Accounting Article Reviews Samples For Students

Article Summary

Mental accounting is a group of cognitive operations that households and individuals use individuals to organise, evaluate, and keep track of business operations. The article summarises the current state of our components of mental knowledge about how people engage in mental accounting. The article is a depth analysis of mental accounting in relation to personal decision-making. The author starts by introducing mental accounting. According to the author, the difference between mental accounting and financial and managerial accounting is the fact that mental accounting involves households and individuals and not organisations.
The other also highlights the process of mental decision-making. The ...

Summary: Consumer Behavior

Mental accounting can be said to be a set of cognitive operations that households and individuals use to organize, evaluate and keep track of their financial activities. This paper gives a summary about our current understanding about the nature of people’s engagement in mental accounting techniques. This paper concentrates on the three components of mental accounting. The first one is concerned with how people perceive and experience outcomes, and how decisions are made and then evaluated. For example, a consumer choice can be understood by incorporating value of the deal. The second component of mental accounting involves assigning activities to certain ...

Jaarat (15) says that human resource is a vital entity in every business entity since it controls and directs other resources. The accounting department recognizes the human resource as an important asset in stating the financial position. Whenever there is, a lack of measurement in the use of the financial resource, the human resource in the company is accountable. According to Jaarat (15), a model for measuring and recognizing human resource in the statement of financial position can better the organization.
Jaarat (16) confirms that human resource is the most expensive resource in every business entity. This resource applies directly through ...

In any business, the major battleground is financial accounting, and there is no government or industry regulation that can prevent unethical ways that people use in dishonestly reporting given financial information (Duska, 2007). For example, there are certain accounting practices that are illegal like misinterpretation of figures and expenses on a company’s financial statement. However, some legal accounting practices are unethical (for example, influencing financial results by shifting expenses unjustifiably).
Arthur Andersen LLP is a good example of a company that violated accounting ethics. This accounting firm would have become one of the largest firms in the USA because it ...

Where Auditors Fear to Tread Article Review

In the article Where Auditors Fear to Tread, Paul M. Clikeman brings to light the issue of earnings management. Clikeman argues that earnings management should be classified in the same category as fraud because both earnings management and fraud have one thing in common: misrepresenting the organization’s financial performance. Clikeman goes further to allege that the flexibility within GAAP (General Accepted Accounting Principles) allows this subtle form of fraud to take place. He further asserts that this unethical practice is either ignored or even encouraged.
The article also gives some of the reasons as to why managers ...

Situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting

Opportunity is one aspect that may lead to unethical practice in accounting. Accountants normally encounter or are involved in transactions that have large sums of money changing hands. As such, the constant access to this money may provide the best opportunity for an individual to start siphoning small amounts of money, which cannot be easily recognized since the transactions deal with huge amounts of money. For instance, in transactions that involve billions, an accountant may decide to be siphoning as little as 100 dollars. Increasing financial needs make people to seek opportunities that may lead to unethical practices.
...

Article summary

The SEC is investigating Barnes and Noble’s accounting. This is based on the company’s decision to restate its earnings for both 2011 and 2012 fiscal years. In 2011, there was a loss restatement from $ 68.8 million to $ 73.9 million. In 2012, there was a loss restatement from $ 64.8 million to $ 68.9 million (Trachtenberg, 2013). This matter has led to a decline in stock price of the company by 12% to $ 14.43. Earnings restatement was based on an overstatement of accruals for the two years. A deferred tax liability is another correction that Barnes and Noble wish to change. The current ...

Article Review: Practical Issues in Managerial Cost Accounting

The article examines the cost accounting in the modern context and concentrates on its application at the managerial level. The position of the authors is that cost accounting is essential in the managerial operations. In the discussion, the authors bring out the fact that costs accounting as a disciple is essential not in external reporting but for the internal consumption of the organization. The authors conclude the paper by advocating for the need to apply cost accounting knowledge and information on day to day managerial practises hence the title, practical issues in managerial costs accounting. The paper shall summarise the ...

The survey intends to assess this relationship and how it impacts on business performances. There have been numerous studies on relationships between financial and social performances, but none of the studies provides findings on the importance of disclosures. According to the study, annual reports and accounts disclosures are sufficient elements that should be considered in social performance measurements. The significance of the survey is further explained by the fact that social reports and disclosures are only made by large firms with no audit records. This implies biasness in such reports; hence they are not sufficient tools to assess business ...

Accounting: “the origination and development of China’s audit firms: ‘translation’ meets self-determination” by Shuwen Deng and Richard Macve. Presentation at the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conference 2012.

