Account Analysis Method

Penny Davis runs the Shear Beauty Salon near a college campus. Several months ago, Penny used some unused space at the back of the salon and bought two used tanning beds. She hired a receptionist and kept the salon open for extended hours each week so that tanning clients would be able to use the benefits of their tanning packages. After three months, Penny wanted additional information on the costs of the tanning area. She accumulated the following data on four accounts:

Penny decided that wages and equipment depreciation were fixed. She thought supplies and maintenance would vary with the number of tanning visits and that electricity would vary with the number of tanning minutes.

Required:

1. Calculate the average account balance for each account. Calculate the average monthly amount for each of the two drivers. (Round all answers to the nearest dollar or the nearest whole unit.) Use your rounded answers in all subsequent computations.

2. Calculate fixed monthly cost and the variable rates for the account averages. Round your answers to the nearest cent and use your rounded answers in all subsequent computations.

Express the results in the form of an equation for total cost. (Round to the nearest cent.)

3. In April, Penny predicts there will be 342 visits for a total of 3,720 minutes. What is the total cost for April? If required, round your answer to the nearest dollar.
$

4. Suppose that Penny decides to buy a new tanning bed at the beginning of April for $9,552. The tanning bed is expected to last four years and will have no salvage value at the end of that time.

What will be the new equation for total cost? If required, round your answers to the nearest cent.

Cost = $ + $ (visit) + $ (minute)

What is the new expected cost in April based on the prediction provided in Requirement 3 (above)? When required, round your answer to the nearest dollar.
$

Account Analysis Method

Penny Davis runs the Shear Beauty Salon near a college campus. Several months ago, Penny used some unused space at the back of the salon and bought two used tanning beds. She hired a receptionist and kept the salon open for extended hours each week so that tanning clients would be able to use the benefits of their tanning packages. After three months, Penny wanted additional information on the costs of the tanning area. She accumulated the following data on four accounts:

Penny decided that wages and equipment depreciation were fixed. She thought supplies and maintenance would vary with the number of tanning visits and that electricity would vary with the number of tanning minutes.

Required:

1. Calculate the average account balance for each account. Calculate the average monthly amount for each of the two drivers. (Round all answers to the nearest dollar or the nearest whole unit.) Use your rounded answers in all subsequent computations.

2. Calculate fixed monthly cost and the variable rates for the account averages. Round your answers to the nearest cent and use your rounded answers in all subsequent computations.

Express the results in the form of an equation for total cost. (Round to the nearest cent.)

3. In April, Penny predicts there will be 360 visits for a total of 3,630 minutes. What is the total cost for April? If required, round your answer to the nearest dollar.
$

4. Suppose that Penny decides to buy a new tanning bed at the beginning of April for $8,592. The tanning bed is expected to last four years and will have no salvage value at the end of that time.

What will be the new equation for total cost? If required, round your answers to the nearest cent.

Cost = $ + $ (visit) + $ (minute)

What is the new expected cost in April based on the prediction provided in Requirement 3 (above)? When required, round your answer to the nearest dollar.
$

Tony and Jeannie Nelson are married and file a joint return. They have four children whose ages are: 12,15,19 & 23. The three youngest live at home with their parents and qualify as their dependents. The oldest Roger got married on 5/5 2019 and lives with his wife, Jane. The 19-year old Tabitha is studying Fine Arts at Savannah College of Art & Design. During the summer she helps her mother put together the art exhibits. They provide you with the following information regarding their 2019 upcoming tax return:

1) Tony Nelson is an aerospace engineer he runs an engineering firm, Nelson Engineering (NE), as a sole proprietorship since 2010

. a) NE has very lucrative contracts with numerous aerospace companies and during 2019 it earned $702,000.

b) NE rents an office downtown where they meet with clients and conducts business. The rent includes all utilities. NE paid $38,000 in rent expense in 2019. In December 2019 the landlord offered to maintain the same yearly rent cost and Tony could receive an additional month's rent for free if he prepaid his 2020 year rent in advance. Tony agreed and paid an additional $38,000 on December 1, 2019 to cover January 2020 through January 2021 rent.

c) NE obtained a business loan from SunTrust Bank and paid $2,400 in prepaid interest for June 1, 2019 through May 30, 2020.

d) NE has a few employees, including an electrical engineer, a part-time engineering intern and an office manager. The combined wages for these employees is $196,000. Payroll taxes including for these employees is $15,000.

