case study

Financial Accounting Principles and Analysis- Case Study of Cookie Creations

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Abstract

This paper contains the application of the principles of financial accounting and financial analysis in the case study of Cookie Creations. The paper gives an analysis of the various challenges the proprietor's faces and gives financial solutions based on the applicable financial accounting principles. In the paper, Natalie is advised on the choice of type of business unit, accounting information important to know and business accounts specifically for Cookie Creations, whether to open a separate bank account and handling personal and business assets. The paper also contains information on analyzing the financial performance of another business (Biscuits) before engagement with Cookie Creations as a Supplier to gauge its ability to pay and sustain the business over a long period of time. Johns’ proposal to assist management of Cookie Creations accounts is also analyzed, and improvements suggested to the proposed system. This paper also provides information on analysis of a customer’s financial statements before extending credit to them, and considerations on the use of credit cards by customers.

Introduction

Natalie Koebel has decided to start up a business, relying on her cookie making skills. Her idea is to operate a cookie-making school and faces various challenges from starting up the business to running it to profitability. This paper looks into the various challenges Natalie's faces and suggests possible solutions for analysis of the situations. Analysis and proposal of the possible solutions are based on the financial accounting principles and the analysis of financial performance and operations of a business. Through this paper, Natalie is aided in establishing Cookie Creations business and operating it to ensure profitability and growth.

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Business unit

In considering the type of business unit to establish, Natalie has to analyze the registration requirements, establishment capital, resources available and the operating costs for each. If she registers the business as a sole proprietorship, she will maintain control of the business, making decisions independently and enjoy all the returns solely. Registration of a sole proprietorship also has minimal legal requirements and hence the start-up costs are minimal. All income is accrued to the owner and hence taxed only once. She can consider a partnership which also has minimal legal requirements and low start-up costs enjoys single taxation as income is accrued to the owners (Needles, Powers, & Crosson, 2010). However, sole proprietorship and partnership business units are limited in access to capital and all the costs and loss is boring by the owners, to the extent of personal assets. She can also establish Cookie Creations as a corporate, where capital mobilization will be easier. However, the legal requirements to establish a corporate are many and cost more. She will also lose the control of the business, and face double taxation, from the corporate tax and the dividends.

Accounting information needed

To effectively register and run the business, Natalie needs to grasp basic accounting information. She will need to know the procedures and costs of the registration, and how to record the initial costs. She must be able to identify and classify her accounts correctly. Such include returns from sales of the cookies, fees from the students, the purchase of materials, expenses such as utility bills, rent, and recording of the equipment obtained. She must know how to maintain cash at hand and at the bank at appropriate levels for smooth running of the business

Cookie Creations specific accounts

Cookie Creations need to create accounts for all the assets it has. One is for the equipment used in the preparation of the cookies. If she operates on personally owned premises, then an account for the premises should also be created. All the furniture, shelves or any other fittings bought by Natalie for the business must also be recorded under furniture and fittings account. Cash account must also be kept, and a bank account if she acquires one for the business. She must create an account to capture the receipts from the sales of the cookie, and another for receipts from the teaching services. She also needs a purchases account from the raw materials purchased for the preparation of the cookies. Expenses accounts should be created for utilities such as water and electricity costs. If she operates from rented premises, then another expense account for the rent should be created. Other expenses such as telephone, traveling, and miscellaneous office expenses can also be created. She also needs a debtor’s account for all services or cookies supplied at credit, and a creditor’s account for the services and supplies she receives on credit terms (Elliott & Elliott, 2011).

Bank account

Natalie should open a separate bank account for an effective and accurate accounting of the business, to separate her personal cash and that of the business. A bank account will enable secure and varied payments such as checks, debit and credit cards, and direct deposits, easing up the customers’ payment methods. Having a bank account for the business may also enable her to receive credit through overdraft in case of a shortage of cash needed, hence enable her to effectively run the business.