1. The authors state, page 3-4, “our primary research question is to explore how far it is realistic suppose that one or more indigenous Chinese firms can occupy a position internationally alongside the current Big 4”.

a. In your own words, provide a few details of what they mean – about 3 – 5 sentences.

Some people are predicting that the next big international firm will be a Chinese indigenous CPA firm – one that is purely a ...

Article Review

Article Review
Chakraborty Rajot
Introduction
Finance department is a core department in an organization, generally endowed with an oversight responsibility for the effective management of a company’s or an organization’s money. The vital functions performed by the department encompass, financing business activities, recording transactions, developing budgets and reporting financial results, and these facets are well enunciated in Chakraborty’s article. Besides, this paper reviews some of the key functions performed by qualified personnel in the finance department, in conjunction to the principal roles of the department. Also, it reviews, functions delineated in Chakraborty’s article, in ...

The Article “Closing the GAAP” written by Mark K Conny and Published by Enzinearticles on November 22, 2011 analyses the due process and benefits of moving from GAAP-Generally Accepted Accounting principles to the IRFS-International Financing Reporting Standards. The author presents the plans made by US companies requiring that each of them adopts the IFRS by the year 2015 once those plans are approved. The author points out that even though no date has been set yet everyone should be ready for what he refers to as done deal and notes that although differences do exist between IRFS and US ...

Integration of ABM and ABC in Dow Chemicals Limited

The Dow chemical, an international chemical company, applied activity based costing in order to enable the global business to report the contribution margins according to the geographical area, specific products and customers. The management believed that the system would assist in better decision making in the use and the deployment of its resources. In the traditional accounting system, the costs were assigned to areas such as sales and purchases. However the method was inappropriate as it resulted to fluctuating cash flows since the main focus of costs was on prime costs. It did not provide the manager with accurate ...

In this article, the authors discuss the various threats that accountants and auditors need to bear in mind when performing information security for their respective companies. Also, the article examines SOX and how it dictates the duties that managers and accountants must attend to when dealing with potential security threats. Due to the new technologies and information systems that change on an almost daily basis, it is important for information security professionals to keep up with current business topics and techniques to successfully prevent breaches in security and hacking. The importance of academics to properly educate future AIS professionals ...

Marchant (2013) wrote the article Management Accounting in the 21st Century: A Profession for Which the Time Has Come, about the growing importance of management accountants in the new century. The author indicates that the twenty-first century has witnessed the emergence of an economy based on the information age, in which knowledge is a primary source of competitiveness. As the boundaries of traditional industries become a blur, there is a new level of demand for the skills of today`s accountants (Marchant, 2013).
Marchant (2013) underline the importance of developing an analytical ability, by assembling a team of professionals ...

Introductory section

- Does this material define the primary government? The document has defined the primary government in which the city operates under as the council manger form with six members who are elected for a four year term.
- Does the introductory section discuss the government’s financial condition at the balance sheet date? The introduction briefly discusses the financial position of the government where it states that on a government wide basis, the city’s net assets grew by $19.6 million in that fiscal year which was generated by governmental activities it continues to state that the city’s combined ...

Article Reviews

The newly developed SASB allowed companies to take into consideration external events (Eccles, 2016) that cannot be controlled such as the effects of climate change. The reason for the accounting standard addition is that governments cannot ignore the effects on industrial markets and their investors (Eccles, 2016). The value of accounting standards is that it allows individuals, companies, and governments to generate wealth since it allows financial performance comparisons (Eccles, 2016). The problem is that there was no previous standard developed for nonfinancial performances (Eccles, 2016) especially on environmental and social activities.

Areas of Agreement

The advantage of the article is that ...

Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summaries
For any business professional to succeed and become a competent and successful professional, he must possess good communication skills. Communication skills such as written communication, oral communication, and interpersonal communication are necessary to survive in today’s competitive era. The same fact also stands true for accounting professionals. According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), communication skills are and will remain in future as important a skill as any other professional skill. AICPA lists “effective business writing” as a necessary skill for competence in public accounting. Unfortunately, some of the entry level accountants do ...

Introduction

The Enron scandal of 2011 revealed that the Federal government’s accounting and auditing regulations of Fortune 500 firms were lax at best. The fact that one of the largest accounting and auditing firms at the time was an active participant in the scandal illustrated the need for additional industry oversight. Andersen was the accounting firm that was responsible for auditing Enron’s financial statements. The accounting firm failed to call out Enron on discrepancies and questionable accounting practices that overstated Enron’s earnings and understated its debt (Cross & Kunkel, 2012). This showed that generally accepted accounting practices or ...

