GAP Inc.

DESCRIPTION

The Gap, Inc. (Gap Inc.), incorporated on April 15, 1988, is an apparel retail company. The Company offers apparel, accessories and personal care products for men, women and children under the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta and Intermix brands. The Company's products are available to customers online through Company-owned Websites and through the use of third-parties that provide logistics and fulfilment services. In addition to operating in the speciality, outlet, online and franchise channels, it also uses the Company's omni-channel capabilities to bridge the digital world and physical stores. The Company's omni-channel services, including order-in-store, reserve-in-store, find-in-store and ship-from-store that are tailored across its portfolio of brands. The Company also sells products that are designed and manufactured by branded third-parties, especially at its Intermix brands. Gap Inc. has Company-operated stores in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Japan, Italy, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mexico. It operates Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy stores throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Gap

Gap is the apparel and accessories brands anchored in optimistic, casual, American style. Its collections of wardrobes include denim, tees, button-downs, and khakis. Gap includes apparel and accessories for men and women, under the name Gap name, in addition to GapKids, babyGap, GapMaternity, GapBody and GapFit collections. Gap serves through speciality stores, online and franchise stores. Gap also offers a suite of omni-channel services to its customers in the United States. In addition, it brings the brand to customers, with designer collections for Gap Outlet and Gap Factory stores and Web sites.

Question

1. Study the external environment of GAP Inc. Are any changes taking place in the macro environment that might have a positive or negative impact on the industry in which GAP Inc is based on? Apply the PESTEL framework to identify which factors may be the most important in GAP Inc industry. What will be the effect on GAP Inc industry?

2. How dynamic is the industry in which GAP Inc is based? Is there evidence that industry structure is reshaping competition, or has done so in the recent past?

After its passage, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was eventually challenged in the Supreme Court as violating the freedom of private businesses to refuse service to anyone, including African Americans. The Court, however, ruled that the creation of this landmark legislation was within the authority of congressional power. Congress and the Court agreed that the _____________ clause justified congressional action on this civil rights issues.

USD/NZD 1.51 in nominal currency exchange rate terms. The same "The North Face" parka costs $230.00 in the U.S. and 320.00 New Zealand dollars in New Zealand. The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank decides to raise interest rates.

Based on the above scenario, please select the best answer choice below.

Retail operations and retail inventory ‘Splash Out The Back’ began business on 1 November 2019. The business has been set up as a partnership between Mr. and Mrs. Fisher. It operates an online store, selling inflatable swimming pools to the public, for use in back yards. The business began by selling one particular model of inflatable swimming pool but will look to expand the product lines that it sells within the next year. The business is registered for GST. The following transactions occurred during November 2019:
Date Details
1 Nov Mr. and Mrs. Fisher deposited $20,000 into the business bank account ($10,000 each).
1 Nov ‘Splash Out The Back’ rented a small warehouse for the business, to store inventory that is purchased. The warehouse rent costs $330 per month (including GST). ‘Splash Out The Back’ pays the landlord $990 from the bank account, for rent for November, December, and January.
8 Nov ‘Splash Out The Back’ purchased 30 of the inflatable swimming pools on account for $88 per pool, including GST, from the pool manufacturer, Intex Pools Ltd. Intex Pools Ltd also charged a delivery fee on the invoice of $55, including GST (to deliver the swimming pools to ‘Splash Out The Back’). The invoice is due for payment on 20 November.
15 Nov ‘Splash Out The Back’ paid the invoice from Intex Pools Ltd (for purchases made on 8 November) from the business bank account.
16 Nov ‘Splash Out The Back’ sold 12 of the swimming pools via its online store, at $165 each (including GST). All of the customers paid by Paypal and the money was received in the business bank account by the end of the day. Note: ‘Splash Out The Back’ does not pay any PayPal fees when customers pay by PayPal.
20 Nov One of the customers who purchased a swimming pool on 16 November returned their swimming pool for a refund. The swimming pool was returned in an original, brand new condition (unopened). The customer paid for the freight to return the swimming pool, and ‘Splash Out The Back’ refunded the customer $165 from the business bank account.
22 Nov ‘Splash Out The Back’ purchased 40 of the inflatable swimming pools on account for $99 per pool, including GST, from the pool manufacturer, Intex Pools Ltd. Intex Pools Ltd also charged a delivery fee on the invoice of $55, including GST, to deliver the swimming pools to ‘Splash Out The Back’. The invoice is due for payment on 5 December.
23 Nov ‘Splash Out The Back’ had a 24-hour sale, and sold 34 of the swimming pools via its online store, at $143 each (including GST). All of the customers paid by Paypal and the money was received in the business bank account by the end of the day.
25 Nov ‘Splash Out The Back’ was contacted by a primary school. The primary school wanted to purchase 10 of the inflatable swimming pools for their school water fun day. ‘Splash Out The Back’ agreed to sell 10 of the swimming pools to the primary school for $154 each (including GST). The sale was made on credit terms of 2/10, n/30.
27 Nov ‘Splash Out The Back’ received the money in the business bank account from the primary school that purchased swimming pools on 25 November. The amount received was the invoiced amount, less the sales discount.
30 Nov Mrs. Fisher accidentally damaged one of the swimming pools in the warehouse, and the swimming pool needs to be written off.
30 Nov ‘Splash Out The Back’ received an invoice from Telstra (for telephone and internet used by the business), with an amount payable of $88 (including GST). The due date for payment is 16 December.
30 Nov ‘Splash Out The Back’ received an invoice from Australia Post for postage costs re. delivering swimming pools to customers. Australia Post charges $9.90 postage per swimming pool delivered (including GST). The invoice is due for payment on 20 December.
Mr & Mrs. Fisher don’t have any experience keeping inventory and accounting records. They have come to you for assistance.

