The all-new fast-reference problem solver for controllers
The Vest Pocket Controller is the handy pocket problem-solver that gives today's busy executives and accountants the helpful information they need in a quick-reference format.
Whether in public practice or private industry, professionals will always have this reliable reference tool at their fingertips because it easily goes anywhere-to a client's office, on a business trip, or to an important lunch meeting.
- Covers management areas a controller is likely to encounter
- Easy-to-use Q & A format offering hundreds of explanations supported by a multitude of examples, tables, charts, and ratios
- Other titles by Bragg: Running an Effective Investor Relations Department: A Comprehensive Guide , Accounting Best Practices, Sixth Edition, and Just-in-Time Accounting, Third Edition
Packed with practical techniques and rules of thumb for analyzing, evaluating, and solving the day-to-day problems every controller faces, The Vest Pocket Controller helps you quickly pinpoint what to look for, what to watch out for, what to do, and how to do it.
Author(s): Steven M. Bragg
Publisher: Wiley
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 445
The Vest Pocket Controller......Page 7
CONTENTS......Page 9
PREFACE......Page 27
ABOUT THE AUTHOR......Page 29
FREE ONLINE RESOURCES BY STEVE BRAGG......Page 31
PART I: ACCOUNTING STANDARDS......Page 33
When Can I Report Revenue at Gross Instead of Net?......Page 35
How Does the Installment Method Work?......Page 36
When Can I Record Bill-and-Hold Sales?......Page 37
How Does the Completed-Contract Method Work?......Page 38
What Types of Pricing Arrangements Are Used in Contracts?......Page 39
How Do I Account for Contract Losses?......Page 42
How Does the Deposit Method Work?......Page 43
How Do I Account for Installation Fees?......Page 45
What Recognition Methods Can I Use for Service Billings?......Page 47
How Do I Record Revenue for Franchise Sales?......Page 49
What Is the Accounting for Marketable Equity Securities?......Page 51
What Is the Accounting for Transfers between Available-for-Sale and Trading Investments?......Page 54
What Is the Accounting for Investments in Debt Securities?......Page 56
What Is the Accounting for Debt Securities among Portfolios?......Page 57
What Is the Accounting for Significant Equity Investments?......Page 58
What Is the Accounting for an Equity Method Investment Impairment?......Page 61
What Are the Key Decisions for Recording Gains or Losses on Securities?......Page 62
How Does Inventory Ownership Vary under Different Delivery Situations?......Page 65
How Do I Account for Consigned Inventory?......Page 66
What Overhead Do I Allocate to Inventory?......Page 67
How Do I Account for the Lower of Cost or Market Rule?......Page 68
How Does the First-in, First-out Valuation Method Work?......Page 70
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of FIFO Valuation?......Page 72
How Does the Last-in, First-out Valuation Method Work?......Page 73
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of LIFO Valuation?......Page 75
How Does the Dollar-Value LIFO Valuation Method Work?......Page 76
How Does the Link-Chain Valuation Method Work?......Page 78
How Does the Weighted-Average Valuation Method Work?......Page 81
What Is the Price of a Purchased Fixed Asset?......Page 85
What Is the Price of a Fixed Asset Obtained through an Exchange?......Page 86
What Is the Price of a Fixed Asset Obtained with a Trade-in?......Page 87
What Is the Price of a Group of Fixed Assets?......Page 89
What Is the Accounting for Improvements to Fixed Assets?......Page 90
How Is Interest Associated with a Fixed Asset Capitalized?......Page 91
What Is the Accounting for a Fixed Asset Disposition?......Page 93
What Is the Accounting for an Asset Retirement Obligation?......Page 94
What Is the Accounting for Donated Assets?......Page 96
What Is the Accounting for Construction in Progress?......Page 97
How Is an Asset’s Depreciation Basis Calculated?......Page 98
