ACIS5104, Business & Finance ACIS5104 Virginia Tech Inventory Valuation and Disclosures Case Assignment I Requirements
You are hired as an assistant controller at Reli
ance Corporation in March 2016 (see case below). Respond to the following requirements. Assume a 35 percent tax rate throughout your analysis. 1. Evaluate management’s 2015 inventory write-
down (Exhibit 1) and related inventory disclosures (Exhibit 3). Your evaluation should address the following qu
estions on the timing of recognizing the write-down, the amount of the write-down, and the related disclosures. a. Was the inventory write-down recorded in an appropriate time period, or should Reliance have either advanced or postponed the recognition of the inventory write-down? Explain. Give plausible reasons why Reliance
“˜s management recorded the write-down in the period that it did. b. Was Reliance’s application of the LCM princi
ple consistent with GAAP? In particular, address the appropriateness of: i. the method of determining the amount of write-down, and ii. the application of the LCM prin
ciple by major product categories. 2. Evaluate the Company’s approach to recording the effect of selling th
e written-down inventory in the first quarter of 2016. Your evaluation should address the following question: What is the journal entry to record the $18.6 million reduction of the inventory allowance? 2
3. The CEO wants to reduce the al
lowance related to the memory inventory in stock at the end of the first quarter of 2016 by a
n additional $1.5 million. This r
educed allowance would signal to the market that 2015 was an isolate
d year in terms of financial performance. According to the CEO, increasing the net value w
ould be consistent with the econ
omic reality because the replacement cost of the memory products inventory – even by mos
t conservative estimates-has gone up significantly since the write-down recorded at the end of 2015. Evaluate the CEO’s suggestion. Your evaluation shou
ld address the following: a. Present and explain the journa
l entry to record the addition
al reversal of inventory allowance as suggested by the CEO. b. What are the possible motivations in the CEO’s suggestion? (Calculate the adjusted EPS based on the additional reversal of inventory to justify your answer)