Required:
i. Prepare a business report*for ‘Splash Out The Back’ to help the owners understand the different inventory accounting systems (periodic and perpetual), and costing methods (specific unit cost; first-in-first-out (FIFO); last-in-first-out (LIFO); and average cost methods). In your report, also discuss any advantages and disadvantages of these different systems and methods. Given your knowledge of the business and your knowledge of the regulatory requirements that will apply to ‘Splash Out The Back’, include a recommendation on the inventory system and costing method/s that ‘Splash Out The Back’ should consider adopting. (Word guide: 1,000 words)

ii. Prepare Excel worksheets for the swimming pools for November using the perpetual inventory system and the FIFO, LIFO, and average-cost methods. In your spreadsheets, keep track of the number of swimming pools purchased, swimming pools sold, swimming pools on hand, cost of goods sold, and gross profit made.

iii. Now assume that ‘Splash Out The Back’ has adopted the perpetual inventory system and the FIFO costing method. Prepare journal entries (including any adjusting entries) for all of the business’s transactions for November. Include dates, references, and narrations. (4.5 marks)

iv. Prepare T-accounts in an Excel spreadsheet, and post all of the above journal entries
to the T-accounts. Include dates and references for each entry. Total all of the T accounts to determine their balances at the end of November 2019. (1 mark)

v. Prepare the ‘Adjusted Trial Balance’ in an Excel spreadsheet as at 30 November 2019. Use formulas to generate all of the figures in the ‘Adjusted Trial Balance’ from the balances in the T-Accounts. (1 mark)

vi. Prepare the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of changes in equity in Excel. Use formulas to generate all of the figures in the financial statement reports from the ‘Adjusted Trial Balance’.

vii. Assume that ‘Splash Out The Back’ has a year-end date of 30 November. Prepare the closing entries as at 30 November 2019. (1.5 marks)
Please also refer to the 'Requirements' section below for additional submission and spreadsheet requirements. *Note: a business report includes:
• a coverage addressed to your desired audience; • an executive summary(refer to the note below regarding an executive summary); • a table of contents (linked to the headings in the report); • headings and subheadings clearly identify what is being discussed; • conclusion, • recommendations; and • reference list (using APA style - either the 6th or 7th edition). Note: an Executive Summary is not an introduction. An Executive Summary should be an overview of the entire report, including recommendations, and no longer than one (1) page in length. This may be the only page read by busy managers.