What Are the General Depreciation Concepts?......Page 99
How Is Double-Declining Balance Depreciation Calculated?......Page 100
How Is Sum-of-the-Years’ Digits Depreciation Calculated?......Page 101
How Is Units-of-Production Depreciation Calculated?......Page 102
What Is the Accounting for Asset Impairment?......Page 103
What Is the Accounting for Intangible Assets?......Page 104
When Is Debt Categorized as Short Term or Long Term?......Page 107
How Are Bonds Sold at a Discount or Premium Recorded?......Page 108
What Is the Effective Interest Method?......Page 109
How Are Debt Issuance Costs Recorded?......Page 111
How Is a Debt Issuance with Attached Rights Recorded?......Page 112
How Is a Debt Issuance for Property Recorded?......Page 113
How Is a Debt Extinguishment Recorded?......Page 114
How Is an Asset Transfer to Eliminate Debt Recorded?......Page 115
How Is Convertible Debt Recorded?......Page 116
How Is Debt Issued with Stock Warrants Recorded?......Page 118
How Is Stock Valued that Is Issued for Property or Services?......Page 119
What Is Convertible Preferred Stock?......Page 120
What Is a Stock Split?......Page 121
What Is a Stock Subscription?......Page 122
What Is Retained Earnings?......Page 123
What Is a Stock Warrant?......Page 124
What Is a Property Dividend?......Page 125
What Is a Stock Dividend?......Page 126
What Is a Liquidating Dividend?......Page 127
What Is Treasury Stock?......Page 128
How Is a Stock Option Recorded under the Intrinsic Value Method?......Page 129
How Is a Stock Option Recorded under the Fair Value Method?......Page 131
How Do Option Expirations Impact Compensation Expense?......Page 132
How Is the Option Vesting Period Recognized?......Page 133
How Do I Account for Stock Appreciation Rights?......Page 135
How Does an Employee Stock Ownership Plan Work?......Page 136
What Is the Accounting for an Operating Lease by the Lessee?......Page 139
What Is the Accounting for a Capital Lease by the Lessee?......Page 140
How Does the Lessor Account for a Sales-Type Lease?......Page 143
How Does the Lessor Account for a Direct Financing Lease?......Page 146
What Is the Accounting for a Lease Extension by the Lessee?......Page 150
What Is the Accounting for a Sale-Leaseback Transaction?......Page 151
How Does the Current Rate Method Convert Foreign Currency Transactions into U.S. Dollars?......Page 153
How Does the Remeasurement Method Convert Foreign Currency Transactions into U.S. Dollars?......Page 156
What Conversion Method Is Used for Occasional Foreign Currency Transactions?......Page 158
What Is the Accounting for Foreign Currency Translation Adjustments?......Page 159
What Exchange Rates Are Used for Conversion Calculations?......Page 160
How Is Foreign Exchange Handled in Intercompany Transactions?......Page 161
PART II: ACCOUNTING MANAGEMENT......Page 163
What Problems Contribute to a Delayed Close?......Page 165
How Does Activity Acceleration Improve the Close?......Page 166
How Do Reporting Changes Improve the Close?......Page 167
How Can I Improve the Inventory Close?......Page 168
How Can I Improve the Payables Close?......Page 169
What Is Included in a Closing Checklist?......Page 170
What Extra Closing Steps Are Needed by a Public Company?......Page 171
What Types of Float Are Associated with a Check Payment?......Page 173
What Is Remote Deposit Capture?......Page 175
What Strategies Are Available for Cash Concentration?......Page 176
What Is Physical Sweeping?......Page 177
When Do Sweeps Occur?......Page 178
What Is Notional Pooling?......Page 179
What Short-Term Investment Options Are Available?......Page 180
What Investment Strategies Are Used for Short-Term Investments?......Page 182
How Do I Create and Maintain a Credit Policy?......Page 185
How Do I Obtain Financial Information about Customers?......Page 186
How Does a Credit-Granting System Work?......Page 187
What Payment Terms Should I Offer to Customers?......Page 188
How Can I Adjust the Invoice Content and Layout to Improve Collections?......Page 189
