12-48 Solutions Manual
CRITICAL THINKING CASES
CP12–6.
Req. 1
The payment from Merrill Lynch to Enron does not automatically make the Nigerian
barge transaction a sale. When a loan is established between a lender and borrower, a
similar cash payment is made between the two parties. Two other features of the
The four revenue recognition criteria discussed in Chapter 3 are:
1) delivery has occurred or services have been rendered,
2) there is persuasive evidence of an arrangement for customer payment,
3) the price is fixed or determinable, and
4) collection is reasonably assured.
Without knowing about the secret side deal, it’s not obvious which of the four criteria
promised to Merrill Lynch.
Req. 2
By recording the transaction as a regular sale, Enron reports the cash received as a
cash inflow from an operating activity. Had the transaction been recorded as a loan,
Enron would have reported the cash received as a cash inflow from a financing activity.
Req. 3
Most financial statement users view cash flows from operating activities as recurring
sources of cash into the future. If $100,000 of cash is generated from operations this
year, it’s often reasonable to expect that a similar amount will be generated next year