Problem 5-3 evaluation of inventory costing methods users of financial statements rely on the information available to them to decide whether to invest in a company or lend it money. as an investor, you are comparing three companies in the same industry. the cost to purchase inventory is rising in the industry. assume that all expenses incurred by the three companies are the same except for cost of goods sold. the companies use the following methods to value ending inventory: company a—weighted average cost company b—first-in, first-out (fifo) company c—last-in, first-out (lifo) required 1. which of the three companies will report the highest net income? explain your answer. 2. which of the three companies will pay the least in income taxes? explain your answer. 3. which method of inventory costing do you believe is superior to the others in providing information to potential investors? explain. 4. explain how your answers to parts (1), (2), and (3) would change if the costs to purchase inventory had been falling instead of rising.

He taylor company sells music systems. each music system costs the company $100 and will be sold to the public for $250. in year one, the company sells 100 gift cards to customers for $250 each ($25,000 in total). these cards are valid for just one year, and company officials expect them to all be redeemed. in year two, only 96 of the cards are returned. what amount of net income does the company report for year two in connection with these cards? a. $15,000b. $15,400c. $15,500d. $15,800

Fred smithers, a recent college graduate decided to open his own portable juice bar, smithers smoothies, to wheel around newport beach. you, a trusted friend of fred, are a business major that has also recently graduated and agreed to handle the books for a while to get some practical experience and have a favor that you can ask of fred in the future. given the following five transactions concerning the new venture, prepare the necessary journal entries for the transactions, post the journal entries to appropriate t accounts and prepare a trial balance as of the end of the month in order to answer to the necessary may 2: fred invests $12,000 of his own money to start the new company. this money was obtained from a part-time job working at a legal firm while he was in school. may 3: fred spent $5,100 cash to purchase a refrigerated trailer that he can pull behind his car and set up at the beach. under your advice, fred agrees to place the new asset under an account called "equipment." may 6: fred bought $640 of supplies on account from the flav-o-rite confectioners company. because they will last longer than a single accounting period fred agrees to record them as, "supplies" as per your suggestion. may 13: fred sat on the beach for six hours without a single sale and was feeling very down. right before he left, however, a plumber escorting his family reunion along the beach stopped by his stand and bought $800 worth of smoothies for the entire family. under your advice, fred agrees to call this cash revenue, "sales." may 15: excited about his new venture, fred withdraws $350 from the company to take his girlfriend out to dinner. what would be the balance in the cash account at the end of the period following the posting of all the transactions?

Tl & co. is following a related-linked diversification strategy, and soar inc. is following a related-constrained diversification strategy. how do the two firms differ from each other? a. soar inc. generates 70 percent of its revenues from its primary business, while tl & co. generates only 10 percent of its revenues from its primary business. b. soar inc. pursues a backward diversification strategy, while tl & co. pursues a forward diversification strategy. c. tl & co. will share fewer common competencies and resources between its various businesses when compared to soar inc. d. tl & co. pursues a differentiation strategy, and soar inc. pursues a cost-leadership strategy, to gain a competitive advantage.