Evaluate at least two industry financial best practices to increase financial performance, optimize market position, and maintain ethical practices currently not applied at the selected company to propose a method for the company to integrate the best practices with the least cost possible.

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Growth Strategies: Target Corporation

Overview
Every company wants to expand its operations and increase its revenue. A business plan with a five-year strategy to increase revenues is essential for a company to grow. Business plans have many components, and for this assessment, you will develop a business plan focused specifically on accounting and financial practices for growth.

You will develop a business plan for growth focused on accounting and financial practices to expand operations and increase revenue for your selected company. The plan will include a five-year strategy to increase revenues by 10%, and a recommendation for an organizational structure with mandates for effective corporate governance of internal controls, and practices for supporting an ethical environment. You will conduct research to identify industry best practices for strategies to increase financial performance and achieve the optimal position in the market while maintaining ethical financial practices. The plan will also integrate the relevant best practices as appropriate for the selected company.

Instructions
Write an 8–page paper in which you:
Analyze a selected company, its operations, and its associated industry and evaluate these areas for development of a business plan for growth to increase revenues by 10% over the next five years with ethical financial practices.
Recommend three or more well-defined improvements to corporate governance over the internal controls supported with examples of how the recommendations would impact the company’s financial statements.
The recommendations could be for improvement of sales, justification of opening different markets, or enhancement of current operations.

Recommend two or more improvements in ethical standards from an accounting perspective that are supported with examples of how the recommendations would impact the company’s financial statements.
The recommendations could be for better financial control, reduction in the loss of product, or increase employee collaboration.

Evaluate at least two industry financial best practices to increase financial performance, optimize market position, and maintain ethical practices currently not applied at the selected company to propose a method for the company to integrate the best practices with the least cost possible.
Recommend at least two industry practices to apply within current operations of the selected company that will increase financial performance, optimize market position, and maintain ethical practices.
Provide at least four reliable, relevant, peer-reviewed references, published within the last five years that support the paper’s claims.

Explain: Which investment opportunity you would recommend. What the conversion tax planning strategy is, and which of these investments employ this strategy. How “implicit taxes” may limit the benefits of the conversion strategy.

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Week 3 Tax

Writing, using software, and interpreting results is a large part of your learning experience. These assignments are designed to improve your use of technology and communication skills. Using proper business English and resources from the library you will comment and share your research with your classmates. Make sure you note your source in proper APA format.
Project Information:
You are a manager at a local accounting firm, and Kate and Sam Smith are your clients. It is the end of the year, and they have come to ask your advice on some tax planning strategies, as well as help preparing their tax return.

Based on the feedback you received last week, finalize the Smith’s tax returns.
Write a 4-page letter to Kate and Sam Smith which:
Walks them through their current year tax return.
Detail which expenses they incurred that were nondeductible for tax purposes and explain why. The Smiths have always itemized deductions instead of taking the standard deduction on their tax return. Explain how this may no longer be the best tax strategy due to changes in tax law under the TCJA.
Regarding the investment opportunities you calculated in week 1, explain:
Which investment opportunity you would recommend.
What the conversion tax planning strategy is, and which of these investments employ this strategy.
How “implicit taxes” may limit the benefits of the conversion strategy.
Kate and Sam are considering purchasing a vacation home. They plan on spending several months each year vacationing in the home and renting out the property the rest of the year. Provide an overview of the key tax considerations they should take into account when making this decision.
Library assistance
Link to Keiser’s elibrary resources: http://kesu-verso.auto-graphics.com/MVC/

What is different about applying lean in a factory versus a service situation? 

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Service organizations

1. Research and briefly describe one or two lean initiatives in service organizations and then make an argument for or against adopting lean principles in service businesses.  What is different about applying lean in a factory versus a service situation?  Describe your findings in a one-page (roughly) paper. 12 point font, single spaced.

What are the main principles of project management? How long has project management been practiced? What industries is project management widely used?

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Project management

Conduct a literature review (library and Internet) on Project Management and include all that you can find on that subject in the current professional and pedagogical literature.

What are the main principles of project management?
How long has project management been practiced?
What industries is project management widely used?
Is project management consistent globally?

Aiming to use this topic to get a full understanding of handling projects, especially as it relates to the wider understanding of production and operations management. Project management deals with planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals. This includes identifying and managing the lifecycle to be used, applying it to the user-centered design process, formulating the project team, and efficiently guiding the team through all phases until project completion.

What might have been the advantages and disadvantages to Iwoca in raising investment through family and friends as opposed to other forms of finance? 

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Business studies

TMA 01 is made up of two parts: Part A and Part B. You need to complete both parts of the assignment.