e) Tony took different business clients to see several home Miami Heat games followed by dinners at nearby restaurants where business was discussed. The meals were not considered lavish. The total cost for the Heat tickets and accompanying meals were $1,200 and $800, respectively.

f) In March 2019, Tony flew to a two-day engineering convention held in Phoenix, AZ requiring a two-night hotel stay. While there, Tony noted that the convention dress code was formal when he thought it would be casual. Tony immediately purchased a business suit for $300 (not considered lavish) at a nearby department store. All food costs were covered by the convention organizers. Other trip costs that Tony paid were airplane ticket $400 and hotel lodgings cost $200/night.

g) The depreciation for the year on the fixed assets owned by NE are estimated to total $3,400. Exam 2 – Take Home 2 h) All of NE’s business transactions are properly documented and supported by receipts/invoices. In addition to deductible portion of the items listed above the business will have an additional $4,400 of deductible other expenses.

Glitz hotel is going to make a $2,000,000 investment by completing renovating a floor of the hotel. The floorplan will be entirely redone, and they can have a mix of three types of rooms: Luxury Suites, Large rooms, or Regular rooms. Due the size of the floor, they can build a maximum of 20 luxury suites or a maximum of 40 large rooms or a maximum of 60 regular rooms or a mix of all three.

Luxury suites will rent for $400 per night.

Lrrge rooms will rent for $200 per night.

Regular rooms will rent for $135 per night.

The cost to maintain each room, excluding depreciation, is $30/night ($25 in variable maintenance and $5 in fixed booking costs).

The food and beverage manager noted that since the suites are often used for conventions as private hospitality suites, they purchase an average of $200 per night in room service. Large rooms purchase an average of $40 and Regular $10 per night for room service. Room service generates a 70% gross profit. The cleaning manager noted that the suites generally require an extra $10/night in cleaning costs due to these conventions.

Estimated maximum demand per night is as follows:

Suites:10 rooms

Large: 25 rooms

Regular: no maximum demand

How many of each room should they build as part of the renovation?