Summary of the Four Elements of Financial Management

Healthcare industry is riddled with high operation costs. In most instances, the revenues generated from offering medical services far exceed the revenue received from offering such services. As a result, facilities incur huge losses during their operation periods. Financial management information is very vital for controlling these costs through its four elements. To begin with, financial management begins by measuring the quantitative and qualitative performance of a healthcare facility. In addition to measuring the financial strength of the facility, they also measure the quality of care and the level of patient satisfaction. By using diverse categories of measures, health facilities can ...

Auditors Wield Mathematical Weapons to Detect Cheating

Auditors Wield Mathematical Weapons to Detect Cheating
This article is dedicated to the depiction of the case when the analysis of the accounting data may reveal the ethical misconduct and accounting fraud. The team of the forensic accountants has dedicated their activity to the assessment and evaluation of the refunds, which were issued by the national call center. The forensic accountants have identified that there was exceed number of ‘fours’ in the data – only accountants are able to reveal and address the pitfalls, implied by such issue.
It was identified that the lion share of the refund-related operations was ...

Sarbanes-Oxley Act is an act by the United States congress in 2002 aim at protecting investors through corporate disclosures accuracy and reliability. It mandated strict reforms aimed at improving financial disclosures and possibly prevent accounting fraud. The scandals of early 2000s such as Tycoon, WorldCom and Enron predicated the enacted of SOX. These scandals shook investor confidence, and an overhaul of regulatory standards was required. The SOX Act outlined rules as well as enforcement policies, which amended or supplemented existing legislation. There are two key provisions of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act which are section 302 and section 404. Section ...

Professional Skepticism means an approach towards accounting which includes a questioning mind and being in a position which questions a possibility of fraud, errors or misstatement and is a critical evaluation of audit evidence. It is essential for a quality audit. Professional skepticism is a skill which is very similar to professional judgment and helps in providing an opinion for an audit engagement. Professional skepticism helps in asking questions which make sure that any information provided is true. It is an approach which is similar to a judgment and auditors with professional skepticism tend to make good decisions as well as provide correct information on the ...

The article provides in-depth information on Egypt’s effort to reinforce its accounting and International financial reporting standards (IFRS) over the last twenty years. Egypt’s decision to liberalize its economy has indeed created more benefits for the country and this has allowed it to become a dynamic market economy incorporating both the private sector as well as the global economy. Subsequently, the Economic liberalization enabled the reactivation of the securities exchange market and the establishment of a privatization program. As a result, Egypt sought to integrate the International Financial Reporting Standards in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of various ...

Accounting control system ensures accuracy and reliability of information required by management for decision making. Accuracy and reliability of information is a prerequisite for management especially when an organization start becoming complex. Reliability and accuracy of information depends on how well the information reflects the economic events which t is based on (ACC, 2014). The financial statements should reflect the fair view of the status of the organization. This means that they have to be accurate. This accuracy can be verified through audit function, accounting information system and the internal controls. A Board of Education is part the management in ...

1. Describe what is being studied

The study is about the accuracy of social reporting by firms in the United States with a focus on the environmental performance reported in those social reports issued by firms with their annual reports.
Specifically, the study seeks to evaluate the adequacy of environmental disclosures in social reports issued by corporate bodies in their annual reports for subjects with different backgrounds to form homogeneous perceptions of a firm’s environmental performance. The study also further seeks to examine the adequacy of environmental disclosures in annual reports of corporate bodies to objectively evaluate relative environmental performance among firms in the same ...

In 2002, the adoption of the Sarbanes Oxley act transformed the performance of the business units at the market and influence the business ethics of the companies. The author of the article “The Unexpected Benefits of Sarbanes-Oxley” stipulates that initial aim of the adoption of the legal acts was to overcome the fraud in order to improve the credibility of the companies (Wagner, 2006). First of all, all the companies within the territory of the country has faced the necessity to report about its activity to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, while the majority of the business units ...

Article Summary

The article sheds light on how large corporations such as Enron and WorldCom have been involved in malpractices related to the way these corporations were run. Both Enron and WorldCom were guilty of ignoring the demands of the stakeholders. Therefore, there is a strong need for major changes in the way such corporations are run, and for environmental and social factors to be kept in mind. One way of pleasing all parties is through a process called Socially Responsible Investing or SRI. SRI does not mean that businesses ignore the financial side of things and safeguard social and environmental factors at the ...