The word count guide does not include your:
• cover page; • executive summary; • table of contents; • tables/calculations; and • reference list (in-text citations and reference list).

This is a student essay with paragraphs that have been placed out of order. Rearrange the paragraphs into an order that seems logical to you.

A

At a young age, I knew I had to get a good grip on the English language, both on paper and verbally. My parents had it rough trying to find work and getting through school. I saw them struggle so much trying to communicate to the world. English, through my eyes, became this elite world I so badly wanted to be a part of. I was excited to finally understand the language fluently and I was proud to be able to compose summaries and essays throughout grade school. In high school though, I encountered a series of new frustrations with English grammar. Some teachers were lenient but for the most part a lot of my teachers had zero tolerance for grammatical errors. It was incredibly frustrating when I would receive a graded paper back with a less than deserving grade and annoying annotations. This was the result of me not placing appropriate apostrophes or mistakenly used their in place of there. I always wanted to ask my teachers why they couldn’t cut me some slack. If I was a competent student and you knew my intentions, why must I settle for that grade when you were able to follow along and understand me in the assignment?

B

I am a first-generation college student. My parents are refugees from Cambodia and they came to the U.S. when they were about 10 or 11 years old. Our native language is Khmer. In our language, subjunctives do not exist. It was something that was really hard to acclimate to when I started to learn English. Though I was born here, I always spoke my language at home and did not pick up English until I was around 6 years old. In my language there is only what is and what is not. Any kind of wishful thinking or possible outcomes just don’t exist. I struggled learning English but eventually got through it. I was about 9 years old when I finally was able to kick my accent. Boy was I relieved that the teasing was finally going to stop. I felt confident. I felt like I had mastered my second language. But I was wrong. I’m going to share with you my reflection on the subject of the English language, through my experiences.

C

I have learned to embrace all of my grammatical mistakes. I even started to humor my occasional broken English. It is inevitable and I take a lesson from it every time. At the end of the day, what’s important is that we are able to produce a proper paper, right? An articulate paper despite having all these different avenues we can use to communicate English. In a TED Talk titled, “3 Ways to Speak English,” Jamila Lyiscott speaks out poetically about the several ways she speaks English in her community. She talks about the challenges of speaking several completely different styles of English between her friends, her parents and in a classroom setting. A line from her speech that really resonated with me was when she said, “I know I had to borrow your language because mine was stolen, but you can’t expect me to speak ‘your’ history wholly while mine was broken.” How beautiful and powerful is that? As a first-generation student, I really want to make my family proud. Hearing Jamila’s TED Talk gave me a sense of confidence and reassurance in some way. She is letting us know that it is ok to switch things up with your vocabulary. It’s ok to dab in and out of the social norms of English to make sense of the message that you are trying to relay to people on a day to day basis. Just so long as you know the rules and you know when it’s ok to break them. That’s what will set you apart, and that is what will make you articulate.

D

I felt incredibly defeated and thought no way is this fair. Throughout school we’d often get assigned into group projects where we needed to combine all of our research and opinions into a summary. I remember correcting my classmate’s grammar and calling them out for a misspelled word. Where this comma or that apostrophe should or should not go, what needs to be capitalized. I remember coming home and boasting to my mom about these scenarios and one day she said to me, “If you were able to understand what your friends in class are trying to describe, why are you having to tell them that they are wrong?” And in that exact moment, I came to realize that I was a huge hypocrite. Why didn’t I choose to be a little more patient and try to comprehend my classmates? It was then that I realized, it doesn’t matter how we speak or if English was your second language. On paper, there are rules to live up to that everyone should follow because it really is for our own good. A couple weeks ago in class, we read an article called “Opinion Piece on Grammatical Correctness” by Ursula K. Le Guin (33). There was a piece from the reading where she says, “How we talk is important to us all, and we’re all shamed when told in public that we don’t talk correctly. Shame can paralyze our minds.”

E

Her article took me right down memory lane and I started to recall my own journey through the strange world of the English language. From when I was a child, to an adolescent, to an adult. I started to see that there are actually different ways I had to use English. So many ways we had to change things up to make sense of something in whatever social setting we were in.

