Cost-effective measures

Bill Morani had a duty of ensuring that the company and its task force of fleets adhered to the policies and regulations governing environmental safety.  Having been in the company for long he was able to see the environmental impact and the complexity that was rapidly evolving in environment regulation (Silverman, 2012). Morani viewed the current company initiatives that were in place as a result of environmental concerns and what was to be done and emphasized on future. According to Dan, the manager of fuel conservation committee asked Morani to consider the wind turbine Bill as it was one of the initiatives. According to Dan the turbines on the dock of their ferries were able to achieve a gainful reduction in fuel usage (Silverman, 2012).

It would be recommendable for Morani to consider the wind turbine project as it would result in a reduction in the amount of fuel used to navigate each ferry. This means that there would be a reduction of carbon gas emitted and the amount and concentration of sulfur and nitrous oxides will be reduced. The emission of particulate matter will also be greatly reduced (Silverman, 2012). This means that the major issue of cruise industry problem will be solved by the use of wind turbines. It would also be advisable to undertake the project because fuel conservation is one of the company strategies which will result in a win-win situation for the company and the environment. Fuel consumption will be reduced and the emission of greenhouse gasses and other pollutants will be eradicated which means that money will be saved and the money can be used to offset the increased cost of cleaner fuel (Silverman, 2012).

Reference

Silverman M (2012). Protecting our oceans: sustainability at Holland America Line. San Francisco State University and the Campell Foundation.

 Countrywide Financial Corporation and the Subprime Mortgage Debacle Case Study

The foundation date of Countrywide Financial Corporation can be cited back in 1969 when the organization was co-founded by Angelo Mozilo who partnered with David Loeb (Eastburn, 2016).  It can be asserted that Mozilo has contributed significantly in the domination of the institution as the biggest real estate loan provider in United States. On the other hand, citing from the collapse of the company, it can be asserted that he promoted to the fall of Countrywide Financial Corporation back in 2006. Before the fall, Countrywide Financial Corporation valued at $24 billion and more than $200 million in terms of assets (Eastburn, 2016). The recognition of the business was promoted by the fact that it lowered homeownership barriers to a large number of U.S citizens (Ferrell et al, 2010). Additionally, the business lowered the financial barriers to the low-income earners in the country.

 Countrywide Financial Corporation possessed five major business segments which included mortgage banking, capital markets, banking, insurance and worldwide operations. Precisely, mortgage banking included sale mortgage loans which generated approximately 48% profits (Eastburn, 2016). On the other hand, capital markets segment involved sale of mortgage backed securities through broker trading. Lastly, the global operation segment of the business involved licensing of proprietary business to other mortgage firms in international markets. It is noteworthy that prior to the subprime mortgage crisis, the company was suffering from different other crisis incidents such as complains from the employees on racism, being overworked and favoritism particularly on offering concessions (Ferrell et al, 2010).

After the government reduced the lending regulation, Countrywide benefited significantly as they were able to extend their credit over the breakeven level of their borrowers. Additionally, as the demand for the mortgage backed securities increased, Countrywide was able to shift liabilities away from the financial books and records to the investment banks (Eastburn, 2016). This means that they realized huge profits in the short run which made them overlook the future consequences. However, by the turn of the new millennium, a significant number of the banks and brokers were employing this strategy of keeping their liabilities off-record (Eastburn, 2016). A good example of one company that collapsed from this strategy is Enron Company which went bankrupt back in 2001. In Countrywide’s case, it was exhibited that the incentives paid on the loans originations where the defaults were not recorded. Additionally, it was noted that Mozilo invested approximately $121 million in Bank of America and received up to $115 million after the sale back in 2007 as an executive compensation (Eastburn, 2016).   

SWOT Analysis

Under the technological factors, Countrywide Financial Corporation can be affected both positively and negatively though the magnitude of the negative effect appears to be more detrimental. For instance, the rise of the internet increases chances of cyber hacking which can affect the competitive advantage of the organization. However, it is factual that the organization will benefit from the increasing demand in the market particularly as the home ownership increases rapidly in United States.

References

Oppel, R. A, & Sorkin, A. R., (2001). Enron’s Collapse: The Overview; Enron Collapses as Suitor Cancels Plans for Merger. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/29/business/enron-s-collapse-the-overview-enron-collapses-as-suitor-cancels-plans-for-merger.html?pagewanted=all

Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2010). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases : 2009 update. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Budget Allocation Challenges

Budget allocation and management of resources is a critical aspect of any project. To make a project success such as in public schools the pattern of expenditure has to be in line with the overall objective of the project. In general budget allocation involves the prediction of the possible cost of the project that will be incurred for the planned activities. The key to the implementation of a successful project involves realistic planning of resources (Xiao, 2008). The process of budgeting and managing the resources has to be done in a professional and a transparent manner in order to convince different stakeholders involved in the project.

