What costs would the New England Patriots have considered when analyzing the purchase of team planes and when pricing the rental of its team planes?

The New England Patriots recently became the first National Football League (NFL) franchise to buy its own team aircraft. The Patriots purchased two Boeing 767 planes for a total of about $10 million. Both planes have been painted with the team’s logo and colors. The Patriots will use the planes for the ten round trips […]

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Karen Braun’s 7 Excel projects for managerial accounting

If you teach managerial accounting, you may want to look at Dr. Karen Braun’s Excel projects for managerial accounting. She has created seven Excel projects on various topics in managerial accounting, complete with step-by-step student instructions and instructor solutions. The topics include: Job costing Cost behavior CVP analysis Process costing Budgeting Flexible budgeting Division evaluation […]

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What information is provided in McDonald’s basic financial statements?

McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) is a publicly held corporation with more than $31 billion in assets. It started in 1940 as a BBQ restaurant in San Bernardino, California. In 1948, McDonald’s switched to burgers, shakes, potato chips, and pie. Its Golden Arches are generally believed to be the most recognized symbol in the world. To […]

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NEW! Create Customized Financial Accounting Case Assignments with the Accounting Case Template

The Accounting Case Template (ACT) is a web tool I designed that allows instructors to quickly build an introductory financial accounting case assignment. A variety of options are provided from which the instructor can choose, allowing the instructor to quickly build a case assignment customized for his/her specific course. It takes about two minutes to […]

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Do cash dividends paid affect a company’s breakeven point?

A recent blog posting for the Wall Street Journal had the headline “Big Oil Reaches for a Modest Goal: Breaking Even – Energy Journal[1].” The article stated that the “two-year slump in oil prices led…[big oil companies]…to rein in spending and lay off workers but the firms still didn’t make enough money in 2016 to […]

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Accounting in the Headlines has a new look!

My blog, Accounting in the Headlines, has a new look! Check it out when you can. A few months ago, I went to IdeaBase, a Kent State student-powered design agency located in downtown Kent and worked with the designers to come up with a fresh, new look for Accounting in the Headlines.  All blog postings […]

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How should AmTrust have accounted for the sales of its extended warranty plans to avoid restating three years of financial statements?

AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., (NASDAQ: AFSI) is a multinational property and casualty insurance company headquartered in New York.  In 2017, the company had to restate three years of financial statements due to several accounting errors, the key one being how it accounted for extended warranties. AmTrust provides extended-service plans (ESP) for automobiles and other consumer […]

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What has been the accounts payable turnover trend for Hasbro and Mattel?

Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) and Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT) are two companies in the toy and game industry. Hasbro products include Monopoly board games, G.I. Joe dolls, Furby electronic stuffed animals, Transformers mechanical toys, and the My Little Pony toys. Mattel products include Fisher-Price toys, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels cars, American Girl dolls, Apples to […]

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What could a Logitech staff accountant have done if he/she knew that the CFO and controller failed to write down the discontinued Revue parts inventory?

In the fourth quarter of 2010, Logitech International released the Revue, a TV set-top box designed to integrate cable/satellite TV with internet content. The Revue Google search bar would be able to find any desired content from any provider and project that content to the TV screen. The Revue was manufactured by contract manufacturers, not […]

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How does Apple’s issuance of bonds and buyback of its own stock impact its accounting equation?

In May 2017, Apple Inc., filed a prospectus with the SEC, indicating that it would be issuing another $7 billion in bonds during 2017. (Apple issued $10 billion in bonds in February 2017 in the US and $1 billion in Taiwan.) With the bond proceeds, Apple will be buying back its own stock. Apple has […]

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