How Can I Adjust Billing Delivery to Improve Collections?......Page 190
How Do I Optimize Customer Contacts?......Page 191
How Do I Manage Collection Information?......Page 192
How Do I Handle Payment Deductions?......Page 193
How Do I Collect Overdue Payments?......Page 194
When Should I Take Legal Action to Collect from a Customer?......Page 196
How Do I Increase the Accuracy of Inventory Records?......Page 197
How Do I Reduce the Number of Stock-Keeping Units in Inventory?......Page 200
How Do I Reduce Inventory Purchases?......Page 201
How Do I Compress Inventory Storage Space?......Page 202
How Do I Improve Picking Efficiency?......Page 203
How Do I Reduce Inventory Scrap?......Page 205
How Do I Identify Obsolete Inventory?......Page 206
How Do I Sell Obsolete Inventory?......Page 208
What Is Factoring?......Page 209
What Is Field Warehouse Financing?......Page 210
What Is an Operating Lease?......Page 211
What Is a Bond?......Page 212
What Types of Bonds Can Be Issued?......Page 213
What Is Receivables Securitization?......Page 214
What Is a Sale and Leaseback Arrangement?......Page 215
How Does One Interact with Credit Rating Agencies?......Page 216
How Do the Credit Rating Agency Scores Compare to Each Other?......Page 217
What Are the Contents of a Form S-1?......Page 219
When Is a Form S-3 Used?......Page 221
When Is a Form S-8 Used?......Page 222
What Is a Shelf Registration?......Page 223
When Can the Regulation A Exemption Be Used?......Page 224
What Is the Process for Using the Regulation A Exemption?......Page 225
What Are the Restrictions on Using the Regulation D Exemption?......Page 226
When Can Rule 144 Be Used to Register Stock?......Page 227
PART III: FINANCIAL ANALYSIS......Page 229
How Do I Calculate the Breakeven Point?......Page 231
What Is the Impact of Fixed Costs on the Breakeven Point?......Page 232
What Is the Impact of Variable Cost Changes on the Breakeven Point?......Page 233
How Do Pricing Changes Alter the Breakeven Point?......Page 234
How Can the Product Mix Alter Profitability?......Page 235
How Do I Calculate Price Variances?......Page 236
How Do I Calculate Efficiency Variances?......Page 238
How Do I Conduct a Profitability Analysis for Services?......Page 239
How Are Profits Affected by the Number of Days in a Month?......Page 242
Which Research and Development Projects Should Be Funded?......Page 243
How Do I Create a Throughput Analysis Model?......Page 245
How Do I Determine if More Volume at a Lower Price Creates More Profit?......Page 248
Should I Outsource Production?......Page 250
Should I Add Staff to the Bottleneck Operation?......Page 252
Should I Produce a New Product?......Page 254
What Is the Lowest Price that I Should Accept?......Page 259
How Do I Set Long-Range Prices?......Page 261
How Should I Set Prices over the Life of a Product?......Page 263
How Should I Set Prices against a Price Leader?......Page 264
How Do I Handle a Price War?......Page 265
How Do I Handle Dumping by a Foreign Competitor?......Page 266
How Do Transfer Prices Alter Corporate Decision Making?......Page 267
How Does the External Market Price Work as a Transfer Pricing Method?......Page 268
How Does Adjusted Market Pricing Work as a Transfer Pricing Method?......Page 269
How Do Negotiated Transfer Prices Work as a Transfer Pricing Method?......Page 270
How Does the Contribution Margin Work as a Transfer Pricing Method?......Page 271
How Does the Cost-Plus Method Work as a Transfer Pricing Method?......Page 272
How Do the Transfer Pricing Methods Compare to Each Other?......Page 274
What Reports Are Used for Cost Reduction Projects?......Page 275
What Is Spend Analysis?......Page 276
How Is the Spend Database Constructed?......Page 279
How Does Supplier Consolidation Work?......Page 280
Can Spend Analysis Work for MRO Items?......Page 282
What Is Spend Compliance?......Page 283
Which Reports Should Be Used for Spend Analysis?......Page 284
What Is the Analysis for a Workforce Reduction?......Page 287
What Is the Cost of a Workforce Reduction?......Page 292