On September 28, 1994, Disney officials announced the end of the Disney’s America project in Prince William County, Virginia. Two representatives from Disney’s America flew to Richmond to brief Virginia’s Governor George Allen on the decision. The same day, Prince William County officials were notified as well. Peter S. Rummell, president of Disney Design and Development Company, issued a public statement, saying in part: We remain convinced that a park that celebrates America and an exploration of our heritage is a great idea, and we will continue to work to make it a reality. However, we recognize that there are those who have been concerned about the possible impact of our park on historic sites in this unique area, and we have always tried to be sensitive to the issue. While we do not agree with all their concerns, we are seeking a new location so that we can move the process forward. . . . Despite our confidence that we would eventually win the necessary approvals, it has become clear that we could not say when the park would be able to open—or even when we could break ground. The controversy over building in Prince William County has diverted attention and resources from the creative development of the park. Implicit in our vision for the park is the hope that it will be a source of pride and unity for all Americans. We certainly cannot let a particular site undermine that goal by becoming a source of divisiveness.1 Rummell stated that Disney would try to build an American history theme park elsewhere in Virginia, but that a site had not yet been selected. Many Virginia politicians were disappointed, but some tried to remain optimistic. Governor George Allen’s office issued a statement: “I’m committed to a Disney theme park in Virginia and the jobs that will be created thereby. I’m pleased that the Walt Disney Company shares that commitment.”2 Robert S. Skunda, Allen’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade, commented to reporters, “I think they see the likelihood of long-term damage to their image. No company likes to be publicly bashed when they feel as though they are doing something that is worthwhile. . . . The thing that a company values most is its reputation. It has to. Without a reputation a company cannot continue to exist. I think those things drove Disney away from the Haymarket site.”3 Prince William County executive James Mullen said the county would be forced to go through a time of self-examination following Disney’s exit. He stated, “Mainly I’m disappointed for the people in the community who supported the project and for our staff, who put so much time in on this. Disney certainly hasn’t helped our marketing effort. They’ve made it very difficult for us to overcome the perception that this is a place (where) you can’t do a big project without a hassle.”4 Other local politicians were not as generous in their remarks about Disney. State Senator Joseph Benedetti of Richmond stated, “Promises were made that they’d stay, come hell or high water. Whatever they do is going to have to be written in blood next time.”5 State Senator Charles Colgan of Prince William County stated, “I think they broke faith with us.”6 James McPherson, the Princeton history professor and one of Disney’s most vocal opponents, stated, “I’m very happy. It’s good news.”7 McPherson said that he would be happy to help Disney find another location in Virginia that would be less significant historically. He stated, “Some of us would be quite happy to advise them. This has never been an attempt to bash Disney.”8 Over the next few weeks, scores of municipalities wrote newspaper articles and petitioned Disney directly, stating that they would welcome a Disney park in their areas. Since the decision to halt plans for Disney’s America in Virginia, observers have tried to make sense in retrospect of the park’s failure. In 1998, Eisner issued a memoir, Work in Progress. In a chapter devoted to the Disney’s America project,9 Eisner freely and openly admits that Disney made many missteps, while still arguing for the vision he had for the theme park. Among the missteps Eisner identified were • Naming the project “Disney’s America,” which implied the company’s ownership of U.S. history. He said, “That was unfortunate because we were never interested in a park that merely reflected a Disneyesque view of American history.” • Failing to “recognized how deeply people often feel about maintaining their communities just as they are. . . . There may have been no collection of people [the Piedmont Environmental Council] in America better equipped to lobby a cause, whether with Congress or government agencies or through the media.” • Being “blindsided” by the issue of proximity to the Manassas Battlefield Park. Jody Powell’s advice had been that the distance of three miles would be great enough to avoid controversy. • Believing Disney “could announce the project on [its] own timetable. Our focus on secrecy in land acquisition had prevented us from even briefing, much less lobbying, the leading politicians in the state about our plans as they evolved. The consequence was that we lost the opportunity to develop crucial allies and nurture goodwill.” • Revealing to the public “a plan that looked relatively complete [which] opened ourselves up to every critic with different ideas about what a park based on American history should and should not include.” • Making emotional statements that critics latched on to, including being shocked about not being taken around on people’s shoulders and complaining that history in school was boring. Eisner reflects: “My comments made me sound not just smug and arrogant but like something of a Philistine. . . . Looking back, I realize how much my brief moment of intemperance undermined our cause.” To balance his story, Eisner also recollects his well-meaning intentions for the theme park, describing his motives as the patriotic and socially responsible vision of a son of immigrants. He wanted visiting Disney’s America to be as multimedia intensive and deeply moving an experience as the U.S. Holocaust Museum. In retrospect, Eisner explained “We saw ourselves as storytellers first and foremost,” who needed advice from historical experts to portray American history “knowledgeably and responsibly.” Working with the advisory group of “openminded” historians who critiqued comparable exhibits in Orlando was particularly eye-opening: “In our original plan, for example, we’d envisioned recreating a classic twentieth-century steel. mill and then putting a roller-coaster through it. To do that, we began to understand, could trivialize and even demean the attempt to portray the steel mill realistically.” Of his critics, Eisner complains, “By any reasonable measure, this attack on Disney’s America was dramatically overstated. . . . Much like negative advertising in a political campaign, [their] incendiary claims were effective in influencing public opinion and putting us further on the defensive. I was suddenly the captain of Exxon’s Valdez. . . . By the summer of 1994, opposing Disney’s America had become a fashionable cause célèbre in the media centers of New York City and Washington, D.C. . . . Fairness seemed to have given way to polemics.” In the end, Eisner explains that financial projections made in late August 1994 “showed that rather than the profit we’d previously projected for Disney’s America, we were now facing the prospect of substantial losses.” On the cost side, Eisner attributed the losses to the current and future expense of dealing with opponents’ legal challenges, to the carrying costs caused by a projected two-year delay before breaking ground, and to the modifications to the original plans that increased costs by almost 40 percent. On the revenue side, the Disney’s America team now projected a lower price point for tickets and a shorter season at eight months down from nine. According to Eisner, “Now that a dozen members of our team had spent a year living in the towns adjacent to our site, they had a different view. An eight-month season for the park seemed more realistic.” The revised figures, coupled with the psychic impact of Wells’ death, Eisner’s by-pass surgery, and Katzenburg’s departure led to the decision to abandon plans for Disney’s America. As Eisner concludes, I still believed that it was possible to get Disney’s America built, but the question now was at what cost. . . . [A]fter two weeks of soul-searching, we finally agreed that it wasn’t fair to subject the company to more trauma. The issue was no longer who was right or wrong. We had lost the perception game. Largely through our own missteps, the Walt Disney Company had been effectively portrayed as an enemy of American history and a plunderer of sacred ground. The revised economic projections took the last bit of wind out of our sails. The cost of moving forward on Disney’s America, we reluctantly concluded, finally outweighed the potential gain. Others interpreted the situation as one in which Eisner himself needed better handling. In The Keys to the Kingdom, former Washington Post reporter Kim Masters says Eisner’s dealings with the media had suffered since late 1992 when he lost his chief of corporate communications, Erwin Okun, to cancer. “Okun had a shrewd yet avuncular style that worked well with the press,” wrote Masters. Journalist Peter Boyer said of Okun “‘He somehow pushed that button in all of us that said Disney is an honest, good company that meant well. . . . He packaged [Eisner] well without seeming to do so.’” “Eisner said he relied on Okun ‘to counsel, review, berate, encourage, and protect me,’” Masters writes. Okun’s successor, John Dreyer, however, “came from the theme parks. He lacked Okun’s cordiality and treated the press with suspicion bordering on hostility. At the Washington Post, he quickly alienated the very reporters whose coverage of Disney’s America would prove most influential.”10 Pat Scanlon, formerly an Imagineer, speculated that Wells might have salvaged the Disney’s America project. “There wasn’t anybody at a high enough level to keep Michael in his box, [Scanlon] says. “Michael was making public remarks that weren’t helpful. Michael sounded a bit like an abrasive Hollywood producer coming to town. Frank would have shaped public relations because he would have made Michael more aware. Frank was the consummate diplomat.”11 Whatever the cause, Nick Kotz, a member of the Piedmont Environmental Council and author of the editorial in the Los Angeles Times, observed this about the effects of the Disney’s America theme park controversy: “Undoubtedly Disney had internal reasons for the decision to strike its tent on the Piedmont battlefield. But it had also faced the danger of a Pyrrhic victory. In all probability, it could have prevailed and built its theme park, but it would have suffered serious and perhaps permanent value to its reputation.”12 Despite claims by Eisner and Disney officials to the contrary, as of the writing of this case, no further plans have been announced for a Disney’s America theme park.