There are challenges that face budget allocation and resource management. By considering all different tasks involved in the project when allocating the budget can be a challenge (Xiao, 2008). The sponsoring agencies in the project require a detailed budget to assess whether the proposal is realistic and economically feasible. This is a challenging area where professionalism is required. The stakeholder’s continuously fund the project it is close to the actual progress of the overall objectives (Xiao, 2008). This means that if the project does not run as planned the stakeholders and the sponsoring agencies can withdraw at any particular time leaving the project uncompleted. Natural calamities can also be a challenge that can be a setback for the project. These events are not overseen or they are under budget for hindering achieving a successful project. Managing resources that mostly involves cash outflows is a critical area (Xiao, 2008). Trusted personnel’s have to be assigned to such duties and also ensure that any cash released have been approved by different signatories who do not have any close relationship to avoid collusion and embezzlement of funds.

Reference

Xiao, X. P. (2008). Technical, commercial, and regulatory challenges of QoS: An internet            service model perspective. Amsterdam: Elsevier / Morgan Kaufmann.

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

Discuss how trends and operational issues of your organization (or one that you are familiar with) are reflected in the financial statements.

Usually financial statements are regarded as the general summaries of the monetary information of the business. The income statement, statement of changes of the financial position, statement of retained earnings as well as the balance sheet is the most common financial statements (Neely, 2007). The main users of these statements are the potential investors, creditors, management, workforce/employees, and the government regulatory authorities primarily. These statements can be drawn for manufactures and service industries, wholesalers, retailers and so on.

Therefore, the nature of this enterprise will dramatically entail all the effects if the financial data which is contained in the financial statement. The general purpose of its user will drastically impact the information which he or she will be seeking as explained below;Management will be the first one to use this information for the purpose of analyzing its position and performance as well as for taking appropriate measures which assists in improving the results of the company. Employees equally need this information for assessing the profitability of the company or the consequences of their future remuneration and job security. Owner/s use this information for the purpose of analyzing the profitability and viability of their investment or for coming up with future course of action (Neely, 2007).

Creditors as the external users will use this company’s financial information for assessing its credit worthiness. Although all the terms of credit are usually set by the creditors they remain to be in line with the assessment of the financial health of their customers.   They comprise of suppliers and lenders of finance i.e. banks. Tax authorities also will depend on this information for analyzing the general credibility of the tax returns of the company (Peterson & Fabozzi, 2012). Investors similarly will use it for determining the general feasibility of investing in this company. The reason for that is because they always desire to make or earn sufficient returns from their investment before committing any form of financial resources to it.

Customers makes use of it for determining the position of its suppliers financially. This is important since it assists in maintaining a stable source of supply for a long term. Moreover the regulatory authorities will use the company’s financial information that such as a financial disclosure is in line with the rules and regulations set (Peterson & Fabozzi, 2012). This in return will assist in protecting the stakeholders’ interests who depend on that information for decision making.

Reference

Neely, A. D. (2007). Business performance measurement: Unifying theories and integrating practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Peterson, P. P., & Fabozzi, F. J. (2012). Analysis of Financial Statements. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Chapter 4

In chapter four of ‘Fundamental Accounting Principles’, John Wild (2012) discusses the topic on completing the accounting cycle. This is often done by accounting worksheets where excel spreadsheet is used in the closing process. The accounting cycle involves all the stages that are involved in the accounting process from the analyzing of the transactions made to the recording of financial statements. A worksheet is used where closing entries are drafted during the closing process which is done at the end of a company’s accounting period or fiscal year. During this time, the balances left from revenue, expenses, loss and gains during the end of the account period are transferred to the capital account.

According to Wild (2012), completing the accounting cycle also involves recording a company’s current assets, liabilities and ratio. A company’s current assets are the amount of money or assets that will be collected, sold or used up during its operating cycle or one year. Its current liabilities are things that the company is expected to settle or pay in the same duration of time as that for its current assets. The company therefore uses the current ratio to evaluate whether it will be able to pay the obligations that are short term in nature. This is achieved by dividing the company’s current assets against its current liabilities.

Completing the accounting also involves the formulation of permanent accounts which refer to activities that are to be engaged in by the company in future. A list of post closing trial balance is drafted to show the balances that remain after all closing entries from the list of the permanent accounts have been recorded in the journals. These records make it possible for accountants to draft working process and complete the accounting period (Wild, 2012).

