Assignment 2: Discussion—Projecting Financial Trends
An organization’s finances are closely linked to local and global markets. Therefore, regular monitoring of economic factors, such as employment, inflation, supply and demand, and interest rates is sure to provide beneficial information. Therefore, it is important to understand the impact of economic factors upon an organization’s current and future operations and finances.
- Using the module readings, Argosy University online library resources, and the Internet, research two to three articles on the importance of analyzing economic factors for organizations.
Then respond to the following:
- Why should companies pay attention to economic factors when managing the organization’s current and future financial information?
- Consider an organization you are familiar with. Identify the economic factor that has had the most impact on the organization’s earnings in the past 5 years.
- How has this factor impacted the organization and how has the organization dealt with the impact in a positive or negative manner?
- Please put the following income statement and balance sheet terms in the proper order:
Taxes, interest, gross profit, selling, general and administrative expenses, sales, depreciation, net income, cost of goods sold, and EBITDA.
- For the balance sheet, please categorize the following as short-term assets, long-term assets, short-term liabilities, long-term liabilities, or owner’s equity:
Cash, accruals, property, plant and equipment, inventory, accounts receivables, paid in capital, retained earnings, notes payable, mortgage, and accounts payable.
- Please explain in which order the four major financial statements need to be prepared, and why.
- Please also explain the three major categories of the statement of cash flows and under which category the following items belong. Also explain whether or not each item would be considered a source or use of cash for the period in question:
Inventory-increased for period
Net income-increased for period
Accounts receivables increase for period
Accounts payable decrease for period
Accruals decrease for period
Depreciation-increases for period
Stock issued
Property purchased
Bonds paid off
Inventories increase for period
Cash decreases
Notes payable increase for period
Bonds redeemed for period
By the due date assigned, post your response to the Discussion Area. Through the end of the module, review and comment on at least two peers’ responses.
Write your initial response in 300–500 words. Your response should be thorough and address all components of the discussion question in detail, include citations of all sources, where needed, according to the APA Style, and demonstrate accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation
Do the following when responding to your peers:
- Read your peers’ answers.
- Provide substantive comments by
- contributing new, relevant information from course readings, Web sites, or other sources;
- building on the remarks or questions of others; or
- sharing practical examples of key concepts from your professional or personal experiences
- Respond to feedback on your posting and provide feedback to other students on their ideas.
- Make sure your writing
- is clear, concise, and organized;
- demonstrates ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and
- displays accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
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Assignment 2: Discussion—Technology Supporting Business Processes
Over the twentieth century, the ability to process information in terms of labor units has improved by a factor in the order of 1 to 5 trillion. This improvement represents a compounded growth rate of between 30 to 35 percent per year for a century. At the turn of the twentieth century, the mechanical calculator offered a modest productivity increase but the number of workers required to maintain the accounts of a medium-sized business still remained very high. Many tasks would take a large investment in equipment and a significant number of accountants’ weeks to process. A hundred years later, the same tasks can be completed by a standard desktop computer in minutes. The challenge for management has transitioned from a simple reduction in labor requirements to leveraging the increased processing power to develop competitive, efficient, and profitable organizations.
With this example in mind, use the assigned readings for this module and respond to the following:
- Explain how information systems influence businesses to be more competitive, efficient, and profitable.
- Provide at least one example for each factor.
By the due date assigned, post your response to the Discussion Area. Through the end of module, review and comment on at least two peers’ responses.Explain and justify your position.
Write your initial response in 300–500 words. Your response should be thorough and address all components of the discussion question in detail, include citations of all sources, where needed, according to the APA Style, and demonstrate accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation
Do the following when responding to your peers:
- Read your peers’ answers.
- Provide substantive comments by
- contributing new, relevant information from course readings, Web sites, or other sources;
- building on the remarks or questions of others; or
- sharing practical examples of key concepts from your professional or personal experiences
- Respond to feedback on your posting and provide feedback to other students on their ideas.
- Make sure your writing
- is clear, concise, and organized;
- demonstrates ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and
- displays accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
