Finished the course! I don’t know yet what my grade is but it must be a B+ or better since that is what I needed to be admitted to the program. I discovered a voice mail on my office machine on Friday that both welcomed and congratulated me with official notice of full admission to the MBA program at Colorado State University. Thanks God!
Archive for December, 2004
Finished the course!
Sunday, December 19th, 2004Taking a quick break
Sunday, December 12th, 2004Just taking a break in studies before bed.
I’ve spent the day gathering notes together and assembling snippets to answer 5 of 10 questions for the open-book, accounting exam. Each question seems to drive a pretty strong integration of the semester’s work. Even if I were to flunk the exam I’d have learned a lot!
Here’s a couple of examples: 1) The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a legislative response to perceived threats to the integrity of US financial reporting. Identify some of the most significant threats and discuss how Sarbanes-Oxley addresses each. 2) Given the following data, prepare an income statement in as much detail (how much detail is enough?) as possible (should I construct plausible scenarios to bridge the gaps?). For the year, Murray’s, a retailing company, shows outstanding common shares of 215,094,330 and there are no dilutive securities. Round all numbers to the nearest million dollars.
Income tax rate 40% (On what? How can DS leave us with such a chicken/egg scenario?)
Times Interest Earned 10.5 (How do you get EBIT? argh)
Gross margin 37% (yeah)
Earnings per share $1.06 (PTL for that)
Return on Sales 6.69% (giveaway)
I think I got all the ”possible” stuff but… I’m no accountant … And then, this is only part one; part two consist of two, ninety minute, CBT, multiple choice tests that have to be completed by Thursday so wish me luck.
It’s almost Christmas
Monday, December 6th, 2004Wow! It’s almost Christmas!
Well, practically… December anyway.
”Put up the Christmas tree, put up the Christmas tree Daddy,” chants Hannah, my ten year old daughter plaintively (or is that relentlessly?).
Went for a couple mile walk this evening with my daughter and son. It’s been raining for the whole weekend and the clammy, chill was invigorating–one of those special treats when you live in the desert. I carried an umbrella, my daughter skipped in the rain clad in sneakers, a kangaroo jacket and gym shorts. My son ran most of the first mile in the opposite direction until he finally met up with us again and we then we walked together through two blocks of densely illuminated Christmas displays–everything from Snoopy to the Three Wise Men. All in all, a moment with a unique magic of its own. ya-had-ta-be-there!
My accounting course is winding up. Earlier this evening I finished up a lecture on GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and on the scope and implications of the Sarbanes Oxley act. Pretty interesting stuff. SOX as Sarbanes Oxley is disaffectionately known, was mostly lopped off at the knees as it never addressed the prime issue of corporate dysfunction–shareholder’s signing over voting proxies to management who are thusly empowered to drive their own agendas including appointments to respective boards of directors who are in actuality supposed to be, mandated to be, holding management’s feet to the fire in the interest of the shareholder–right! Instead we’ve got mountains of minutia about internal controls even though internal controls were never the central issue with World Com or Enron or Qwest or —————-(supply corporation name here) debacles. They did hit on the issue of auditor independence though which is promising.
(By the way, the CEO signing off on the financial report thing? — no biggy. They were alwasy accountable. This requirement may help establish a slightly more direct link of accountability but it’s no innovation.)
Anyway, the foregoing comprises half of my answer to one of the questions on my final exam concerning the SOX act. Good for 18 points!
It’s still drizzling outside. Sometimes I wonder why I ever left Victoria! Oh well, if I hadn’t I never would have met my lovely wife and had the blessing of raising these exact, 4, wonderful children. Sometimes though I wish I could rope them all into a comfortable, fireplace-warmed, lodge on the North Shore of Vancouver or Greater Victoria and enjoy drizzle, snow, and cedar scented breezes for the remainder of my natural life. Maybe when pigs fly.
end of blog.