References

Wild J, (2012) “Fundamental accounting principles” McGraw Hill

GENDER BIASES IN ACCOUNTING

            The current world we are living in there is so much of changes that are occurring bin the society in terms of gender representation in the job market. The development in the present job market allows most of the men and women to participate. With the women empowerment programs most of the women globally are revolutionizing from being illiterate and being house wives but rather they are now educated and also moving out of their homes for jobs. The changes are also evident as the traditional women from the earlier days had beliefs that some of these jobs could only be carried out by men but nowadays they are engaging in jobs across the job market in the world. With the freedom that these women are having they are able to choose their career paths and are able to exploits in their line of work.  Accountancy is a specific job market which has also adhered to these changes in the gender issue.  This is evident as the report that was given in the journal of accountancy in the year 1915,’ “there are only some 500 female certified public accountants” (accounting WED). However this has changed over the years as half of the accountants in the present day are women. Women have worked so hard to occupy the accountants’ positions all over the world. However it is so unfortunate that some of the employers in the job market are yet in the earlier era and this has attributed to gender bias. Gender bias is evident and so much alive in the job market today. This paper therefore will basically base its argument on gender bias in terms of education requirement, salary rewards, promotional opportunity, gender inequality and gender relatable biases so as to prove the existence of gender bias in the accountancy job market.

            During the past several decades, an increase in female participation has been witnessed in the undergraduate and graduate programs. This has resulted to changes in the employment of women but it has not fully impacted gender distribution amongst the different ranks in the job. Some of the women have graduated but yet are offered job opportunities as the junior employees while a male gender with the same level of education happens to be employed with at a higher accountancy level than the woman.  However, most of the women who majors in accountancy line of education tend to graduate with higher and better grades as compared to that of the male gender. This has therefore resulted to high entry of female accountants in the job. This was however not the case in the years that have past but currently the women who are entering in this profession tend to have a better competitive advantage more than the men. Unfortunately, the women hold a considerably smaller proportion of higher accounting positions than men and are limited to becoming partners in the accounting organizations as compared to men.

            Feminists’ movements such as the one that occurred in 1960, they advocated for a more gender unbiased  character towards women but it is so unfortunate that the inequality character towards women still do exist even to date. Though most of both male and female graduate and set in to accountants jobs at the same foot or rather the female enter into the job with better results than men, the male still seems to dominate more than women in the highest managerial positions in accounting (Rowe, Jessica 3) . A good example of a statistics given by the human development index report in 2013, the report states that the labor force contribution rate for females was lower than that of the male. In Australia, “only three percent of all director positions in the top five hundred companies are held by women” (Hoddinott ae al 60).

            Some of the beliefs that are related to gender bias argue out that there is a negative correlation between the career women’s duration in marriage and work commitment but following the various researches it is evident that there is a positive relationship between the working commitments and the span of marriage for these working women. Another belief which is not contrary to what is happening today is that single women are more committed to their work than women with children (Rowe, Jessica 5). This is however not rue as most of the employees in accountancy view women with children as being more responsible than the women who are single . Most of the firms are currently being encouraged to assist and encourage the women in attaining upward movement in the accountant profession. This can only be enhanced by firms taking the responsibility to prepare the female gender to accept leadership positions in their career. Jacob and Schain suggest that: “the preparation includes understanding and dealing with the needs of female employees” (Jacobs et al 99). As a matter of fact so many women have entered into accounting but the challenge comes in as only few women are in position of partners. This is quite a challenge as the young women in the profession lack role models whom they would follow their examples in leadership even though there has been rapid increase in the number of women accountants enrolling to the accounting job. Though the women have progressively graduated with accounting degree over the years the development of women to the higher ranks of public accounting has been extremely slow.

            Though the women are so significant in accounting profession, they receive low rewards than that of men even though they have same qualifications. However, the accounting career is advancing in equal gender pay as compared to other sectors but the gender pay gap is still evident. Women earn less as compared to their male counterparts and this difference is even existent in the provision of bonuses (Blau et al 1 ). The basic salary bonuses for the female are 13.9% while that of the males is 18.2%.

Equality in any accountancy firm is important as it ensures that the organization continues attracting personnel of the highest competence to the career that is, inclusive of the female gender. However, in accounting as the accountants take higher positions in management the gap pay also widens. It is thus essential that all women should realize that opportunities are equal to all hence they should seize them and ensure that they excel in their work so as to ensure that they bridge the gap between the gap pay (Blau et al 5). According to the National Statistics, “ the gender pay across all sectors stands at 19.2%, which means women earn 81% of a man’s salary on a national level”. Since most of the organizations have been paying off men more than the women, most firms follow this procedure to pay their employees hence discriminating the women. Also another reason for the payment of lesser salaries to the women is the fact that most of the decision makers and salary distributors are men. In most cases, the male gender accountants are more likely to push forward the rise of their salary as compared to women. Most of the female gender accountants are expectant of medium pay while their male counterparts have very high salary expectations almost as twice as that of the women while they think they should even earn more than the current salary even if it is the best pay. Whereas women expect earnings at a modest rise as compared to the men who are determined to earn the highest rewards than their present pay and this is what results to the widening of the gap pay (Blau et al 4).

