Katie Vote owns a small business that rents computers to students at the local university for the 9-month school year. Katie’s typical rental contract requires the student to pay the year’s rent of $1,800 ($200 per month) in advance. When Katie prepares financial statements at the end of December, her accountant requires that Katie spread the $1,800 over the 9 months that a computer is rented. Therefore, Katie can recognize only$800 revenue (4 months) from each computer rental contract in the year the cash is collected and must defer recognition of the remaining $1,000 (5 months) to next year. Katie argues that getting students to agree to rent the computer is the most difficult part of the activity so she ought to be able to recognize all$1,800 as revenue when the cash is received from a student.

Required:

Explain why generally accepted accounting principles require the use of accrual accounting rather than cash-basis accounting for transactions like the one described here.

During the $1990$s, General Electric put together a long string of consecutive quarters in which the firm managed to meet or beat the earnings forecasts of Wall Street stock analysts. Some skeptics wondered if GE “managed" earnings to meet Wall Street's expectations, meaning that GE used accounting gimmicks to conceal the true volatility in its business. How do you think GE's long run of meeting or beating earnings forecasts affected its cost of capital? If investors learn that GE's performance was achieved largely through accounting gimmicks, how do you think they would respond?

Listed below are nine technical accounting terms:

$$\begin{array}{lll}\text { Variable costs } & \text { Relevant range } & \text { Contribution margin } \\ \text { Break-even point } & \text { Fixed costs } & \text { Semivariable costs } \\ \text { Economies of scale } & \text { Sales mix } & \text { Unit contribution margin }\end{array}$$

Each of the following statements may (or may not) describe one of these technical terms. For each statement, indicate the accounting term described, or answer "None" if the statement does not correctly describe any of the terms.

e. Unit sales price minus variable cost per unit.

Mary Wade owns a small business that rents parking spaces to students at the local university. Mary’s typical rental contract requires the student to pay the year’s rent of $720 ($60 per month) in advance. When Mary prepares financial statements at the end of December, her accountant requires that Mary spread the $720 over the 12 months that a parking space is rented. Therefore, Mary can recognize only$240 revenue (4 months) from each contract in the year the cash is collected and must defer recognition of the remaining $480 (8 months) to next year. Mary argues that getting students to agree to rent the parking space is the most difficult part of the activity so she ought to be able to recognize all$720 as revenue when the cash is received from a student.

Required:

Explain why generally accepted accounting principles require the use of accrual accounting rather than cash-basis accounting for transactions like the one described here.

Listed below are nine technical accounting terms:

$$\begin{array}{lll}\text { Variable costs } & \text { Relevant range } & \text { Contribution margin } \\ \text { Break-even point } & \text { Fixed costs } & \text { Semivariable costs } \\ \text { Economies of scale } & \text { Sales mix } & \text { Unit contribution margin }\end{array}$$

Each of the following statements may (or may not) describe one of these technical terms. For each statement, indicate the accounting term described, or answer "None" if the statement does not correctly describe any of the terms.

g. Costs that respond to changes in sales volume by less than a proportionate amount.

Listed below are nine technical accounting terms used in this chapter:

$$\begin{array}{lll}\text { Unrecorded revenue } & \text { Adjusting entries } & \text { Accrued expenses } \\ \text { Book value } & \text { Matching principle } & \text { Accumulated depreciation } \\ \text { Unearned revenue } & \text { Materiality } & \text { Prepaid expenses }\end{array}$$

Each of the following statements may (or may not) describe one of these technical terms. For each statement, indicate the accounting term described, or answer "None" if the statement does not correctly describe any of the terms.
f. A type of account credited when customers pay in advance for services to be rendered in the future.

Alsup Consulting sometimes performs services for which it receives payment at the conclusion of the engagement, up to six months after services commence. Alsup recognizes service revenue for financial reporting purposes when the services are performed. For tax purposes, revenue is reported when fees are collected. Service revenue, collections, and pretax accounting income for 2017–2020 are as follows:

There are no differences between accounting income and taxable income other than the temporary difference described above. The enacted tax rate for each year is$40 \%$.

