Cost of Goods Sold :: essays research papers

A figure of cost of goods sold reflecting the cost of the product or good that a company sells to generate revenue, appearing on the income statement, as an expense. Also, referred to as â€Å"cost of sales†. It is essentially a cost of doing business, such as the amount paid to purchase raw materials in order to manufacture them into finished goods. For example, if a $10 widget costs $6 to make, then the cost of goods sold is $6 per widget. That is, the cost of goods sold is equal to the beginning inventory plus the cost of goods purchased during some period minus the ending inventory. However, the meaning of the cost of goods sold differs from one company to another company. There are three types of companies such as merchandising, manufacturing, and service. The merchandising company such as retail stores and wholesalers sells goods that are usually same physical form as what the company acquires them. Therefore, those acquisition cost would be the cost of goods sold in merchandising company. The acquisition cost includes not only the cost of acquiring the merchandise but also the cost of making the goods ready for sale such as shipping costs. Let’s think of the following situation during the period. In addition to the beginning inventory, a company purchased additional merchandise so the amount of goods available for sale became the beginning inventory plus additional purchased merchandise. At the end of the period, the company wants to determine the amount of the cost of goods sold and ending inventory. How do they determine the amount of the cost of goods sold and ending inventory? There are two types of approaches: periodic inventory method and perpetual inventory method. The periodic inventory method is the following. (Cost of goods sold) = (Goods available for sales) – (Ending inventory) In the periodic inventory method, we determine the amount of ending inventory at the end of period, and then subtract the ending inventory from the goods available for sale. On the other hand, the perpetual inventory method is the following. (Ending inventory) = (Goods available for sales) – (Cost of goods sold) In the perpetual inventory method, we determine the amount of cost of goods sold, and then subtract the cost of goods sold from the goods available for sale. Therefore, we have to keep a record for inventory constantly. Although this record keeping is burdensome for some company, there are important advantages.

Flannery O’Connor’s Short Story A Good Man is Hard to Find Essay

Flannery O’Connor’s Short Story â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† Flannery O’Connor’s personal views on the justification of religion and the resulting world or corruption and depravity are apparent in her short story â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find†. She analyzes the basic plight of human existence and its conflict with religious conviction. The first two-thirds of the narrative set the stage for the grandmother, representing traditional Christian beliefs, to collide with The Misfit, representing modern scientific beliefs. The core of symbolism and the magnet for interpretation is at the end, the conversation between the grandmother and The Misfit. The conversation represents the examination of the clash between animal and metaphysical human nature and the Misfit is the literary depiction of the outcome of that clash. The grandmother is based on conventional Southern women. She dresses in her Sunday best so that noone would be mistaken as to her status as a lady, an issue at the heart of every true Southern woman. She related stories of old mansions and of the little ‘pickaninny’ by a door. This was not a racial comment because for it to be there would have to be an intent to insult an African American and there was not. This was written to further convey the notion of her embodying all the true characteristics of Southern women, including their adherence to devout Christianity. The Misfit exemplifies the cold, contemporary world. In the conversation The Misfit’s declar...