            Institutional discrimination against the female gender is also evident in performance evaluation in the accounting organization so as to evaluate and determine the company’s rewards such as promotion opportunities, punishments and compensation. The human resource policy that is used by the decision makers in evaluation of performance of the employees mostly tends to favor male gender than the female gender (Stamarski et al 3). For example undertaking of the face time performance measure, which is involved at rewarding the employees who are always available in the office, tend to reward the men more.

This is because men are the secondary givers while the women are primary givers thus they use flexible working arrangements than the men. Hence they are mostly penalized as they are not always in the face of the office as compared to the men.  This therefore reduces their chances of promotion into senior positions in the accountancy firms.  Also with companies in which there exist job ladders that are formal, women are likely to be promoted since the formal ladders orders and constrain workers promotion (Stamarski et al 3). This is because most of these job ladders are divided by gender hence in order to advance one must be on that job ladder and there is strictly no opportunity to shift to another job ladder. Hence the women lack the job experience needed for particular job promotion since it was not in their line of job ladder.

            It is therefore important that all the accountants’ organizations should embrace the changes that have occurred to the female gender and hence accepting them in the job market.  Women are empowered and they are capable of doing great and significant improvement in the accounting profession. Hence they should be given a chance to practice their skills and a platform to utilize their proficiency and expertise.  When it comes to rewarding the accountants, equal payment should be made as these women work hard to see themselves succeeding and this would encourage them to feel at the right profession. Also in terms of promotion, women ought to be given promotions as well as the men are given since they are also part of the firm and this would help the firm to express their appreciation to the women.

References

Stamarski, Cailin S., and Leanne S. Son Hing. "Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism.          Frontiers in psychology 6 (2015).

Blau, Francine D., and Lawrence M. Kahn. "The gender pay gap." The Economists' Voice 4.4      (2007).

Rowe, Jessica L. "Gender And Career Success in Public Accounting." (2014).

Jacobs, Pearl, and Linda Schain. "Professional women: The continuing struggle for acceptance    and equality." Journal of Academic and Business Ethics 1 (2009): 98.

Hoddinott, Mark, and Denise G. Jarratt. "Gender imbalance in the workforce: An examination of             the public accounting profession." Australian Accounting Review 8.16 (1998): 59-67.

Mary Ann Mason, Marc Goulden, Nicholas H. Wolfinger.“Babies Matter” The

            Balancing Act : Gendered Perspectives In Faculty Roles And Work Lives.

            Bracken, Susan J., Jeanie K. Allen, and Diane R. Dean. Sterling, Va: Stylus

            Publishing, 2006. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

“Number of Female Accountants Increasing” accountingWED. Jun 2nd 2006.

            Statistics

            Understanding statistics is important in developing critical ideas of the statistical information that re provided. This therefore involves understanding al the involved information with the ability to explain the story behind the presented data. Understanding statistics helps in creation of data awareness which plays a great role in the society in regard to data.  Data awareness implies that an individual fully understands the distinct data sources, effects on quality of data by understanding the context of the data collection. Understanding the terms used in statistics helps in ensuring that an individual is fully able to utilize terms as well as the statistical concepts appropriately. Understanding statistics is additionally significant as it helps in development of critical thoughts. This is because through the generated understanding individuals can e able to analyze and evaluate information. This helps in increasing the competence level of an individual through experience growth and increased knowledge.   The advanced skills can therefore be utilized in developing solutions to complex situations which holds no obvious solution.  Understanding statistics therefore helps in enabling an individual to interpret, analyze and communicate the generated findings effectively thus reducing the manipulation chances (Andrews & Standridge, 2011).

            The media attempts to present in order to manipulate the thoughts of the public to fit into a certain perspective. This is accomplished by presentation of overwhelming data that is effective in transforming individual’s thoughts. The media attempts this because of the growing incapability of individuals in understanding statistics.  They therefore  tries to present he statistics that is misleading to attempt and control the minds of individuals through the trust.  In order to avoid manipulation it is therefore important for individuals to understand statistics in order to be able to effectively evaluate and analyze the presented information.