Required:

1. Prepare the appropriate journal entry to record Alsup's 2018 income taxes.
2. Prepare the appropriate journal entry to record Alsup's 2019 income taxes.
3. Prepare the appropriate journal entry to record Alsup's 2020 income taxes.

An energy production company has the following information regarding the acquisition of new gas-turbine equipment. Purchase price = $780,000. Trans-oceanic shipping and delivery cost =$4300. Installation cost (1 technician at $1600 per day for 4 days) =$6400. Tax recovery period = 15 years. Book depreciation recovery period = 10 years. Salvage value = 10% of purchase price. Operating cost (with technician) = $185,000 per year. The manager of the department asked your friend in Accounting to enter the appropriate data into the tax-accounting program. What are the values of B, n, and S in depreciating the asset for tax purposes that he should enter?

The following are nine technical accounting terms introduced or emphasized in this chapter:

$$\begin{array}{lll}\text { Responsibility margin } & \text { Transfer price } & \text { Common fixed costs } \\ \text { Contribution margin } & \text { Cost-plus transfer price } & \text { Traceable fixed costs } \\ \text { Performance margin } & \text { Product costs } & \text { Committed fixed costs }\end{array}$$

Each of the following statements may (or may not) describe one of these technical terms. For each statement, indicate the accounting term described, or answer "None" if the statement does not correctly describe any of the terms.

c. Fixed costs that are readily controllable by the manager.

The following situations describe decision scenarios that could use managerial accounting information:

1. The manager of High Times Restaurant wants to determine the price to charge for various lunch plates.
2. By evaluating the cost of leftover materials, the plant manager of a precision tool facility wants to determine how effectively the plant is being run.
3. The division controller of West Coast Supplies needs to determine the cost of products left in inventory.
4. The manager of the Maintenance Department of a large manufacturing company wants to plan next year's anticipated expenditures.

For each situation, discuss how managerial accounting information could be used.

Test your understanding of accounting for plant assets, natural resources, and intangibles by answering the following questions. Select the best choice from among the possible answers given. Which statement about depreciation is false? a. Depreciation is a process of allocating the cost of an asset to expense over its useful life. b. Obsolescence as well as physical wear and tear should be considered when determining the period over which an asset should be depreciated. c. Depreciation should not be recorded in years in which the market value of the asset has increased. d. A major objective of depreciation accounting is to allocate the cost of using an asset against the revenues it helps to generate.

The Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the largest and best-managed opera companies in the United States. Managing opera productions requires advance planning, including the development of scenery, costumes, and stage properties and the sale of tickets. To measure how well the company is operating in any given year, management must apply accrual accounting to these and other transactions. At year-end, April 30, 2011, Lyric Opera’s balance sheet showed deferred production costs and other assets of $1,978,322 and deferred ticket and other revenue of$12,710,639. What accounting policies and adjusting entries are applicable to these accounts? Why are they important to Lyric Opera’s management?

Listed below are nine technical accounting terms used in this chapter:

$$\begin{array}{lll}\text { Unrecorded revenue } & \text { Adjusting entries } & \text { Accrued expenses } \\ \text { Book value } & \text { Matching principle } & \text { Accumulated depreciation } \\ \text { Unearned revenue } & \text { Materiality } & \text { Prepaid expenses }\end{array}$$

Each of the following statements may (or may not) describe one of these technical terms. For each statement, indicate the accounting term described, or answer "None" if the statement does not correctly describe any of the terms.
h. An expense representing the systematic allocation of an asset's cost over its useful life.

Are the marks one receives in a course related to the amount of time spent studying the subject? To investigate this mysterious possibility, a student took a random sample of 10 students who had enrolled in an accounting class last semester. He asked each to report his or her mark in the course and the total number of hours spent studying accounting. These data are listed here: Study

$$\begin{array}{rllllllllll}\text { time } & 40 & 42 & 37 & 47 & 25 & 44 & 41 & 48 & 35 & 28 \\ \text { Marks } & 77 & 63 & 79 & 86 & 51 & 78 & 83 & 90 & 65 & 47\end{array}$$

Calculate the covariance.