INTERMEDIATE FINANCIALS and ACCOUNTING RED FLAGS

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***This handout is supplemental material – Used at discretion of presenter***Accounting Tricks (cont’d)‣ “Big Bath”o Wholesale write-down of assets and liabilities in an effort to make the balancesheet particularly conservative, so there will be fewer expenses to serve as adrag on earnings in future years.Executive Compensation‣ Found in proxy statement‣ Form 4‣ Note deferred compensation (Wall Street Journal of Oct. 11, 2002)Earnings Management‣ Using GAAP flexibility to guide earnings toward a predetermined target ORmanipulating earnings toward a predetermined targeto Why? Preoccupation with meeting Wall Street expectationso Result: Not meeting target results in stock price decline‣ Depreciationo Changing depreciation methodso Changing useful lives used for depreciationo Changing estimate of salvage value for depreciation‣ Estimating write-downs‣ Estimating impaired assets‣ Changing pension assumptions‣ Special charges‣ Quarter-by-quarter comparison‣ Offsetting increases/decreases‣ Sources of margin changes‣ Trends in revenue, expenses‣ Announcing accounting changes just before the end of the quarter‣ Suspicious disclosures‣ Unusual, nonrecurring items‣ Fourth-quarter adjustments‣ Review explanations‣ Greater detail on reserves‣ Major areas of judgmentAggressive Accounting‣ Choosing “aggressive” policies designed to improve profitability‣ Revenue recognitiono After “sale” vs. at “sale”‣ Depreciation choiceso Accelerated, short period vs. straight-line, longer period‣ Inventoryo LIFO vs. FIFO______________________________________________________________________________________Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at the American Press InstituteInvestigative Business JournalismPage 12 of 13
***This handout is supplemental material – Used at discretion of presenter***Aggressive Accounting (cont’d)‣ Amortize goodwillo Shorter period vs. longer period‣ Estimate of bad debtso High estimate vs. low estimate‣ Treatment of advertisingo Expense vs. capitalizeEarly Warning Signs‣ Weak control environment‣ Management facing extreme competitive pressure‣ Management known or suspected of having questionable character (i.e., Al Dunlap)‣ Types of Companies to Watcho Fast-growth companies whose real growth is beginning to slowo Basket-case companies that are struggling to surviveo Newly public companieso Private companiesQualitative Screening‣ http://www.10kwizard.com‣ http://access.edgar-online.com‣ Key Search Phraseso Change in accounting estimate or principleo Financing or extended credit termso Changes in accounting policieso Changes in account classificationo Change in auditorso Extended payment termso Percentage of completiono Unbilled receivableso Bill and holdo More liberal credit termso Insider stock saleso Decline in backlogo Layaway saleso Nonmonetary transactionso Related-party transactionsCOMPILED BY:James K. Gentry, professor and former deanSchool of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Kansasjgentry@ku.edu______________________________________________________________________________________Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at the American Press InstituteInvestigative Business JournalismPage 13 of 13
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INTERMEDIATE FINANCIALS and ACCOUNTING RED FLAGS

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