Separation of business and personal assets

Keeping personal assets separate from business assets will assist Natalie to get accurate records of the performance of the business. However, using the car for both personal and business purposes and recording the fuel, maintenance and depreciation under same business accounts will reduce the income and hence reduce the tax liability (CTI Reviews, 2017). However, she may be denied categorizing the expenses as deductions as they are not separate from her personal business, and the business may just be recognized as a hobby. Therefore, since the car is a personal asset, she should keep a clear record of the expenses incurred for business purposes, and record under traveling expenses (Needles, Powers, & Crosson, 2010). The rest of the expenses should be catered from her pocket.

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Information in financial statements

The balance sheet, referred to as the position of financial position gives the firms value of its assets, as well as the liabilities of the firm (Weygandt, Kieso, & Kimmel, 2010). The income statement gives the profits generated by equating the income versus the costs incurred. The cash flow statement gives the cash available and how it flows between the activities of the firm.

Current ratio and acid test analysis of Biscuits

Natalie would need to analyze the statement of financial position to determine whether Biscuits is liquid enough to meet its current liabilities. The current ratio and the acid test ration will help precisely determine this ability, by dividing the current assets by the current liabilities and current assets less inventory by the current liabilities respectively. The trend on the net profits made can also give an insight into the ability of the company to pay its liabilities, by comparing the net profits from the recent financial years from the income statements. The cash flow statement will also provide the cash balances of the Company, which also indicates its ability to pay for the current liabilities (Corporate Finance Institute, 2018).

Evaluation of long-term viability of biscuits

To evaluate the long-term viability of Biscuits, Natalie has to evaluate the going concern and long-term viability statement, from the directors' report in the financial statements. Also should review the risks assessment report from the same financial report, and critically assess the information provided (KPMG, 2015). The financial records can also give an insight into the long-term viability of the business, by evaluating the trend on the profitability of the company by comparing recent financial years’ reports. An increasing financial position of the firm, increasing profitability, and stable debt ratios indicate a viable long-term of the business.

Evaluation of Biscuits’ profitability

The income statement is key to evaluating the profitability of Biscuits. The net profit loss indicates whether a firm is making profits or losses. Further, profitability ratios give further insights into the financial performance of the firm. The net profit margin will explain how much Biscuits earns after taxes, relative to its sales. The return on assets helps to evaluate the earnings per asset of a firm, by dividing the net profits with the firm’s assets (Bragg, 2017). If Biscuits is a listed company, then Natalie will need to evaluate how much are the shareholders gaining from their investment by calculating the returns on equity.

Biscuits Debt analysis

The statement of financial position gives the information of the long-term liabilities of a firm, from which Natalie can know the number of long debts owed to Biscuits. However, a debt may be high but the company has the ability to effectively pay, so Natalie has to evaluate the Leverage is this meant to me capitilized?ratios of Biscuits to get a clear picture of the debt situation. She has to evaluate the ratio of the debt to the equity, and debt to the assets of the company. The lower ratio would indicate that the company is able to comfortably pay its debt while bigger ratio indicates there could be challenges in fulfilling its debt obligations (Bragg, 2017).

Biscuits’ Debt and interest payments

To get information on the amount of principal amount and debt being paid by Biscuits, Natalie will review the income statement, under expenses and get the loan payment, as well as the interest on loan payments. The statement of financial position under long-term liabilities will give the Biscuits outstanding long-term debt value (Elliott & Elliott, 2011).

Biscuits’ dividend payments

From the income statement, Natalie can gather information on the number of dividends paid to the shareholders. For further insights into the value of the dividends paid out, then earnings per share ratios will help evaluate how much of the total dividends paid out were received per each share (Needles, Powers, & Crosson, 2010). The trend on the dividends per share paid out across recent years will signify an improving or declining company.

Other concerns on Biscuits’ deal

Natalie should consider Cookie Creations’ ability to supply the required amount of 1500 dozens of cookies to Biscuits without inappropriately stretching its resources. Also, She please adjust to small caps has to evaluate the debt payment time offered of 30 days, versus that she is this suppose to say" versus what she" it doen't make sense. has offered to her debtors so that she can determine whether her company will have sufficient cash in hand and sufficient working capital to run her business. She should also inquire about what steps the company is taking to counter the declining number of customers due to the manufacturing of high sugar content foods.

