The National Sleep Foundation used a survey to determine whether hours of sleeping per night are independent of age (Newsweek, January 19, 2004). The following show the hours of sleep on weeknights for a sample of individuals age 49 and younger and for a sample of individuals age 50 and older. Hours of Sleep Age Fewer than 6 6 to 6.9 7 to 7.9 8 or more Total 49 or younger 30 63 78 69 240 50 or older 40 64 72 84 260

On 2002/4/1, Peter borrowed $2000, agreeing to pay interest at 6%/year compounded monthly. He paid $400 on 2004/9/1 and $500 on 2008/11/1. He will make two more payments on 2011/10/01 and 2013/7/01, with the payment on 2011/10/01 being 20% higher than that on 2013/7/01. What payment will he make on 2013/7/01? Remark: Dates are given in the format YYYY/MM/DD.

A perfectly competitive market can only make normal profits because there are many price taker firms in the industry and absence of barriers in on entry and exit of new firms and can maximizes its profits when the marginal revenue is equal to the marginal cost. Also a perfectly competitive firm will always produce till a output where marginal revenue equals to, marginal cost and the firm can only incur profit by producing fewer than the equilibrium quantity as marginal revenue and equilibrium price are greater than marginal cost. The firm can also focus on increasing efficiency and reduce costs so that it can produce a higher level of output at the marginal cost which equals price, (Principles of Managerial Economics, n.d). Product differentiation is a marketing process that has the objective of making customers perceive the product of a specific firm as unique or superior to any other product belonging to the same group, and so creating a sense of value. Several models have been developed to analyses these two strategies, the most famous being Hotelling’s linear city model and its extension, the Salop’s circular city model, for horizontal differentiation and the Shaked-Sutton’s model for vertical differentiation. As a product becomes more differentiated and unique for consumers, it will become more difficult to compare it to other products and it will move competition with other products to non-pricing factors, (Policonomics, 2017).

What can be done differently?

Alliance, Inc is a manufacturer & marketer of gas lamps for utilization in mining & natural resources operations. Total industry sales in this relevant market were $100 million, with Alliance,s market share representing 5%. Alliances's contribution margin is 25%. Alliance's sales force calls on the widespread distributor network to generate their revenue. These distributors in turn sell the products to the industrial customers. Distributors generate on average revenue of $10,000 per outlet for Alliance. Each sales rep earns $50,000 per annum. Alliance has a corporate advertising & promotions campaign worth $640,000 which has managed to effectively maintain their brand awareness & image in the resources industry.

(a.) Alliance wants to raise their advertising budget by $200,000 to highlight their green initiatives and bolster brand presence further among expanding players in the industry.

- What increase in dollar sales revenue would be needed to recoup this incremental advertising expenditure?

- What increase in Alliance's overall market share does this call for?

(b.) Alliance is seeking to hire 2 more sales reps to expand further territories in their network by gaining access to additional distributors.

- How many new distributors would be required to cover the cost of hiring these 2 new sales reps?

(c.) Alliance is considering a 10% reduction in the price of its offerings.

- What absolute increase in its topline would be justifiable to maintain the present level of total contribution in dollars?

PRACTICAL QUESTION   

Tiger Construction Ltd signs a contract on 1 May 2018 to build a theme park. The construction is scheduled to commence on 1 July 2018 and the estimated date of completion is 30 June 2021. The total contract price is $5m and the cost of the park is initially estimated at $4.5m. The following data relates to the construction period:

Assume that cost (an input measure) is used as the basis for assessing progress on the construction contract.

Required

Determine the percentage of completion for 2019, 2020 and 2021.              

Calculate revenue and gross profit for 2019, 2020 and 2021.                          

Using the percentage of completion method, provide the journal entries for 2019, 2020 and 2021.                                                                                                              

Chamberlain Enterprises Inc. reported the following receivables in its December 31, 2021, year-end balance sheet:

Additional Information:

1. The notes receivable account consists of two notes, a $100,000 note and a $270,000 note. The $100,000 note is dated October 31, 2021, with principal and interest payable on October 31, 2022. The $270,000 note is dated June 30, 2021, with principal and 6% interest payable on June 30, 2022.
2. During 2022, sales revenue totaled $1,450,000, $1,335,000 cash was collected from customers, and $33,000 in accounts receivable were written off. All sales are made on a credit basis. Bad debt expense is recorded at year-end by adjusting the allowance account to an amount equal to 10% of year-end accounts receivable.
3. On March 31, 2022, the $270,000 note receivable was discounted at the Bank of Commerce. The bank's discount rate is 10%. Chamberlain accounts for the discounting as a sale.

Required:
In addition to sales revenue, what revenue and expense amounts related to receivables will appear in Chamberlain’s 2022 income statement?
What amounts will appear in the 2022 year-end balance sheet for accounts receivable and Calculate the receivables turnover ratio for 2022.

At the beginning of July, CD City has a balance in inventory of $3,100. The following transactions occur during the month of July. July 3 Purchase CDs on account from Wholesale Music for $2,000, terms 1/10, n/30. July 4 Pay cash for freight charges related to the July 3 purchase from Wholesale Music, $110. July 9 Return incorrectly ordered CDs to Wholesale Music and receive credit, $300. July 11 Pay Wholesale Music in full. July 12 Sell CDs to customers on account, $5,200, that had a cost of $2,700. July 15 Receive full payment from customers related to the sale on July 12. July 18 Purchase CDs on account from Music Supply for $2,800, terms 1/10, n/30. July 22 Sell CDs to customers for cash, $3,900, that had a cost of $2,200. July 28 Return CDs to Music Supply and receive credit of $240. July 30 Pay Music Supply in full.