            Reference

Andrews, R.  &  Larry A. Standridge. (2011).Understanding Statistics as a Language. Ebooklt.Com. Copyright

Setting a pricing policy

Determining a price is important in any organization.  It does not only contribute to the organization’s profitability but also influences the success of a product.  Price is the most vital element in the pricing policy of markets.  The pricing policy affects the market share and the organization’s effectiveness. Price is a flexible tool as it can be changed quickly as compared to other policies.  Price affects demand, profitability, market insight and the brand setting directly. 

Price objective

            Defining of a product price is based on planned objectives and the strategic purposes. The company’s long term plan is to advance itself as the prominent cable service provider in America.  The organization also needs to become the topmost choice among the customers. By doing this, the organization will need a huge development in customer based that will need investments to develop its network services. The planned objectives of the company is to reach the huge part of the American houses while the strategic objectives is to develop its clients base so as to have some profits so that the company will expand its network to new areas.  Based on these two objectives, the price objective of the company is to give attractive prices to its customers for it to increase customer base by about 25% as they have their expected profit of about 22% and this is after the tax (Kotler & Keller, 2016). 

            The organization has its planned objectives to become the topmost customer prime and wants to advance its networking in other areas.  Thus the organization is focusing not only to advance its clients base but also increase its profitability.  The pricing objective funds the long and the short term pricing objectives of the organization (Kotler & Keller, 2016).   

Determining Demand

            Each price that is implemented by the company will make a different level of demand and this will have a different effect on the company’s marketing. The demand curve of the company shows the most possible demanded quantity at the quality prices. The demand of the company is exceeding the supply thus having a few available products and expanding the price of the product and vice versa.  The organization is creating a reproducing deficiency for them to have a stronger hold on the industrial price level.  The demand of the network is leading to the establishment of new modern services which is currently having a greater impact to the network of the lower density.  This force impacted to the growth of a continuous device of modernization which has caused the introduction of new network services that are demanded by the informed customers (Kotler & Keller, 2016). 

            The integration of these services has a negative impact on the price.  This shows that the demand and the integration had a negative influence on the price of the main service.  Due to this fact, the machinist who introduced the modern incorporation with the best activities had an enticement for changing the quality services and for inspiring demand of services through giving smaller basic services and by implementing lower prices (Kotler & Keller, 2016).

Estimation of costs

            The main problem that we have in the company is that we don’t know what the modernization of the services will cost or if it will satisfy our requirements in the future. Our estimated cost that the company is expected to pay is $170 to $650 per any service given to the customers and the date cabling installation. Thus the company has to charge its customers a single price for the whole project, meaning that the bigger the project, the more the price to the customers (Kotler & Keller, 2016). 

Analyzing Competitors’ Costs, Prices, and Offers

            This is the vital factor in the organization that is needed in setting the prices of the services.  Based on the prices that have been determined by the market demand and the costs, the company is focusing on its competitor’s costs, prices and the probable price reactions that the customers will take into account.  The demand of the company services is setting a limit and the costs are setting the base to pricing while the competitors’ price is giving the point in which the company is setting prices.  As we learn the price and the quality of our competitor’s services and product by having the comparison staff to compare the price, we ought to increase our prices as our services are more modernized that theirs.  Our services are not substandard thus we have to charge more than our competitors (Kotler, 2007).

Selecting a pricing method

            There is a pricing model for the pay of the service of the organization that is selected as the pricing method which is known as Markup pricing.  It is a method that a method that advances a standard markup of the product cost in the organization. This method has enabled the company to seek compensation from the network distributor in exchange of them retransmitting a sign. This method has also highlighted on the cost saving for the users.  It was proofed that the method would save up to 13% of the customer’s monthly cable subscription rates if the customers can implement on the networks offered by the company. This pricing will be a cost saving process and will lessen the revenues for programs (Kotler, 2007).

Select a final price

            The final price of our company is based on the quality of our services and the comparison to our competitors.  Our customers will pay for higher prices due to factors such as advertising, the quality of the company services and the market position.  Thus the price of our services will be higher than that of our competitors as the company is providing the best and the modernized services in which all our customers are willing to pay (Kotler, 2007). 

Reference

Kotler, P. (2007). Marketing management: Analysis planning implementation and control. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India.

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing management.

Stock track portfolio

I intend to take some risk with my investments. I will accept the long-term capital growth, which is aggressive, and understand the risks. I want to invest in a combination of stocks and bonds but I do want to have more stocks than bonds at the end of investment period because that will help me with a quick return. I will anticipate having a 50/50 allocation which I will have to review weekly and then adjust them where necessary, but because of my age I figured that I am still young and have allocated money to be aggressive with my current investment. With time I intend to adjust the allocation of the funds so that I will have invested 75 percent for stock and 25 percent for bonds by the close of the period.  I plan on reviewing and monitoring my investments at this time weekly to confirm that I am making good investments with my money. This change is important since it will allow me to know at what time to get in or out of particular stocks, and the adjustment will ensure that to a great extent I am able to be optimally invested in the best class of asset.