Discuss and Anlysis the Case Study.

Database

You have just started a new position on the database design staff at Gizmonic Consultants, Inc.

Your first project is to translate the database requirements for Continental Hotels into an ER representation. In the next project, you will derive a relational schema from an ER diagram and implement the schema, populate it, and query over it.

Requirements:

Develop an ERD to capture the entities and relationships specified in the requirements documentation below. Use only the conventions covered in class.

1. Show keys [partial keys] for each entity [weak entity].
2. Give cardinality (1:1, 1:m, m:n) and participation constraints (partial, total) for each binary relationship.
3. Your whole ERD should not be more than one page in length, although you can show complete attributes in a separate diagram and just keys/partial keys on the main diagram.
4. You should have at least 4 entities and you may have quite a few relationships between them.
5. Keep a list of assumptions that represent any modeling decisions you have to make.
   • Your assumptions should not contradict any information given in the requirements, and you should strive to make as few additional assumptions as possible.
   • Anything you model that is not explicitly stated in the requirements should be stated in your assumptions.

Phase 2

1. Submit one well-formed, consensus ER diagram using Dia with the ER sheet that satisfies the requirements
2. A list of your design decisions (any additional assumptions beyond what is given explicitly in the problem). Organize your assumptions in 3 categories:
   1. related to primary keys,
   2. related to cardinality/participation constraints for relationships, and
   3. miscellaneous (anything else).
3. Translation of the team ERD into RDB tables using the algorithm and conventions

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Continental Hotels Requirements

• General Description

Continental Hotels is a chain of hotels that operates in several cities. There are currently 10 locations, and each hotel has about 100 guest rooms. The rooms are normally 80% occupied, with an average length of stay of three days. The hotels are frequented by both business travelers and vacationers. The chain is expanding to additional locations. The current guestroom reservation system is slow and unreliable and a new system is needed to handle reservations and associated guest billing.

• Basic Operations

Guests normally use the chain’s website to make a room reservation, supplying the dates requested, the number of guests, the number of rooms needed, and the area desired. The site shows the locations that have availability for the dates requested that are in the desired area. The user then chooses a location and a summary of the available rooms for that site is displayed, showing a brief description of the room type and the standard rate for each available room. Locations have unique names like “Columbus Downtown” and “Cincinnati North.”

