ACC 230 All DQs (Week 1,3,5,7 & Capstone DQ)
Week 1
DQ 1: Post your response to the following: Go to the SECs Web site at http://www.sec.gov and the FASB Web site at http://www.fasb.org. Identify the mission and main activities of each organization. Then, discuss the similarities and differences between the roles of each entity. Which entity has more influence over financial statement reporting? Explain your answer.
DQ 2: Search the Internet or the Online Library for information about the Sarbanes-Oxley law. A useful guide to some of these provisions is located at http://www.soxlaw.com. Post your response to the following: Summarize at least two provisions of the law, and discuss your interpretation of these provisions with your classmates. Do you believe this law will make financial statements more reliable? Also, discuss how Sarbanes-Oxley establishes boundaries to ensure ethical practices. What does the law allow or prohibit, and why?
Week 3
DQ 1: Post your answer to Problem 3.5 on p. 109 (Ch. 3), and then respond to the following question: How can the information contained within the stockholder equity statement be used for management and investor decision making? Provide specific examples of situations in which the stockholder equity information might be used.
DQ 2: Provide an example from the text or the Internet that demonstrates a situation in which a companys net profits looked good in the statements, but the gross or operating profits presented a different picture. Discuss how this might have occurred. Respond to the question addressed in Problem 3.6 on p. 109 (Ch. 3): Why is the bottom-line figure, net income, not necessarily a good indicator of a firms financial success? (Hint: Look for indicators like liquidity or solvency to answer this discussion question.)
Week 5
DQ 1: Post your response to the following: In what ways does the statement of cash flows relate to the balance sheet and income statement?
DQ 2: Post your response to the following: Discuss how the statement of cash flows is used by investors. If you were an investor reviewing a statement of cash flows, what section would interest you most? Why? Now discuss the circumstances in which other sections of the statement might be important to an investor.
Week 7
DQ 1: Post your response to the following. As you read your classmates responses, consider the following scenario: If you compared two different companies that used two different valuation methods, how might the quality of the results differ? Also, comment on the difficulty in making comparisons between two firms that use different valuation methods.
DQ 2: Post your answer to Study Question 5.6 on p. 180 in Ch. 5. Discuss the consequences of poor quality reporting. What has the U.S. government done to improve the quality of reporting after recent financial scandals, such as Enron?
Week 9
Capstone DQ: Post your response to the following: Discuss what you have learned in this course about the process of analyzing financial statements.