This allocation strategically aim at providing a long-term investment which is anchored to future investment objectives subject to certain market constraints and restrictions. Normally the level of returns in the long term investments depend on the policy for strategic allocation of asset. The key to having a successful asset investment of my funds is obtaining the right mix of bonds and stocks. While this strategic allocation is concerned with long term returns, it allows for the necessary changes in allocation considering that the future is bound to come with a lot of risks that allow can face any combination of investment. In a typical market, many of the risks will come from equities and also the greater returns will be realised where the risk is high. In reality, equities have performed well in the long term than the bonds. Investing a single dollar in the U.S stock market has overtime brought in 40 times more as compares to the returns of bond. This is the reason I chose to adjust allocation to 75 percent of the funds to the stock and 25 percent in bonds (Ibbotson, 2009). The current market requires that allocation framework for asset to be flexible. This is important because the performance of different assets will be different at various stages in an economic cycle. The allocation can be reviewed weekly and then adjusted accordingly. The aim will be to steadily overweight the asset class that is performing better or the one with poor performance. If the performance of the stock in terms of returns is not good, they can be underweighted and the bonds can then be over weighted if their returns are better. Of more importance is that within this period of a particular week, the allocation to stock or bond can be increased to 100 percent or even be reduced to zero. Thus the portfolio will always be wholly invested, so that the proportion of both the bond and stock will amount to 100 percent at any time of the week.

Given that the prices of the stocks are low at the beginning of the June period, the prices of the stocks are bound to increase, meaning that the risk of making losses is lower but there is high probability of the stocks bringing in returns. Since stock represent ownership of the firms, they allow a chance for taking an influential position in the market. Stocks prices can be tracked in the long term by use of the market index values, which normally  represent the whole stock market and thereby keep track of the changes in the over given period of time. It is possible for me as an investor to track changes in the market price of the stocks in the value of the index overtime and then use it as a yardstick against which the returns of the portfolio will be compared. Furthermore, stocks provide the greatest probability or potential for growth or capital appreciation in the long run. If I choose to stick with the stocks for a long period considering my young age the chances that I will be rewarded with high, positive returns. On the other hand, bonds will serve as a safe haven for my funds since am just an incoming investor in securities. The safety in bonds comes from the fact that investors in bonds have a priority over the shareholders. Thus, in case the companies go bankrupt, the debt holders will receive their payments first. This means that risk associated with bond investments are very minimal and although the returns are not much, there is an assurance that there is no possibility of a total loss for the whole of my funds. Investment partly in bond contribute a sense if stability to this portfolio since they are safe and allow for a conservative investment. They will give me a predictable stream of income in the periods when the stocks are performing poorly and generally they are a great mean of saving so that all the funds are not at risk.

My portfolio performance for the period closing at 2nd June 2016 stood at 1.18 percent for both the stock and bonds traded in the market. At the same period of the week the performance of the stock as per the American Stock Exchange composite index, the overall performance of stock market or the proportion change in the market stood at 1.04. The portfolio performance was beyond the overall performance of the stock market in the same period but performance of the bonds was below the expectation

The performance of the stock portfolio was generally good. With most of the stocks performing above and the highest returns hitting 17.22 percent for Sam 994, the investment in stocks was a better option in the short term. However, the mistake I made was failure to balance the allocation of the funds between stock and bonds so that at the close of the investment period, more funds are available for investment bonds as a long-term measure. Also most of the trades were done on the low performing stocks and this led to a very low return of -12.57 percent for Lizhang in the portfolio. Given another opportunity, I would diversify among the different classes of best performing stocks in the market since different classes of assets will react differently to adverse economic condition. Since am still young I would ensure enough allocation in the bond market more as I gain experience with stock market. I have come to learn that the movement of equity and bond markets are usually opposite in direction so that if a portfolio is diversified across the two areas, the unfavourable movements in one is offset by the pleasant results.

References

 Ibbotson, R., (2009). Are Bonds Going to Outperform Stocks 

Over the Long Run? Not Likely. Yale School of Management. 1-6

Subject: Fundamental of Accounting

Technology has been evolving in a tremendous manner that has changed the way we learn and live. Fundamental Accounting Principles (FAP) has helped accountant achieve their goals. The accounting principles consist of accounting content, the art of technology in accounting, support for learning students as well as elevating the key accounting principles. The FAP excels by engaging students with the content of accounting helping them see its relevance.