For school, for work, for our family and for our friends. We even use an entirely different vocabulary for each. To be honest, I was so caught up in learning English, I forgot how to read and write in my own native language. I was no longer able to truly proclaim myself as being bilingual. I became choppy in my first language and started speaking it horribly. So, I enrolled in a Khmer class to freshen up and re learned everything. In the process of that, I came across all these wonderful students from all walks of life. Some were like me and some were learning for the first time. The interactions we had showed me the versatility of language and how we personalize it to communicate and make sense to each other. We must grow and elevate ourselves into your fullest potential. Even if you have to get through the process by speaking a little broken English. Progress is progress no matter what stage you’re in.

Your firm designs, manufactures, and markets children’s toys for sale in the U.S. Almost 90% of your production is done in China. During the 1990s, U.S. relations with China improved. Even though there were many disagreements between the two countries, the United States granted normal trade status to China and supported China’s membership in the WTO in 2001. Your firm invested heavily in China during that time. You have developed close ties to Chinese suppliers and have come to depend greatly on inexpensive Chinese labor and the lower costs of doing business there. You are now concerned about increasing political tension between China and the United States over a variety of issues: China’s s treatment of the Tibetan people, reports about the use of prison labor to manufacture goods for export, China’s population policies, and differences over relations with communist North Korea. The United States has also accused China of corporate and industrial espionage in the United States to obtain scientific, industrial, and trade secrets, and of hacking into corporate and government computer networks. There are also disagreements over China’s censorship of Internet search providers, and over the protection of U.S. intellectual property rights in China. The United States is also concerned with China’s tax policies, which are said to discriminate against imported goods, and also with China’s state subsidies to domestic industry. The U.S. accuses China of currency manipulations of the yuan, making Chinese goods unfairly cheap in foreign markets and imports into China artificially expensive. Most worrisome is the potential for conflict over Taiwan, with which the United States has had a mutual defense pact for 60 years. China claims Taiwan under its “One China” reunification policy, while accusing the United States of fostering “independence” there. Despite the issues, both countries recognize their deep economic reliance on each other. With that background, consider the following:

Although both mainland China and Taiwan are “Chinese,” doing business in Taiwan differs greatly from doing business in China. Investigate and describe that difference. How do business opportunities differ on the mainland versus the island?

1. Using ERP software, one can cut down on data duplication by keeping all your information within _______ cohesive system.

   		multiple
   		silo
   		one
   		departmental

1 points   

QUESTION 2

1. Epicor ERP’s strengths include the amount of data it can store and analyze, as well as the automation it can provide when it comes to __________.

   		customers
   		vendors
   		supply chain management
   		production

1 points   

QUESTION 3

1. Modern ERP practices began in the 1990s due to the rise of computer software being integrated with daily business____________.

   		requirements
   		costs
   		operations
   		expenditures

1 points   

QUESTION 4

1. This is any ERP software which is deployed directly on your in-site devices.

   		Open Source ERP
   		On-premise ERP
   		Cloud-based ERP
   		Hybrid ERP

1 points   

QUESTION 5

1. Odoo is a(n) _________ ERP and CRM used by over 4 million users worldwide.

   		simple
   		open-source
   		limited
   		closed

1 points   

QUESTION 6

1. ERP communication tools organize scanned documents, files, emails, texts, and phone call recordings.

   True

   False

1 points   

QUESTION 7

1. Microsoft is been a leader in the ERP software market for many years through its ________ product offerings.

   		Iron Mountain
   		Great Plains
   		Solomon
   		Dynamics

1 points   

QUESTION 8

1. With SAP HANA, one doesn’t need to take the time to load data from your transactional database into your reporting database, or even build traditional tuning structures to enable that reporting.

   True

   False

1 points   

QUESTION 9

1. Benefits of ERP Software include all except:

   		Low implementation costs
   		Streamlined workflows and processes
   		Visibility into workflows
   		Better financial planning and decision making

1 points   

QUESTION 10

1. It is important to use an industry-specific ERP solution because:

   		a general ERP system will weigh you down with unnecessary features
   		a specialized ERP system will weigh you down with unnecessary features
   		an industry-specific ERP system will cost less
   		a general ERP system will cost more

1 points