Epq Doc Grade C

Motivational Song for a Footballer In my project I aim to create a motivational song which will allow footballers to push themselves, I will do this by researching in football magazines, online articles and asking semi-pro footballers on their opinions to give me an insight on what components are vital in my song. Motivation is a process which controls a person’s behaviour to a certain extent, this may be in response to an occurrence e. g. Feeling hungry motivates you to eat something.I want to take advantage of this and use strategies to increase motivation and therefore drive performance. I would measure this by observing the footballers behaviour for example how he felt he performed, how long he/she lasted before fatigued, This cannot be carried out empirically because this technology is not available. Many footballers need motivation to perform well, if not they can risk losing their team a game. I want to be able to boost a footballer’s morale at times of need.Chri s Carling quotes ‘In soccer, nothing can affect performance as dramatically as a sudden loss of motivation. Without the motivation to succeed a player cannot survive the challenges soccer can throw up. ’ Liz McColgan, London Marathon Winner says â€Å"Competing successfully in any sporting event is as much about the mind as the body. I like to use music with different tempos to help me with my training – it's easy to get into the beat and helps you relax more at speed. This tells me that one song cannot be created and named the ultimate motivational songs as many songs help motivate athletes in different ways but I can try and create a song to motivate footballers to the best of my ability. I started by reading a book called ‘Damn You’re Selfish’ by Jack Spades, the most important information I got from this book was that building friendships with teammates and thinking in a ‘us’ mentality instead of ‘me’ mentality i s key for excelling performance.I will take on-board this advice and use I reference to teammates in my song to encourage this mentality and therefor increasing performance. I then asked five semi-pro footballers what motivated them to perform well. They answered team speeches and music. I then asked ‘what type of music? ’ The majority replied R;amp;B/Hip-Hop and the minority said Indie, they were no other genres stated. I gathered from this information that I would make my song an R;amp;B track that would include motivational speech. I had never reated an R;amp;B instrumental before and wanted the beat unflawed so I ask a friend of mine to create this for me, he Named the instrumental ‘Motivation’ and uploaded this to YouTube so I could download this as an MP3 format in order to add vocals to the instrumental. I used a program named ‘Audacity’ to add vocals to my song; this is a free Cross-Platform Sound Editor. I started by importing my instr umental, after listening to it repeatedly I decided to start the song off with a motivational speech to boost morale. I searched for public motivational speeches.I found a speech that was considered to be one of the best motivational speeches, I agreed. The speech was named ‘I am a champion’, I was inspired by this and therefor decided to name my song ‘Champion’, the speech already had music in the background so I could not put the speech on my song as it would create a demoralising sound clash, so I used the powerful ‘I am a champion’ chant in my chorus to give my song a sense of team spirit which from my research I have seen plays a big part in such a competitive team game. ‘Champion! ’ ‘Champion! ’ ‘I am a champion! ‘I am a champion! ’ Then wrote my lyrics around this, remembering to use motivation sentences such as ‘You’re never over’ to create emotions of self-belief.The lyri cs I wrote for this were typed on word whilst listening to the instrumental repeatedly. Here are the lyrics, the grammar has not been modified and is exactly how it was when I recorded them Reece Senior – Champion Lyrics you’re a champ don't forget it Don't try half hearted ,you'll regret it Gotta move through your darkest moments Your never over Remember Rome wasn't built in a day And where there's a will, there's a way' The same way you can be who you wanna be You lead the way and tell ‘em come follow me And if they can't keep up, up he stamina And if they're not faster, up your speed That way you can guarantee you'll have everything that you need You’re a warrior, don't let it worry ya Your 1st class football courier You here to claim you’re avengance So pay attention ‘cause glory doesn't come free Train till your legs can’t pick you up Train till your feet have the perfect touch Train till your clubmates feel the rushYou’re n ot giving up you've came to far from the bench to front of the field, Gotta keep your thoughts strong have a mind of steel Gotta keep focused ‘cause you play how you feel (And then we'll snatch victory †¦Yes we will) Working your way from the bottom to the top you can't stop you’re a champion Aching everywhere but hard work doesn't scare you you’re a champion I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfilment that all that he holds dear, is that the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious †¦.. Vince LombardiI used a Samson CO1U to record my vocals, this is a USB studio condenser microphone which I used to record at home. I structured my vocals in layers to add affects such has ‘Ad Libtums’ which is where you record the same verse twice, each in a separate layer to add emphasis to my song. Two layer of the same verse, known has ad-libs Two layer of the same verse, known has ad-libs After recording the song I felt the end needed another motivational speech so I researched more speeches and came across a speech from a film names ‘Best Shot’ and decided this would be perfect to put into my song.I then recorded my self stating a motivation speech from ‘Vince Lombardi’, a successful American Football coach. After this was completed I handed it to 3 of my participants (one of them which said they preferred indie) which I questioned at the start of my project, I asked them to listen to the song whilst exercising and give me feedback on the song. They all said the song was motivational and drived them to push themselves harder.

