Test Bank for Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making, Eighth Edition
FOR INSTRUCTOR USE ONLY
CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Identify the sections of a classified balance sheet. In a classified balance sheet,
companies classify assets as current assets; long-term investments; property, plant, and
equipment; and intangibles. They classify liabilities as either current or long-term. A
stockholders’ equity section shows common stock and retained earnings.
2. Use ratios to evaluate a company’s profitability, liquidity, and solvency. Ratio analysis
expresses the relationship among selected items of financial statements data. Profitability
ratios, such as earnings per share (EPS), measure aspects of the operating success of a
company for a given period of time.
Liquidity ratios, such as the current ratio, measure the short-term ability of a company to pay
its maturing obligations and to meet unexpected needs for cash. Solvency ratios, such as the
debt to assets ratio, measure the ability of a company to survive over a long period.
Free cash flow indicates a company’s ability to generate cash from operations that is
sufficient to pay debts, acquire assets, and distribute dividends.
3. Discuss financial reporting concepts. Generally accepted accounting principles are a set
of rules and practices recognized as a general guide for financial reporting purposes. The
basic objective of financial reporting is to provide information that is useful for decision
making.
To be judged useful, information should have the primary characteristics of relevance and
faithful representation. In addition, useful information is comparable, consistency, verifiable,
timely, and understandable.
The monetary unit assumption requires that companies include in the accounting records only
transaction data that can be expressed in terms of money. The economic entity assumption
states that economic events can be identified with a particular unit of accountability. The
periodicity assumption states that the economic life of a business can be divided into artificial
time periods and that meaningful accounting reports can be prepared for each period. The
going concern assumption states that the company will continue in operation long enough to
carry out its existing objectives and commitments.
The historical cost principle states that the companies should record assets at their cost. The
fair value principle indicates that assets and liabilities should be reported at fair value. The full
disclosure principle requires that companies disclose circumstances and events that matter to
financial statement users.
The cost constraint weighs the cost that companies incur to provide a type of information
against its benefit to financial statement users.