The user can see a more detailed description of each room by clicking on a button. The user has the option to request a special rate due to membership in a group, military status, or age. The list of available rooms and their cost is updated to reflect the discounted price, if any. The chain also offers a rewards program for frequent guests. The website allows the user to enter or retrieve his or her membership number and password, and the site displays the number of rewards points the user has accumulated.

Whether the user belongs to the rewards program or not, he or she can reserve up to three rooms, and must choose a room type and accept the cost for each one from the list displayed, as well as entering the number of the proposed occupants and any special requests for each room, from a menu of special requests. The customer provides a credit card number to guarantee the reservation, and may choose to use some or all of his or her rewards points, if any, towards the cost of the rooms.

At the conclusion of the process, a confirmation number is assigned for the reservation. If a customer prefers, this same process can be done by telephone or even by mail.

A customer can cancel a reservation up to the day before he or she is due to check in with no penalty. If the customer does not cancel and is a no-show, the room cost(s) for one day will be charged to the credit card account provided in the reservation. A fictitious room number (-1) is used for this purpose. In addition to reservations, the hotel can accommodate walk-in guests, provided there are rooms available. In that case the customer information is taken, and a reservation is made for the same day for the period desired. Guests can also extend their stays past the reserved date, provided there are rooms available. The ending date of the current reservation is updated accordingly.

When a guest checks in with or without a reservation, guest IDs are checked, rooms are assigned, and an imprint of the credit card that will be used for billing is taken. If separate bills are requested for rooms at check-in, additional credit card imprints are taken, and basic information about the credit card holder, who is now considered the customer holding a reservation for that room, is taken. Miscellaneous charges for such items as room service, meals in the hotel restaurants or coffee shop, movie rentals, and telephone calls, as well as the basic room charges, will be billed to the credit card account for each associated room. Guests can access their room account information to see a summary of the charges for each room each day. At the end of the stay, guests are requested to fill out an evaluation form for each room, either on paper or online.

• Information Needs

Some of the reports that the system should be able to produce include the following, for each of the hotels in the chain:

Guest Bill – This should include, for each room:

Invoice number, room number, guest name, guest address, guest telephone, credit card number, number of persons. For each day of the stay, it should show the date, room charge, room tax, and a list of additional charges - room service charges (date, time, amount), hotel restaurant charges (restaurant name, date, time, amount), telephone charges (date, number called, length, cost) and any other items. At the end of the bill, the total charges, any discount for rewards points, and the total paid or charged to the credit card are given. If additional charges are found once the guest has checked out, a revised bill is prepared and sent to the guest.

Weekly Room Utilization Report – This report is normally produced at the end of each week, showing the utilization of rooms during the week. Note that some of the hotel’s guest rooms may not be available for rental because of damages, renovations, or other reasons. For each day, the report shows date, number of rooms available to be rented, number occupied, number unoccupied, number of rooms reserved, number of no-shows, number of walk-ins.

At the bottom of the report, the totals of each of these numbers for the week is shown.

Housekeeping Daily Room Requests Report – A report is created daily showing any special requests for guests who are checking in that day or who are already registered that must be filled by the housekeeping staff, such as extra pillows, rollaway beds, and so forth.

Daily Checkout Report - The report lists the rooms that will be vacated that day so that the housekeeping staff can prepare them for new guests after current guests depart.

• Query Checklist

□ List all the hotels (names) in the Cincinnati area.

□ List all the areas that do not have a hotel with a room with the type “queen size, handicapped accessible.”

□   List names of guests who watched the movie “Buckaroo Banzai” at any hotel.

□   List names of guests who were charged for a no-show reservation and who have a rewards membership.

□   List the sum of all miscellaneous charges by guest name and room number at the “Downtown Columbus” hotel in June 2019.

By considering the genotypes in a single generation (NOT changes in frequencies over time or changes from one generation to the next), how would you show that natural selection is occurring in the Near-Lethal Homozygote (near-lethal recessive) simulation (Hint: think about Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium).

1. A one-page, 250 word document persuading your most influential stakeholder why it's important to consider security and risk when designing the IT systems for your Park Area.

According to Schaller, Park, & Mueller (2003) Past research has indicated that men report higher levels of racism and ethnocentrism than women. What would be another perspective to this finding?

You are working in an area that has been contaminated by heavy metals, what plant-based strategy will you try to remediate the soil so that you can later create a park?