In this chapter, there is a showcase of dynamic and individuals who are very successful entrepreneurs together with the companies outlining the importance and the usefulness of accounting to the business owners. By the use of different companies such as Apple and Samsung, the author is able to capture the student’s interest by the use of their products and the complete annual reports that create a pathway for students to learn financial statement. This demonstrates key accounting procedure and how to apply them.

The FAP provides and delivers an innovative technology that assists the students in their accounting performance. The chapter also offers assistance to the students for grading and feedback that involves accounting. This assists in the delivery of the assignment that is less restrictive, more intuitive. This also helps to quench the needs of today’s student. The FAP forms an adaptive learning tool including digital ones that creates an interactive base to engage more effectively offering a wide variety of instructional ways that are more personalized in the learning curve building different styles of learning, ability, and interest. The FAP within technology includes the general journal interface and the auto calculation that helps the students to focus on concept than the rote tasks.

Outsourcing Payroll services

Introduction

A lot of employers prefer to outsource part of their obligations such as tax duties for payroll to companies that provide such service. This refers to an organisation hires third party companies to deal with payroll and finance operations on their behalf with an aim of saving valuable time and funds that would be required for the operations. Among the important decisions that a company can make is to outsource their payroll after taking into consideration the various advantages or disadvantages of this outsourcing. The organisation have to comply with and ensure that payment for local, state and federal taxes are made correctly and on time (Bieg and Toland 2016).

Advantages and Disadvantages

Outsourcing of payroll services help a company save time since payroll processing is a time demanding task. It enables a firm to free up time that would have been used by staff so that to concentrate on activities that add more value and income.  Another advantage is cost saving especially for small business. It may cost more for the business to have the employees carryout payroll related activities in terms of time as compared to the payments made for services offered by various providers of payroll services. It also saves money used for tasks such as printing and distribution of checks and preparing tax documents. Similarly service providers are equipped well than a small firm to handle the complicated federal, state or local payroll taxes consistently and accurately.  This will help the firm in avoiding IRS Penalties since the providers of payroll services bear the responsibilities if penalties are incurred (Bragg, 2004).The cost saving thus justifies payroll outsourcing.

The decision to outsource payroll service could be determined by how much of control a firm need to have. The outsourcing means hand over to third parties the operations thus giving the company less control over their confidential data and financial information. The company may find it hard to access their information which are stored in the server of the payroll firm. A payroll company’s failure to guard such information makes it susceptible to employee lawsuits or theft. If a company has other confidential information that will have to be handed over to service provider such as payroll and medical records, there is a risk of confidentiality being compromised. The same may apply where the function to be applied includes sharing of a firm’s proprietary knowledge or data like formulas. In addition, business may find themselves paying for other services that they don’t need that are offered by payroll companies as all-inclusive   packages, thereby raising payroll outsourcing cost. There is also a possibility of encountering inconsistencies on work quality more so where there is frequent change of service providers (Bragg, 2004).

 Payroll services providing companies. 

 Intuit Inc.

This is an American company that develops software for tax and financial preparation and such services to individuals, small business and accountants. Intuit develops financial and tax software that are designed for the above mention consumers. I recommend outsourcing of the company’s services since it is among the best payroll providers and it has an outstanding reputation. The online services for intuit are software based, but included in their offer is a full set of applications that come with software that can assist in recruiting needs. A plan can be selected where intuit does the preparation and sending of a firm’s taxes or prepares them and the outsourcing firm sends them. This company charges very low monthly charges making the service convenient and accessible to many business both large and small. Quick Payroll is the software used for in house payroll processing, where tax tables updates and update of software are accessible online on the basis of yearly subscription (Professional Employer.net, 2013).

ADP

It is the leading in payroll outsourcing globally. It is very useful in dealing with various payroll challenges relating to compliance with labour low and time or any issues regarding integration of technology. The system has very strong reputation considering that it has been dealing with issues concerning payroll system for more than 60 years. Its payroll software combines usability, flexibility and it is cloud-based with support from a global team of dedicated experts who are highly trained. ADP Enhanced Payroll offers various solutions for payroll ADP Essential Payroll being the most basic. This payroll service operates on ADP RUN which is easy to use and fully featured online program for payroll management. It also provide thorough taxes services thus it is very recommendable (Professional Employer.net, 2013).

Paychex Flex

This company provide a helpful payroll service which streamlines the whole process to a few steps that are quite simple. It offer services for both small and large. The outsourcing firm can enter payroll for individual or several employees or utilise the automatic feature creation to have a quick review of the payroll before submitting it. It allows for entry and submission of payroll through a personal account. Moreover, Paychex handles all the issues relating to compliance on payroll tax, and there are no costly errors since it backs up its services (Professional Employer.net, 2013).