The theory of sustainable development is perhaps the most equivocal factor that has dominated many debates in addition to generating equally varied interpretations from environmentalists. Sustainable development places significant importance on the maintenance of natural resources. For this reason, several values often emerge when defining or during the inclusion of natural resources. Resources come in different types that can be categorized as renewable and non-renewable. While resources are useful for the survival of humans both in supporting life and in meeting people’s needs, the satisfaction of human needs and scarcity of resources has led to several resistances. Such ...

American Public University

In this paper, I will analyze the advantages of creating a business in the form of corporation and cost structures of companies. Companies develop some strategies to have the possible least cost of production and gain an advantage in competition. Preference for forming an organization is the first step. Corporation legal structure presents some advantages to companies. Also, companies need to have full knowledge of costs to be able to manage costs to maximize their profits. Eventually, this paper will give some insights about these subjects.
Corporation is a legal form of building an organization for a company. Operating ...

and Hurdle Rates in Nordic firms
This article discussed the study conducted about the factors that affected the choice of capital budgeting methods among five Nordic countries. It was noted that the Net Present Value method has been considered as the best option in the evaluation of investment decisions. Some of the complexities associated with the use of NPV in terms of its application in capital budgeting and the setting of discount rates lead to this study, which concentrated on the administration of the survey from firms located in Nordic countries.
The research revealed that the Discounted Cash Flow ...

Recent scandals involving the corruption of some of the biggest companies in the world has forced the public to call for the teaching of business ethics at universities. Some of the biggest scandals have included Saytam, Lehman brothers, Bernie Madoff, American Insurance Scandal, Freddie Mac, HealthSouth, Tyco, Worldcom, Enron and the Waste Management; the start of an endless list. It is hoped that ethical training will train students make better decisions however it does not address the realities of most organizations. Business ethics is useless in the face of problems with the governance and structures of an organization. It ...

Question No. 1: In what specific ways was John Snow’s approach to accounting the disease a departure from accepted explanation to the outbreak of cholera?

Prior to John Snow’s approach to accounting for the outbreak of cholera, it was believed by many, including physicians, that the disease was a blood disorder. This was because some of the symptoms of the disease include the bursting of small vessels that make the skin turn blue as the blood become thicker and tar-like because of dehydration. It was also generally believed that the disease was air-borne (Ball 3). The failure then ...

White collar crimes are financially motivated and non-violent crimes majorly committed by people of high social status. The term “white collar crime” was coined in 1939 by Edwin Sutherland in his speech to the American Sociological Society.White collar crimes are difficult to detect and prosecute. Perpetrators employ highly sophisticated methods to commit crimes and hide the heinous activities through a chain of complex financial transactions. Punishment for these crimes involve: incarceration, restitution, community service, probation, criminal forfeiture, fines or disgorgement.

Bernie Madoff's $50 Billion Ponzi Scheme-Forbes Magazine

This prominent investor was involved in a Ponzi investment scam with the Madoff’s Hedge Fund. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent ...

Executive Summary

Company A and company B have very similar as well as very different financial statements. Both the companies are showing positive sales growth. While company A seems to be growing at a very high pace, company B is growing at a steady but slow pace. However, even upon growing at a higher pace company A’s profit has declined due to not being able to manage the input cost for production appropriately (cost of goods sold). On the other hand company B is also feeling the impact of the increasing input cost but it has managed it better than Company A and ...

Critical Review: “Like” and “Check-in”: How Hotels Utilize Facebook as an Effective Marketing Tool

Critical Review: “Like” and “Check-in”: How Hotels Utilize Facebook as an Effective Marketing Tool
1 Introduction
This paper is a critique of the research traditions utilized in the ‘”Like” and “Check”: How hotels utilize Facebook as an effective marketing tool’, written by Kelly V Phelan, Hsiang-Ting Chen, and Matthew Haney, and published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Volume 4, Issue 2, 2013. The critique will explore the philosophical background of the article and the logical approach followed by the authors in the process of conducting the research. It will also evaluate the research ...

Article Review

SHRM and Tacit Knowledge Transfer: A Case Study
The Article under scrutiny was written by Abdelwahab Aït Razouk, Mohamed Bayad and Delphine Wannenmacher for the Journal Human Systems Management in the year 2009. The authors wish to explore the link between Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Knowledge transfer within an organization. It is well understood from the abstract of the article that the authors are very clear about what they wish to investigate- Their objective is to study how the ‘Tacit Knowledge’ transferred is assisted and aided by the perspectives and practices of SHRM.
The ...