Part A: Case study – Iwoca

Part A of this TMA will be marked out of 80 marks. Your answer to this question should be no more than 1000 words.
Read the case study and answer the following questions:

Iwoca’s stated mission is to ‘to make financing available to a million customers’. Drawing on evidence from the case study evaluate their mission statement against the ‘six successful tests of a mission statement’ (Wilson and Gilligan, 2005). (30 marks)

What might have been the advantages and disadvantages to Iwoca in raising investment through family and friends as opposed to other forms of finance? (25 marks)

Describe five external business environment challenges which might affect Iwoca’s business model. (25 marks)

 

Struggling to get finance? I know just how that feels
Christoph Rieche is the boss of Iwoca, a lender that believes simplicity is the way to help small businesses
Eight years ago, Christoph Rieche decided to give up a plum role at Goldman Sachs to start a small business lender. It gave him an instant insight into exactly the kind of problems that many of his intended customers were facing.
In need of capital to offer to prospective borrowers but without the track record to secure wholesale finance, Mr Rieche turned to friends and family. “I started by tapping mates for about £20,000. Then the loan book was growing, so you need more. There would be that look in the eyes, don’t f*** it up.
“I had a family member who said, ‘I’ll give you £100,000, but I need it back [soon] because I’m buying a house.’ I thought, ‘If I screw this up and they can’t buy their house, it will be dreadful forever.’ ”
It hasn’t been dreadful. Fortunately for Mr Rieche and his benefactors, Iwoca, his company, has made such progress that it relies on institutions including NIBC Bank and Shawbrook Bank for its capital. And from the germ of an idea, Iwoca has grown to lend more than £1 billion to nearly 30,000 small companies.
Other aspects of the business have changed remarkably little, not least Mr Rieche’s outlook since he founded the business in 2011 with James Dear, a former Deutsche banker.
“We saw that small businesses have an acute challenge accessing finance, which means a big drag on productivity in the UK and other economies. That thought, which made me start the business, is still what gets me out of bed today. We want to be that bridge so that the business owner can sleep better.”
According to banks, small business lending has been muted since the financial crisis because there is a lack of demand. They cite surveys suggesting a long-term trend towards companies wanting to expand under their own steam rather than take on debt.
The message appears to be: “We’re making money available. It’s hardly our fault if entrepreneurs don’t want to borrow it.”
Mr Rieche, 39, begs to disagree: “[Since the crisis] there’s been growth in consumer finance and corporate finance and a contraction in small business lending. Something doesn’t add up.” He believes that businesses do want credit if it’s made simpler to find, apply for, secure and pay back. “Do banks make finance easily available to small businesses? If you don’t market loans properly for long enough, naturally after some time people don’t think about it and decide that it’s not for them.”
A typical Iwoca customer has been running for fewer than five years and is looking to borrow about £15,000. Its loans are unsecured. The London-based company started life by offering credit to eBay traders. Since it could see their selling data, credit decisions could be made swiftly, without the delays and paperwork associated with applying for a bank loan.
It was, Mr Rieche says, an “underserved and misunderstood market. In 2011, if an ecommerce merchant went to a bank and asked for a loan, the bank thinks, ‘I can’t believe you are doing this for a living’. ” An expansion into the broader economy began in 2014 via technology that reads applicants’ bank statements to make rapid credit decisions for short-term loans. Think of it as an alternative to the humble bank overdraft, something that small companies in their early days often find hard to secure.
This year Iwoca claimed that the number of new credit facility approvals that it was responsible for equated to 12 per cent of the British small business overdraft market. Yet Mr Rieche believes that the business has “barely scratched the surface” of where he wants it to get to. “Our mission is to make financing available to a million customers. That’s the north star.” Does that seem ambitious? “It’s a large number. We’re meant to look at that and say, ‘There’s a long way to go’.”
The company does appear to have a relatively solid base to build upon. Unlike peers including Funding Circle, the listed peer-to-peer lender, Iwoca is in the black, returning a maiden £1.4 million profit from sales of £48 million last year
“We’ve kept a balance between investing in growth while keeping our marketing spending very disciplined. You can lose a lot of money if you run off chasing growth.”
Iwoca Pay, a new invoice finance service, launches next year, while a more conventional business loan that doesn’t require a personal guarantee will follow in 2021, the result of a £10 million grant from a Royal Bank of Scotland fund designed to boost competition in business banking.
Further expansion will come from technology that allows third parties to use Iwoca to offer loans to their customers. For example, customers of Tide, a digital bank, can apply for an Iwoca loan without leaving Tide’s app.
Customer trading data from such partners should mean that credit decisions can be made without the borrower having to do much in terms of an application. Mr Rieche thinks that this concept, which he calls “open lending”, could allow Iwoca to get in front of two million small and medium-sized companies.
“Traditionally, a company like us has very limited reach through traditional marketing channels. To get small businesses to borrow, you have to take it to the places they’re already at so they stumble across it and think, ‘Yes, why not?’”
Iwoca offers a different approach to the high street banks that dominate small business finance, but Mr Rieche is no fan of the “alternative” tag that lenders like his company have been given. “I want people to say Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, Iwoca. I don’t want to be an alternative.”
‘I didn’t even consider approaching a high street bank for a loan. There was no chance’
Cecilia Downer decided to set up her own business, Nails and Cocktails, after poor service at a nail bar (James Hurley writes). “They rushed us in and out. I thought I could do better.”
Ms Downer, 38, decided to open a salon offering nail and other beauty treatments that also would serve drinks, providing a more fun and relaxing experience for clients.
She generated demand with a blog offering beauty tips and was soon being told to hurry up and get the venture up and running. Based in Chingford, northeast London, the business opened its doors in late 2017. When it needed furnishings, Ms Downer didn’t even consider approaching a high street bank for a loan. “There was no chance. Even opening a bank account was difficult.”
She found Iwoca via an internet search and applied for about £3,000. “It looked simple, straightforward, saying you could borrow within 24 hours. We did. It was smooth and easy.”
With that loan paid off, she hopes to return to finance an expansion to a site in Tottenham. In the meantime, she is running the company, which has four staff, while working as an operations manager for an accountancy firm. “I have a vision for an empire. I have to hustle hard. Can’t stop, won’t stop!”
Christoph Rieche, the co-founder of Iwoca, says that helping entrepreneurs such as Ms Downer is much more rewarding than his former life as a Goldman Sachs banker.
“I was keen to have an impact at the individual level. If you give a small business owner finance, it is quite different from helping someone like Nestlé. “You can help them hire, grow and ultimately have a big impact on their life and their family’s if the business can do better.”
Source: The Times, 4th November 2019

