Question

On January 20, 2017, Tamira Nelson, the accountant for Picton Enterprises, is feeling pressure to complete the annual financial statements. The company president has said he needs up-to-date financial statements to share with the bank on January 21 at a dinner meeting that has been called to discuss Picton's obtaining loan financing for a special building project. Tamira knows that she will not be able to gather all the needed information in the next 24 hours to prepare the entire set of adjusting entries. Those entries must be posted before the financial statements accurately portray the company's performance and financial position for the fiscal period ended December 31, 2016. Tamira ultimately decides to estimate several expense accruals at the last minute. When deciding on estimates for the expenses, she uses low estimates because she does not want to make the financial statements look worse than they are. Tamira finishes the financial statements before the deadline and gives them to the president without mentioning that several account balances are estimates that she provided.
Required:
1. Identify several courses of action that Tamira could have taken instead of the one she took.
2. If you were in Tamira's situation, what would you have done?

Answer 1

Answer:

the question says she used low estimates to make the statement look good.

Explanation:

here are the answers:

1. Identify several courses of action that Tamira could have taken instead of the one she took

Tamira was wrong for providing low estimates. She should have been truthful in her estimation. If some items were not estimated she should have made it known that those items were still under review. Using low estimates on purpose is not ethical and unacceptable by GAAP standards.

She would have been straight with the president and let him know the time frame was not enough for the finalization of the statements. She would have instead given a time frame when the internal draft would be ready.

2.  If you were in Tamira's situation, what would you have done?

If I were tamira, I will not raise or reduce figures on purpose just to make the statements look presentable. I will be truthful on figures and estimates I used and why I did. If the president would pressurize me to do the wrong thing, I will have no option than to leave the organization to avoid going against ethical standards since such actions have legal implications.