Challenges faced by small businesses Essay

Growth in the small and medium business in Canada and other developed countries has been very significant. This sector of the business community now represents about 40 percent of GDP and accounts more than half of total employment. Today small businesses are more diverse and more vigorous than ever, but they also faces newer and more challenges or inhibitors to their growth than their older conter parts. This research will attempt to find the answer to the following hypothetical question: â€Å"What are the barrier to entry, inhibitors to growth, and detriments to the health of small business and entrepreneurship today?† Access to capital and credit at various stages in the business life cycle is identified as the major hurdle by the entrepreneurs. For many small firms and most start-ups, the personal funds of the business owners and entrepreneur and those of relatives and acquaintances constitute as the major source of capital. For many small businesses, especially during th e early years of their operation, credit is simply not available. For many others, the limited available credit is not through bank loans. Due to this many of them rely on multiple credit card balances and home equity loans as major sources of credit for start-up firm. Because banks are bound by laws and regulations to prudent lending standards that require them a risk management assessment for each loan made. These regulations were made more vigor during the late 1980† and early 1990 . Banks always found that lending to manufacturing firm with hard asset such as property, equipment, and inventory has always been easier than lending to today’s expanding service sector firms. Because the service sector firms own few hard asses, therefor lending judgment have to be based in terms of character, markets, and cashflow, which make it difficult to the bank to meet the regulations for the approval of the loan. Additional, the banking industry, as well as the entire financial sector of the economy, is undergoing rapid change. In the future bank ing industry will be divided into global, national and super-regional banks and a much smaller number of community banks. It is expected of these banks primarily super regional banks and community banks will extend their services to the needs smaller business through large loan processing centers utilizing credit-scoring techniques and â€Å"intelligent models† (artificial intelligence-derived computer-based models) . These will increase the standards the loan process. Therefore making the loan available for small business more scare. Globalization is a major force that modified and molded the environment for small business and entrepreneurs. Even though it’s interms of identifying foreign markets and foreign sources of supply as important parts of their strategies for growth and success. But it has continually deteriorating our local retail small businesses with the introduction of retail giants such as Home Depot, Wal – Mart and etc. Because of the stiff competition that our small businesses face from the foreign market, it puts extra pressure on them interms of efficiency, price, quality, cost-control, marketing expertise, customer satisfaction and innovativeness. But because of lack of capital, credit and skill workers they are not able to equally competitive with others. Thus they become prey to the ever expanding corporate giants. For small business entrepreneurs to be successful over the next decade and beyond, and educated and trained work force must be available. Public school systems are not meeting the needs of the small business community interms of preparing new labor force entrants with such basic skills as literacy, math skills, and problem solving skills. Those who go beyond high school education are leaving Canada and entering our neighboring country work force and experienced and skilled workers we have now are entering 50’s and 60’s. The lack of proper technical education, brain drain and the aging baby boomers present yet another challenge to small business owners. That’s is to recruit skilled workers in the future. Despite all the potential that e-commerce has for the small business users, it also has man y challenges too. E-commerce consists of a wide spectrum of types of business transactions. It can mean anything from a simple electronic ad that generate a telephone call to the company sales clerk, to a complex real-time transfer of funds between buyers’ and sellers’ bank accounts . Large corporations find it easy to adjust to e-commerce from their traditional sales and transaction methods, while small business find they must structure their entire operations around e-commerce. For business owners who simply want to purchase products over the web, the process is relatively straightforward. They can use credit cards to make purchases just like any other consumer. The only consideration that should be taken in this process is in controlling which staff members should have the authorization to use the card. But for businesses that wish to sell over the â€Å"net†, however, face considerably higher barriers. Computer system and software development cost can be substantial particular ly in custom applications. Ensuring quick order, a must by consumers, can introduce a completely new infrastructure and cost dimension to the business. Also because credit card orders are not always guaranteed valid by the banks, the vendor my be 100% liable in case where consumers challenge the validity of a purchase. As a result, banks often require that e-vendors post high deposits up-front to guard against charge backs. E-commerce also require a whole new set of employee skills, which add considerably to labor costs. The extent, complexity and uncertainty associated with regulations were identified as a major inhibitors of growth for the small business. All sectors of small business faces rigid barriers for entry and approval for licenses as the result of regulations, these can be from a youth trying to secure a vendor license to bankers who see the risk associated with environmental laws as limiting their ability to make loans. It further more complicated when federal, provincial and municipal regulations overlap each other contradictory standard fashion. Regulations fall more heavily on smaller organizations than larger organization. Because large enterprises can often hire internal and external help at a reasonable price. Despite these barriers to small-firm growth, further projections indicate that small businesses and entrepreneurship would continue to grow and make major contributions interms of job creation, innovation, empowerment. But if these challenges were removed or eased to manageable standards by the proper authorities can act as a rebost to this expanding economy. Government can try to ease the small business owners face interms of capital and credit, by dividing the public grants evenly. Rather than just giving large chunks away to large corporation, university research and etc. Some of the regulations set by the government should be abounded or modified to be more size sensitive. Public school should incorporate skill required courses that would suit the demands of today’s business world. If these suggestions w ere taken into consideration or if these barriers were removed the small business will reach the sky with their innovativeness in the 21st century.