Part B: Block 1 mind map

This part of the TMA will be marked out of 20 marks.
In Week 9 (sessions 17 and 18) you explored both public and not-for-profit management. Create a mind map showing how the main themes and concepts from these sessions relate to each other. Your mind map should be no more than 200 words.

What causes costs in our operation? How much should be charged back to the customers and producing departments? How do our costs compare with those of outsourcing firms that perform the same service?

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Coursework

Over the past 10 to 15 years, companies such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Dow Chemical have taken certain support departments and formed shared services centers (SSCs). The SSC performs activities that are used across a wide array of the company’s divisions and departments. Payroll, receiving, customer billing, and accounts receivable processing are examples of SSCs. The company reaps the savings from economies of scale and standardized process design. Tools to measure performance are also incorporated into the SSC design. The SSC is faced with three important cost questions:
1. What causes costs in our operation?
2. How much should be charged back to the customers and producing departments?
3. How do our costs compare with those of outsourcing firms that perform the same service?

The drivers used to develop charging rates are seldom unit-based drivers (based on production). Instead, they might include the number of transactions processed and the percentage of errors in customer-provided information. Because activity-based costing (ABC) provides a better understanding of costs and their related drivers, it provides a better framework for managing SSC costs than traditional cost accounting systems.

What were the causes of the 2008 global financial crisis?

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2008 global financial crisis

What were the causes of the 2008 global financial crisis?

What should be valuation of the digital wallet? What will be the value of the company in 2027?

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Math/Physic/Economic/Statistic Problems

A digital wallet (4 years old) has 10 000+ daily installs accelerating 20% each month, and 2 billion addressable market. A local mobile bank (15 years old) has 20 000+ daily installs with 0 acceleration and 20 million addressable market. Local bank is valued at $5 billion with 50% country risk discount. The digital wallet has no country risk discount. What should be valuation of the digital wallet? $2.5 billion $10 billlion $100 billion $500 billion $1 trillioin 2-ARK invest estimates value of each US digital wallet user at $19,900 by 2025. Assume value of an international client will be $1000 in 2027 and number of monthly paying clients will grow from 30,000 at 10% monthly rate till 2027 and 0 afterwards. What will be the value of the company in 2027? 1899,718,800 $9,134,449,000 $28,667,815,000 $89,971,883,000

Why not just disclose the existence of the amnesty in Yukon’s fiscal 2021 financial statements and not account for it until fiscal 2022?

