Wiley Accounting Updates

Posted October 17th, 2022 by Brent White & filed under Financial Reporting and Analysis.

Description: Perhaps it will appeal to some customers in these inflationary times; Netflix is offering Canadians a reduced monthly rate of $5.99. The catch is you have to be willing to put up with about five minutes of ads each hour in exchange for your rate reduction. The move seems to fly in the face of Netflix’s previous claims that it would not resort to commercials, an approach it used to build its brand. The pressure from Wall Street to stem the loss of subscribers could explain the shift in policy.

Date: October 13, 2022

Source: thestar.com

Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/10/13/netflix-canada-launches-ad-supported-tier-for-599-on-nov-1.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a05&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email

Discussion points:

1) How many students in your class are Netflix subscribers?

2) Will this change impact whether or not you subscribe to Netflix? Do you think this is a good marketing decision?

3) The Accounting Matters inset box on page 11-19 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making details movements and stock splits in Netflix’s shares since the company made its first public offering in 2002 up until July 2015. As a class research project, track Netflix’s stock splits since 2015 and its current stock price.

Posted October 17th, 2022 by Brent White & filed under Contemporary Business Issues, Ethics.

Description: Mackenzie Irwin of the firm Samfiru Tumarkin LLP in Toronto, practices in the area of employment law. Irwin observed that over the pandemic, with so many working remotely, some employers began tracking employee activity online, trying to sift out the YouTube time-wasting from the spreadsheet work. But starting Tuesday, the Working for Workers Act means employers in Ontario cannot watch their employees in secret any longer, perhaps unleashing significant morale issues in the workforce.

Date: October 11, 2022

Source: cbc.ca

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadians-workers-employers-tracking-1.6612228

Discussion points:

1) Do you know if your employer has ever used electronic monitoring on you?

2) How would you respond if you found out your employer was monitoring you this way?

3) On page 7-3 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making we see a discussion of how employers make cashiers accountable for their cash drawers by assigning responsibility, a widely-accepted technique for checking employees to ensure no money goes missing. Why would this technique of supervision be considered acceptable whereas many would protest about the notion that their employer could now tell when a co-worker is surfing online instead of working?

Posted October 17th, 2022 by Brent White & filed under Accounting Careers, Canadian Economy, Risk management.

Description: Canadians are launching their Christmas shopping early this year, partially driven by an effort to beat higher prices due to inflation. An American survey indicates that 37% of that population plans to start earlier this year. Robert Domagala, a retail industry analyst, noted to Global News that “prudent shoppers are probably going to try to chip away at things,” to better handle cash flows. Another factor at play could be Canadians buying early to avoid supply chain disappointments we have heard about over and over again since the pandemic started.

Date: October 14, 2022

Source: globalnews.ca

Link: https://globalnews.ca/news/9200420/canadian-consumers-holiday-shopping/

Discussion points:

1) How do you organize your holiday shopping? How about your classmates?

2) If you were an accountant for a major retailer, what sort of challenges might an earlier start to the shopping season bring for you and your colleagues?

3) The vignette on page 5-1 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making discusses changes in Loblaws’ supply chain over recent times. What might be some of the supply chain challenges and opportunities posed by Canadians starting this holiday shopping earlier this year?

Posted October 11th, 2022 by Brent White & filed under Data security, Internal control.

Description: On Friday Facebook’s parent company Meta announced that approximately 1 million of its users may have had their usernames and passwords stolen by hackers. Apps downloaded from Apple and Google appear to be the source of the problem, by permitting access to user information while disguising themselves as popular apps like fitness trackers and games. Apple and Google responded by nixing the troublesome apps from their platforms while Facebook has provided its users with advice on how to avoid similar problems in the future.

Date: October 7, 2022

Source: thestar.com

Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/10/07/facebook-warns-1-million-users-about-stolen-usernames-passwords.html

Discussion points:

1) Have you ever been hacked? How about your classmates?

2) What are some habits you have adopted to improve your online security in the face of these skillful, but malicious, attempts to compromise your data security?

3) Starting on page 7-3 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making is a section on the five control activities most organizations employ. Which category includes user names and passwords?

Posted October 11th, 2022 by Brent White & filed under Financial Accounting, Student life.

Description: Starting October 6, Canadian merchants are permitted to pass along credit card fees to consumers. In fact, Telus has already announced that it will do so. But retail watcher Bruce Winder said he does not see most restaurants and or retailers passing these fees along, fearing a possible customer backlash in an inflationary environment.

Date: October 5, 2022

Source: ctvnews.ca

Link: https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canadian-businesses-can-charge-credit-card-fees-starting-oct-6-1.6096370

Discussion points:

1) Have you (or any of your classmates) had to pay a transaction fee yet on your credit card?