1. Assuming that CD City uses a perpetual inventory system, record the transactions. (If no entry is required for a transaction/event, select "No journal entry required" in the first account field.)

Purchase CDs on account from Wholesale Music for $2,000, terms 1/10, n/30.

Pay cash for freight charges related to the July 3 purchase from Wholesale Music, $110.

Return incorrectly ordered CDs to Wholesale Music and receive credit, $300.

Pay Wholesale Music in full.

Sell CDs to customers on account, $5,200, that had a cost of $2,700. Record the sale of inventory on account.

Sell CDs to customers on account, $5,200, that had a cost of $2,700. Record the cost of inventory sold.

Receive full payment from customers related to the sale on July 12.

Purchase CDs on account from Music Supply for $2,800, terms 1/10, n/30

Sell CDs to customers for cash, $3,900, that had a cost of $2,200. Record the sale of inventory for cash.

Sell CDs to customers for cash, $3,900, that had a cost of $2,200. Record the cost of inventory sold.

Return CDs to Music Supply and receive credit of $240.

Pay Music Supply in full

2. Prepare the top section of the multiple-step income statement through gross profit for the month of July.

Question 2.

In this question you will be comparing two different queuing configurations to see which one is better in reducing delays.

NOTE: SHOW ALL YOUR WORK. USE 4 DECIMAL PLACES IN ALL CALCULATIONS.

Historical data at a retail store (e.g. Walmart) shows that the total average arrival rate of customers to checkout lanes (cashiers) at the store is 240 customers per hour during the peak hours. The arrivals can be modeled by a Poisson distribution. There are 20 cashiers working during peak hours. Each cashier can check out 14 customers/hr.

In Configuration 1, each cashier has a dedicated queue in front of him/her. This leads to 20 separate queues at the checkout area. In this configuration, assume that the arrivals of checkouts are equally distributed across the 20 queues: the average arrival rate to each queue = 240 customers per hour / 20 queues = 12 customers per hour per queue.

In Configuration 2, there is one serpentine queue which is served by all 20 cashiers. That is, all customers join the same queue for checkouts. Whenever a cashier becomes available, the customer in front of the queue gets served by that cashier. Note that the average arrival rate to the single checkout queue is 240 customers per hour in this configuration.

a) What is the average wait time in the system (in minutes) for a customer in Configuration 1[1] ? Use the Excel Queuing Models spreadsheet to determine the answer.

b) What is the average wait time in the system (in minutes) for a customer in Configuration 2? Use the Excel Queuing Models spreadsheet to determine the answer.

c) Why is the average time a customer spends in the system in Configuration 1 different than the average time a customer spends in the system in Configuration 2?

d)   ( What is the average time spent in the queue (in minutes) per customer in Configuration 1?

           Wq =

e) What is the average time spent in the queue (in minutes) per customer in Configuration 2?

           Wq =

f) What is the average number of customers waiting in the queue at any time in Configuration 1?

           Lq =

g) What is the average number of customers waiting in the queue at any time in Configuration 2?

           Lq =

h) Answer the remaining questions based on your work in parts (a) to (g) and based on the information provided in the following articles:

A Long Line for a Shorter Wait at the Supermarket: http://nyti.ms/xZ10Ae,

How to Pick the Fastest Lane at the Supermarket: goo.gl/1J1IjD .

What really drives you crazy about waiting in line (it actually isn’t the wait at all) http://wapo.st/1PSafCh?tid=ss_tw

i. Based on your answers to parts (a) to (g), which generally performs better based on queuing metrics: a serpentine line (one queue leading to several servers), or a dedicated queue in front of each server? Explain clearly why this configuration performs better.

                      ii. What are some potential reasons to use the other configuration, despite its poorer queuing system performance? Give a specific example of a company that has done so, along with their reasoning for it.

                    iii. State two psychological factors that influence customers’ experiences in queuing systems. For each psychological factor, provide a suggestion for what a company might do to address it and thereby improve customers’ experiences.

The following accounts and balances were drawn from the records of Barker Company at December 31, 2018:

Required

Use the accounts and balances from Barker Company to construct an income statement, statement of changes in stockholders’ equity, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows (show only totals for each activity on the statement of cash flows).

Use the accounts and balances from Barker Company to construct an income statement.

Use the accounts and balances from Barker Company to construct statement of changes in stockholders’ equity.

Use the accounts and balances from Barker Company to construct balance sheet.

Use the accounts and balances from Barker Company to construct statement of cash flows (show only totals for each activity on the statement of cash flows). (Amounts to be deducted and cash outflows should be indicated with a minus sign.)

A machine costs $35,000 to buy and $5,000 per year to operate and maintain. It will have a salvage value of $8,000 in 9 years. It will generate $10,000 per year in net revenue for the first four years, and then the revenue will fall by $1,000 each year after. If the company purchasing the machine uses a MARR of 7% to make project , find the NPW, NFW, and AW. Is this project worth undertaking if no loss is expected?

Work in Microsoft Excel (show Code)