References

 Bieg, B., Toland J. (2016). Payroll Accounting. Cengage Learning. 23-25

Bragg, S. M. (2004). Accounting for payroll: A comprehensive guide. Hoboken, N.J: J. Wiley & Sons.

Professional Employer.net (2013).The Top 10 Payroll Outsourcing Companies for 2015.1. Retrieved from: http://www.professionalemployer.net/the-top-10-payroll-outsourcing-companies-for-2013/

Intuit

Company Fast Facts: Intuit Inc.

 http://www.intuit.com/company/fast-facts/

ADP

http://www.adp.com/

Paychex.

 Outsource Your Payroll & Human Resources.

http://go.paychex.com/cj/standard?AID=10825359&PID=1440397&PSID=11x79x200x15_1050&WT.sp=cj935&utm_source=cj&utm_medium=affiliates

Italian Tax Mores Case Study

What are the pertinent facts of the case?

There are various pertinent facts in the case concerning the Italian taxing system and the bank general manager. First, the Italian taxing system is ethically wrong since it works under assumptions. It is not based on accurate data and therefore it is corrupt. It is also a fact that Italy embraced the inaccurate system of taxation by introducing the commercialista, which is a negotiations body that acts as intermediary between individual tax payers and the Italian fiscal authorities. We cannot run away from the fact thatcommercialista, earn from their services and a tax payer has to pay bustarellafor services offered.

Focusing on the bank general manager, it is a fact that he is in Italy and not in United States. It is also a fact that the taxation systems of the two countries are different such that one is accurate while the other is not. The other pertinent fact is that the bank general manager was shown how tax matters were solved by the commercialista failure to which he would bear the consequences of rejecting them.

What are the ethical issue(s) facing the bank's general manager?

The general managed is facing several ethical issue that end up costing him a lot. First, he is faced with the issue of dishonest which is to some extent the lifestyle of the Italians. The manager is also challenged by the use of correct mode of communication to the authorities. He writes letters which is against the norms or customs of the Italians. The mode of communication ends up being fruitless. Assumption by the Italians is also an ethical issue because it is not based on facts and accuracy of the data provided. The other ethical issue is that of ignorance. He is ignorant on the advice he gets from the natives. His ignorance is seen when he lacks to refer to the corporate taxes of the Italian authorities.

Using the Underwood Personal Ethical Model, how do each of the elements of the ethical model (i.e. absolutes, laws, and moral philosophies) inform the bank's general manager about what to do?

With reference to the Underwood personal ethical model, absolute is the view that a certain action is intrinsically right or wrong without depending on the circumstances behind the action[1]. However, this element should not be applied in this case because the action of tax payment is dependent on the state's mode. It is important to note that ethical values have a close relation with the legal principles. However, it is evident that ethical conduct exceeds the legal conduct and in some cases the law mandates unethical conduct[2]. This element would help the bank's general manager to stay within the requirements of the tax authorities. The other concept to be considered in this model is moral philosophy. It groups a conduct whether it is wrong from different perspectives. This element would have opened the manager's eyes to know what is right in Italy and what was wrong[3].

What would you recommend is the most ethical decision the bank's general manager could make and why? (In other words, what should he have done, not what did he do.)

With reference to these elements, the bank's general manager would have avoided this tragedy by doing various actions that would have prevented the negative chronological occurrence of events that happened. I would have recommended the bank manager to adopt the new system of tax payment he found in Italy. This is because; the established system could not be changed by a single visitor or rather could not accommodate anyone who goes contrary to their rules. It is ethically right to adhere to the state laws even if they are not ethically right. He would have listened to the commercialista who have the full knowledge of the tax requirements.

Nyilasy, Gergely, and Leonard N. Reid. 2011. "Advertiser Pressure and the Personal Ethical Norms of Newspaper Editors and Ad Directors." Journal Of Advertising Research 51, no. 3: 538-551. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed June 8, 2016).

[2] Nyilasy, Gergely, and Leonard N. Reid. 2011. "Advertiser Pressure and the Personal Ethical Norms of Newspaper Editors and Ad Directors." Journal Of Advertising Research 51, no. 3: 538-551. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed June 8, 2016).

[3] Nyilasy, Gergely, and Leonard N. Reid. 2011. "Advertiser Pressure and the Personal Ethical Norms of Newspaper Editors and Ad Directors." Journal Of Advertising Research 51, no. 3: 538-551. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed June 8, 2016).