a concise and clear thesis statement.
You want to follow the conventions of Standard English that includes correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Your presentation must contain speakers notes at the bottom of each slide and be formatted according to APA guidelines.
Review the items below to ensure you have covered all aspects required for this Assignment.
A minimum of seven slides are required for your oral presentation. The Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation should include:
Title slide
Abstract slide
Answers to the outlined questions
Conclusion slide
Use in text citations where appropriate in your slide’s note section.
Use an APA 7th edition style and guidelines for your reference slide and cite at least one source.
Respond to each question in a thorough manner, providing supporting information concerning revenues, expenses and adjusting entries with the profession’s commitment to ethics and the impact in the income statement.
Demonstrate logical and appropriate transitions from one idea to another, including word choice and oral expressiveness while leading the audience to a dynamic and supported conclusion.
Your presentation should be highly ordered, logical, and unified and demonstrate original thought.
Communication is highly ordered, logical and unified to include an introduction, main content and conclusion.