What Are the Alternatives to a Workforce Reduction?......Page 293
How Does 5S Analysis Reduce Costs?......Page 294
How Are Check Sheets Used?......Page 295
How Is Fixed Cost Analysis Used?......Page 297
How Is Value Stream Mapping Used?......Page 298
What Is Waste Analysis?......Page 300
How Do I Calculate Accounts Payable Turnover?......Page 303
How Do I Calculate Accounts Receivable Turnover?......Page 304
How Do I Calculate the Average Receivable Collection Period?......Page 305
How Do I Calculate the Cash–to–Working-Capital Ratio?......Page 307
How Do I Calculate the Core Growth Rate?......Page 308
How Do I Calculate the Cost of Capital?......Page 309
How Do I Calculate the Current Ratio?......Page 312
How Do I Calculate Customer Turnover?......Page 313
How Do I Calculate the Debt Coverage Ratio?......Page 315
How Do I Calculate the Debt-to-Equity Ratio?......Page 316
How Do I Calculate the Dividend Payout Ratio?......Page 317
How Do I Calculate Economic Value Added?......Page 318
How Do I Calculate Expense Coverage Days?......Page 321
How Do I Calculate Fixed Charge Coverage?......Page 322
How Do I Calculate Inventory Accuracy?......Page 324
How Do I Calculate Inventory Turnover?......Page 326
How Do I Calculate the Margin of Safety?......Page 328
How Do I Calculate Net Worth?......Page 329
How Do I Calculate the Price/Earnings Ratio?......Page 331
How Do I Calculate the Quick Ratio?......Page 332
How Do I Calculate Times Interest Earned?......Page 333
How Do I Calculate Working Capital Productivity?......Page 335
PART IV: CONTROL SYSTEMS......Page 337
How Do the Various Budgets Fit Together?......Page 339
How Is the Revenue Budget Constructed?......Page 342
How Are the Production and Inventory Budgets Constructed?......Page 344
How Is the Direct Labor Budget Constructed?......Page 346
How Is the Cost of Goods Sold Budget Constructed?......Page 350
How Is the Marketing Budget Constructed?......Page 355
How Is the Facilities Budget Constructed?......Page 358
How Is the Capital Budget Constructed?......Page 364
How Is the Financing Budget Constructed?......Page 368
What Is a Flex Budget?......Page 372
What Are the Problems with Capital Budgeting Analysis?......Page 373
Why Focus on Bottleneck Investments?......Page 374
When Should I Invest in a Bottleneck Operation?......Page 375
What Capital Budgeting Application Form Should I Use?......Page 376
Should I Invest in Upstream Workstations?......Page 377
Should I Invest in Downstream Workstations?......Page 378
Should I Lease an Asset or Buy It?......Page 379
What Is Net Present Value?......Page 381
What Cash Flows Are Included in a Net Present Value Calculation?......Page 382
What Is Investment Payback?......Page 383
What Are the Controls for a Computerized Accounts Payable System?......Page 387
What Are the Controls for Procurement Cards?......Page 389
What Are the Controls for Order Entry, Credit, and Shipping?......Page 391
What Are the Controls for Drop-Shipped Orders?......Page 393
What Are the Controls for a Perpetual Inventory Tracking System?......Page 394
What Are the Controls for Billing?......Page 396
What Are the Controls for Collections?......Page 399
What Are the Controls for Check Receipts?......Page 402
What Are the Controls for Investments?......Page 404
What Are the Controls for Payroll?......Page 406
PART V: PUBLIC COMPANY ACCOUNTING......Page 411
What Is the Form 8-K?......Page 413
What Information Is Included in the Annual and Quarterly Reports?......Page 420
What Is the Form S-1?......Page 423
What Is the Form S-3?......Page 425
What Forms Require a Payment to the SEC?......Page 426
How Do I Make a Fedwire Payment?......Page 427
What Is the Integral View of Interim Reporting?......Page 429
When Is Segment Information Required?......Page 430
How Are Reportable Segments Determined?......Page 431
How Is Basic Earnings per Share Calculated?......Page 433
What Methods Are Used for Calculating Diluted Earnings per Share?......Page 435
How Should Non-GAAP Information Be Disclosed?......Page 436
INDEX......Page 437