BALANCED SCORECARD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

BALANCED SCORECARD - Essay Example It is headquartered at Ohio, United States. The company is engaged in the business of offering consumer goods to its customers in packaged form. The sales and marketing division of P&G group is committed towards providing best services to its customers. This study entails the preparation of a balanced scorecard for the strategies to be implemented in the sales and marketing division of the company keeping it aligned with the overall strategy of P&G. The Balanced Scorecard includes all the four perspectives of a balanced scorecard namely, the financial, customers, learning and internal business process perspectives. The purpose of this Balanced Scorecard is to look at three objectives in this organizational unit. These objectives will be measured using metrics appropriate for this discipline. Financial The primary goal or objective of this business unit is to increase the sales and add to the profits of the company. A lot of sales personnel are involved in the marketing of products of P&G and it needs to look at the objective of reducing the costs incurred in the various processes involved in this department as well. Customer Customers are the key towards the success and profitability of the company. Hence the company needs to have a well devised strategy leading to complete satisfaction of its customers. Internal Business The strategy related to this perspective would be to increase the efficiency of the marketing division so that it can serve for the better performance of the company. Learning and Development A well devised strategy related to this perspective is also required to be devised by the company. It would include various objectives like imparting training to the personnel in the department so that they can carry on their activities efficiently and help the company to have a sustainable growth and development. Table of Contents Table of Contents 4 Formulation and Implementation of Balanced Scorecard of Procter & Gamble 6 Financial Perspective 8 Sales Growth 9 Growth in Operating Activities 9 Free Cash Flow Productivity 9 Customer Perspective 10 Increase in Customer Retention 10 Improved Customer Service 10 Increase in number of Customers 11 Internal Perspective 11 Reductions in Inventory 11 New Product Developments 12 Improvement in Distribution Efficiency 12 Learning and Growth Perspective 12 Employee Turnover 13 High Skill Levels 13 Employee Satisfaction 13 References 16 Formulation and Implementation of Balanced Scorecard of Procter & Gamble Balance Scorecard was developed by Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton in the year 1992. It is a tool developed to measure the level of performance mainly of the employees in an organization. In a Balanced Scorecard system performance is measured on the basis of four perspectives, namely, financial, customers, learning and development, and internal business process perspectives. It contains both the target scores and the scores achieved based on the given category. So it becomes easy to me asure high as well as low performances using Balanced Scorecard (Balance Scorecard Institute, 2012). This study entails about the preparation of a Balanced Scorecard for the sales and marketing division of Procter and Gamble (P&G). P&G is a reputed company which operates its business activities worldwide. It is headquartered at Ohio, United States. P&G is engaged in the business of offering wide range of FMCG products to its customers and they are delivered to them in packaged forms (Yahoo Finance, 2012). The sales and market division of the company constitutes a critical unit of the organization and Balanced Scorecard prepared in this study can help analyze and measure its effectiveness, thereby helping the company to have well devised strategy to attain the objectives of the company. The first step towards