2) How would a merchant account for these credit card fees? What might the journal entry look like?

3) On page 7-17 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making we read about service fees for processing debit and credit card transactions. What is the name of the largest Canadian payment processing business?

Posted October 11th, 2022 by Brent White & filed under Accounting Careers, Financial Accounting.

Description: On September 6, this blog featured a post on the trend of quiet quitting. Now comes the flip side: quiet firing. Nita Chhinzer a professor at the University of Guelph, speaks of employers who make “the workplace such a difficult environment that the employee feels that they have no choice but to leave,” saving the organization from the cost and unpleasantness of an outright dismissal. Techniques include micromanagement, exclusion from meetings, and scheduling fewer shifts for the employee. Lawyer Hermie Abraham explains that some of those quietly fired may have a legal claim under the principles of constructive dismissal, whereas others may not.

Date: October 8, 2022

Source: cbc.ca

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/costofliving/quiet-firing-1.6609557

Discussion points:

1) Have you ever experienced quiet firing? If so, how did you respond under the circumstances?

2) If you were an accountant in an organization that wanted to pursue quiet firing, and your boss came to you asking for a cost comparison of quiet firing to traditional methods, how would you proceed?

3) The section “Payroll” starting on page 10-6 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making features a number of costs that employers must pay in addition to paying their employees’ earnings. What is the name given to this category of expense?

Posted October 3rd, 2022 by Brent White & filed under Marketing & Strategy.

Description: Lululemon and Peleton have settled their dispute. Lululemon had been seeking compensation for Peleton’s alleged swiping of some of Lululemon’s clothing designs. The two companies had a co-branding relationship from 2016 to 2021. After the agreement ended, the “copycat” trouble started.

Date: September 30, 2022

Source: thestar.com

Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/09/30/lululemon-settles-lawsuit-against-peloton-over-alleged-patent-infringement.html

Discussion points:

1) Are you a fan of Lululemon or Peleton?

2) What do you think might have caused the co-branding arrangement to end?

3) Which chapter of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making starts with a vignette about Lululemon? What are some things we can learn about the company in this short feature?

Posted October 3rd, 2022 by Brent White & filed under Canadian Economy, Student life.

Description: The price of crude oil has been dropping, with the price per barrel down about twenty per cent in the last thirty days. Then why are prices at the pump still so high, with drivers in British Columbia paying up to $2.39 per litre, the highest in North America? Part of the problem stems from refinery shutdowns, including one in Ferndale, Washington, impacting the supply in B.C. With demand at high levels, price pressures are strong.

Date: September 30, 2022

Source: cbc.ca

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/gas-prices-1.6601918

Discussion points:

1) How is the price of gas in your university town?

2) Have you changed your driving patterns in the face of high gas prices?

3) At the start of chapter nine of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making the feature vignette discusses a number of points about WestJet. How have fuel prices impacted the airline industry?

Posted October 3rd, 2022 by Brent White & filed under Student life.

Description: The inflationary trends on food prices have hit students at Canadian universities, where some have had to turn to campus food banks for relief. Erin O’Neill of the University of Alberta’s campus food bank reports that hundreds of students have registered with the program. Mount Royal University faculty produced survey results reporting food insecurity as an issue for 10 per cent of its students. Campus features a number of care cupboards that allow hungry students to acquire a snack for free.

Date: September 28, 2022

Source: cbc.ca

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/demand-campus-food-banks-initiatives-1.6597526

Discussion points:

1) Does your campus have a food bank or a care cupboard?

2) What do you think are the root causes of this food insecurity issue?

3) In chapter three of Wiley’s Audting: A Practical Approach we find a story Conrad Farrel of Calgary, founder of a kombucha producer. He notes that margins in the food industry “are razor thin.” Have margins been changing at all during this inflationary period? Do a bit of research to answer this question.

Posted September 26th, 2022 by Brent White & filed under Financial Reporting and Analysis, Marketing & Strategy, Student life.

Description: Canada Jetlines took off this week. That gives Canada four discount airlines, the other players being Flair, Lynx, and Swoop. Customers love the bargains that discount airlines offer. A number of experts, however, wonder if there is room for all the discounters. Will an airline bankruptcy be in the offing?

Date: September 24, 2022

Source: cbc.ca

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/bakx-jetlines-lynx-swoop-flair-1.6593688

Discussion points:

1) Do you travel with discount airlines? Why or why not?

2) What do you think are some of the key factors creating openings for discount airlines?

3) Chapter 9 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making opens with a vignette on WestJet airlines. Which of the four discounters was started by WestJet?