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Handout 7


Yukon, Inc. is a publicly-traded company with a September 30 fiscal year-end. Yukon operates an online retail business that fulfills online orders by shipping products directly to customers through a distribution center that has been located in State Z for the last ten years. This is the only physical presence that Yukon has in State Z. As a result, Yukon does not collect or remit sales tax on sales made to residents of State Z. The distribution center is vital to Yukon because State Z borders eight other states and, therefore, is a central location for Yukon to reach its customers. Yukon would like to construct a second distribution center at the other end of State Z. Such a facility would reduce its delivery costs in the future by millions of dollars.
State Z has denied Yukon a permit to build the distribution center until Yukon pays prior sales taxes totaling $30 million, $2 million in interest, and $3 million in penalties. Yukon’s legal position has always been that it does not do business in State Z and is not subject to its laws. And State Z’s legal position has always been that the distribution center constitutes a presence in the state subjecting Yukon to its laws as a corporation doing business in State Z. Yukon’s 2021 fiscal year has ended, and the financial statements will take approximately two months to prepare and distribute, which is estimated to occur on December 1, 2021. In September 2021, State Z’s legislature enacted an amnesty program that would forgive 50 percent of unpaid sales taxes and all interest and penalties if a company agreed to collect and remit sales taxes on all future sales made in State Z. In addition, State Z agreed to permit Yukon to build the second distribution center if they were granted amnesty. In October 2021, Yukon submitted the required application forms to participate in the amnesty, and paid State Z a total of $15 million to settle all past obligations through September 30, 2021. In a meeting of Yukon’s CEO, CFO, and Amelia Emerson, the Controller and a CPA, to discuss in what
accounting period to include the payment of the prior sales taxes (they were in agreement as to how), Amelia explained that the sales taxes might need to be reported in the financial statements for fiscal 2021. The CEO disagreed and argued that the 2021 fiscal year was over and proposed to account for the payment in the financial statements for fiscal 2022 – the year they were paid. He anticipated higher earnings in fiscal 2022, which would easily offset and absorb this $15 million hit to the income statement. The CEO was concerned that it would result in Yukon having to report a net loss for fiscal 2021. Of course, this would result in the CEO and the other executives not receiving their bonuses because Yukon fell short of reaching the for ecasted earnings. The CFO offered what she thought could be a possible compromise by asking “why not just disclose the existence of the amnesty in Yukon’s fiscal 2021 financial statements and not account for it until fiscal 2022?”
The CEO expressed that this might work, but strongly suggested to Amelia that she needed to do more research and be absolutely 100% certain before discussing this issue further. The CEO made it very clear that mere disclosure was the most he would find acceptable. His final comment was “whoever heard of changing the books after the year has ended?”
Amelia disagreed with both executives, but did not want to argue at the meeting until she could support her position with absolute certainty. Amelia thinks this has something to do with subsequent events and, therefore, knows in which accounting period to recognize the sales taxes. But Amelia wants you to provide her with your recommendation and the authoritative GAAP that supports it. Amelia was only recently hired as the Controller of Yukon and doesn’t want to upset the CEO and CFO in case she is wrong. Even though it’s Amelia’s responsibility to decide when to account for transactions, Amelia is tempted to let the CEO and CFO do whatever they want. However, she also doesn’t want to become involved with financial statements that violate GAAP.

Required:
You must complete this assignment independently on your own and not work with or collaborate in any way with any other person, including but not limited to your ACCT 350 classmates. Failure to work alone will constitute academic dishonesty.

• In the Course Navigation, click the Assignments link.
• Click Handout 7.
• Click the “Submit Assignment” button.
• Use the “Browse” button to select your document.
• Click the “Submit Assignment” button again.

Failure to submit this letter will result in you losing 10 points in ACCT 350.

Additional Information
To access the applicable section of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, go to page 29 of http://https://
pub.aicpa.org/codeofconduct/ethicsresources/et-cod.pdf.
To cite this rule, use the following:
In-text Citation
(AICPA, 2021, ET Section 1.100.001.01)

Describe a selected a company, its operations, and its associated industry and evaluate these areas to develop a financial risk mitigation plan.

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Operations Strategies

You will create a financial risk mitigation plan to reduce overall costs and increase efficiency in operations for your selected company. Your strategy is to apply best practices for mitigating financial risk and fraud exposure in the company’s operations. You will conduct research to identify industry best practices for risk mitigation to reduce financial fraud exposure and then integrate the relevant best practices into the risk mitigation plan as appropriate for the company. Your findings and recommended strategies would be presented as a financial risk mitigation plan for your selected company
Describe a selected a company, its operations, and its associated industry and evaluate these areas to develop a financial risk mitigation plan.
Evaluate at least three types of financial fraud common to the selected company and its associated industry supported with a detailed description of each type of financial fraud and how it can occur.
Recommend at least two proposed strategies for mitigating financial risk and fraud exposure based upon financial methods, auditing techniques, and industry best practices used to mitigate financial risk.