Managerial Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Managerial Economics - Essay Example It happens because when the number of firms is few, any change in the price or quality of the products by one company will have an immediate and direct impact on the other companies. When this happens, it is highly likely that the rivals will immediately respond with similar or more aggressive changes. Thus, in oligopoly, companies remain in constant vigil about the actions and reactions of their opponents (Bolotova et al 2005). Also, companies will hesitate to adopt any such tactics to gain market share because the rivals will immediately respond with similar strategies (ibid). When this happens, it seems that most of the companies start giving more attention to advertising and selling costs. As other strategies will not work, companies try to increase their advertisement in order to achieve maximum sale. Similarly, companies will start reducing selling costs so that profits can be maximised. Yet another important feature is price rigidity. In an oligopoly system, prices often remai n rigid because firms are afraid of making changes because of the price-war (Liu & Serfes 2006) Another important point to be mentioned here is the importance of strategy. To illustrate, in oligopoly, it is highly necessary for firms to be careful about their own strategies because they cannot act independently. It is highly necessary for them to decide when to collude with their rivals and when to compete with them. Also, it is highly necessary to be careful while raising or lowering the prices. Admittedly, these features lure the companies to collude in order to reduce uncertainty and also to enjoy monopoly and higher profits. These firms often engage in various forms of collusion, ranging from overt collusion, covert collusion, and tacit collusion. Overt collusion occurs when firms openly engage in agreements like trade associations. Covert collusion is kept hidden in order to hide the results of the collusion. Thirdly, tacit collusion is the result when all firms in an oligopoly act in concert even without the existence of an agreement. One of the most notorious cases of collusion is the lysine price-fixing conspiracy. It took place in the mid 1990s, and various companies from various countries were involved. They were Archer Daniels Midland from the US, Japan companies named Ajinomoto and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, Korean companies named Sewon America Inc. and Cheil Jedang Ltd. These companies colluded to raise the price of an important animal feed additive called lysine. It is seen that these companies, through the price-fixing, managed to raise the price of the product by 70% (Liski & Montero 2006). Thus, it becomes evident that the cartel helped the companies to raise their profit through gaining monopoly (ibid). It is found that in a perfect market, it is not possible for companies to collude easily because the decisions of a few companies will not impact the market as a whole. However, in an oligopoly market, the collective decision taken by a few companies will have significant impact on the whole market. This will give the companies monopoly and increased profits. Very similar is the case of the beer companies Heineken, Grolsch, and Bavaria, which made a price-fixing deal in Holland, monopolising beer distribution. In fact, these companies collectively controlled 95% of the Holland beer market (Brue & Mcconnell 2006, p. 210). Through collusion, they increased the beer price

Analyzing an article Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analyzing an article - Assignment Example However, why should not there be a general product for a particular range products. For example, what would happen if Apple’s iPhone were priced similar to Samsung Galaxy? In this case, people would argue that customer’s choice between the Galaxy and the iPhone is based on the brand name. Now suppose we scrape off the brand names and give the two products a similar appearance. Which of the products would sell more and why? This and many other economic and marketing puzzles dominate the article. Issues of brands and prices dominate the technology market. However, the issue still applies even to most basic consumer services. For instance, why are some private doctors or lawyers busier than others are, despite having the same qualification? Consequently, why are some commodities costly and yet they have a better market than cheaper ones. For example, why do people always go for an expensive lawyer whenever they have legal requirements? This and other similar questions are tackled in the article. The author argues that customers are the sole determinants of prices and they control the market. What does being expensive really means. The issue of expensive and cheap commodities characterizes any market. Customers are complaining that a thing is either too expensive or it does not meet their expectations. Surprisingly a car valued at $3000 and a candy valued at $2 might be categorized as expensive products. It beats logic to analyze the price difference between the two products in terms of their price money. Indeed, $3000 is extremely greater than $2. Thus, it might be absurd to categorize both products as expensive products. Consequently, customers of each of the above products have a hypothetical price that they consider as fair or correct. However, how do sellers get access this price without going through the customer? The power to unlock this mystery is the key to successful marketing. Some like when the prices are high while others like it when the prices are at the lower extreme. Choice for either extreme depends on consumer's decisions. Surprisingly customers will always complain that the prices of commodities are extremely high independent of their purchasing power (Bade, and Michael 72). Are consumers always complaining about prices or can we achieve the reverse situation. Indeed, it is possible to manufacture the later scenario in an ideal market. According to the author, successful marketers know how to reverse customer’s view on expensive prices. Analyzing the News In a market system, successful products always have substitute. Availability of substitute is the main factor that distinguishes a competitive or an ideal market from a monopoly. Consumers distinguish different products based on brand names or their market label. Despite the differentiation, some products are more successful than others are. Consequently, customers would buy such products at even high cost defying key economic principles. Price is the key monetary representation of a product’s value. Thus, the price of a product reflects its true value in a particular market. Customers have they own definition of value that depends on the nature of a product and the subsequent economic environment. For example, people would be comfortable buying a bottle of water at $100 in a hot desert. Consequently, the same customers would not be able or willing to buy the same bottle in a place where water