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Weaknesses in John’s internal control system

John suggests keeping cash in his vehicle until it accumulates enough for deposits. However, such cash will not be secure, can be lost or stolen. Signing checks should also not be delegated to an outside authority, as they lack authenticity. The storage of the accounting records should not be limited to only John’s laptop computer; they can be lost or manipulated easily. Finally, John should not be writing and signing a check to himself. The system set up allows Natalie to only view the accounting records as presented by John, and therefore she does not keep track of the records day in day out, which minimizes her controlling ability.

Improvements on John’s proposed system

The system should only allow Natalie to authorize payments by writing and signing the checks. The cash collected should be deposited as frequent as possible, maintaining a balance sufficient for the day to day operations of the company. Johns accounting program should be linked to Natalie's computer for continuous monitoring of the accounts and backed up online in case of data loss for easy retrieval. Finally, only Natalie should authorize payments for Johns services by writing and signing the check herself.

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Curtis’ financial statements analysis

Natalie should calculate Curtis’ liquidity to establish that the business is able to pay for its liabilities in the short-term. The current ration, calculated by dividing the current assets by the current liabilities, and the quick ration, obtained by dividing the current assets less the inventory by the current liabilities are able to give the liquidity state of the firm (Bragg, 2017). High ratios will indicate that Curtis has the ability to pay its debts while low ratios signify low liquidity, meaning that Curtis cannot meet current liabilities. Further to the financial reports obtained from Curtis, Natalie should get the commercial credit statement of Curtis to easily determine their creditworthiness.

Alternatives to credit card extension

Natalie can decide to offer hire purchase terms to Curtis, where she will receive a deposit payment, and the rest of the amount in installments, which will give higher profits and easy the term are we deleting the word "the" ? of payment for Curtis. Natalie can also offer discount rates for earlier payment made on the transaction, to encourage Curtis to consider early payment. The other option that Natalie can utilize is invoice factoring or invoice discounting, which ha debtor is this suppose to read "whic has debtor"? or had?financing options that will enable her to receive her payments earlier than having to bear with the 30 days credit request from Curtis.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Credit card payments

Credit cards enable many people to access the services and products of a company, which generally improves the sales of the company. Credit cards enable customers to meet their needs and want at any geographic point and also increase their impulse buying leading to higher sales revenues. Credit cards also help payment of credit services faster than other conventional methods, hence improving the cash flows of the company. Allowing credit cards improve the competitiveness of a business, placing in a better position for higher profitability. However, the use of credit card imposes higher charges for the service and equipment, which is an additional cost to the company (SecureGlobalPay, 2017). this reference is not part of the reference list below, we cannot use it as a reference or we need to add the actual reference below on the list. Disputes may also arise, resulting in refunds to the customers, at higher fee charges to the company. Credit cards are prone to fraud, especially when information is accessed by unauthorized persons. To effectively account for credit card services, companies that allow them to have additional bookkeeping to do which adds to the overall costs.

Conclusion

Successful establishment and running of a business demand careful consideration of every step. Decisions made have to be based on valid accounting and business information, and all challenges tackled by proper analysis of every situation and its implication to the profitability of the business. The information presented in this paper offers such an application of financial accounting knowledge in the analysis of the challenges of Cookie Creations' company to its successful and profitable operation.

References

Bragg, S. (2017, October 28). Financial Statement Analysis. Retrieved on 27th March for all of the references can you please reveiw the 6th edition and fix these as they are not compliant to the new standards. Thank you.from Accounting Tools: https://www.accountingtools.com/articles/2017/5/14/financial-statement-analysis

Corporate Finance Institute. (2018). Analysis of Financial Statements. Retrieved on 27th March from Corporate Finance Institute: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/finance/analysis-of-financial-statements/

CTI Reviews. (2017). Intermediate Accounting, Principle, and Analysis. New York: Cram101.

Elliott, B., & Elliott, J. (2011). Financial Accounting and Reporting. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Needles, B. E., Powers, M., & Crosson, S. V. (2010). Principles of Accounting. Boston: Cengage Learning.a is the letter a at the end a typo?

Weygandt, J. J., Kimmel, P. D., & Kieso, D. E. (2010). Accounting Principles. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.