Acc 291 Learning Team Reflection Summary

Team A Reflection Summary – Weeks 1 & 2

ACC/291

October 6, 2013

Professor J. Leanne Janis

Team B Reflection Summary – Weeks 1 & 2

Kevin

        After reviewing the comments from below in addition to the materials absorbed from both weeks one and two, I can confidently say that I have further established a broader understanding focusing on the vitals of the accounting profession, not to mention the factors that impact accounting results. Despite having a general knowledge from previous accounting class, the Team and I have learned more about liabilities, the recognition of unearned revenue, various depreciation methods, amortization, and also intangible assets. We also discussed expenditures and their differences such as revenue and capital; however, what I found most interesting within the past two weeks is the details involved with intangible assets such as copyrights, trademarks, and goodwill. The reason is because there is a sense of difficulty when it comes to determining their value, taking into consideration that “intangibles” represent aspects of the business which are not distinguishable in a common manner regardless of whether they are definite or indefinite in terms of useful life. If the above explanation is not interesting enough, review the following question and explain how you would arrive at an answer: How much value does Apple, Inc.’s “Apple” trademark possess? In short, an appropriate answer from an individual that does not have the foundation which I have been establishing would be that there is no easy answer, and it is very involving at the least to determine such worth. It is this “factor” that draws my attention to this topic, which is not only necessary for the financial statements of a business, but also the accuracy of their resulting figures. Overall, these first two weeks have been a success and the plan is to continue this path of knowledge!

Exselsa’

Reflecting back on the previous week, the thing that stuck with me the most was our discussion on the capital expenditure and revenue. Both types of expenditures have to do with spending money to help the company grow and survive in their industry. But the difference between the two is that what the intent of the expense is for. Capital expenditures are long term assets such as buying new computers for the business. Revenue expenditures are things like having repairs done to the computers. Revenue expenditures are short term costs that are not used later. We also discussed intangible and tangible assets. An intangible asset is something that is not physical and has a useful life that is greater than one year. Things like trademarks, patents, and franchises are examples of intangible assets. Tangible assets are assets that are physical, such as office buildings, company cars, machines, etc.  Also, the discussion about dispositions was very interesting. The two ways that account receivables can be disposed are when the account is written off and when the account is paid up. It all makes sense that a company would write off a bad account so that they could close out the account on their books by selling the account to another company that specialize in collections. That way the company would get money for those accounts and would be able to clear out the books. And, if a company does not have the manpower to hang on to collect for the accounts that went bad, it is beneficial for them to sell it off to another company to collect the payment. But, I did question how the collection companies dispose their accounts. I assume it is handled the same way.  Anyway, the first week was very interesting and the posts helped me to understand the terms better. It also is good to be able to understand how to classify the different types of revenue and assets when logging them down and what is meant by disposition of accounts.