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John Johnson, owner of FinePrint Company, is presented with two opportunities to consider: (1) whether to accept a one-time special printing order and (2) whether to outsource some of his printing to another printing company. In making his decisions, he must consider the relevance of certain costs, the behavior of those costs, and the extent to which he has capacity constraints.

Breeden Electronics USA is a start-up division of a German company. It plans to produce two products, both electronic signaling devices. Herman Klein, the division president, has asked his controller, Marlene Baer, to compute several break-even sales figures as they assess the sales level that is necessary to meet the profit target established by the parent company. Baer must conduct several break-even analyses and consider the impact on profit if production exceeds sales. This is the first in a series of two cases that can be used to explore the evolution of cost systems. The main issues of the two cases are as follows: in the A case, the company uses a traditional costing system. The main questions relate to breakeven analysis and the effect of inventory buildup on profit. The B case (UV1779) introduces the use of an activity-based costing system to allocate costs so that the company can assess both product and customer profitability. The two cases can be used in two classes or together in one class.

Jack Johnson, owner of Johnson Beverage, has just received notice that one of his largest and most loyal customers may want to negotiate a lower price for its product purchases. Information compiled by Johnson's accountant, where customer service costs are allocated to customers as a percentage of revenue, suggests that profit margin on the customer is too low to withstand a price decrease. Students are asked to design an activity-based system for allocating customer service costs and to use it to estimate customer profitability for several customers. The revised costs reflect that the customer places low demands on customer service resources and is sufficiently profitable to permit Johnson Beverage to negotiate on price to preserve the business. Additional analysis identifies some unprofitable customers, previously thought to be profitable, that offer opportunities for strategic decisions that lead to profit improvement.

This case can be used as a supplement to "Berkshire Hathaway Inc.-Intercorporate Investments (A). Students are presented with hypothetical data related to one of Berkshire Hathaway's investments and asked to compare the financial statement impacts of the investment if it is classified as an available-for-sale security with the impacts if classified as a trading security.

The objective of the statement of cash flow is to facilitate an understanding of the financial consequences of business activities by providing detail pertaining to the sources and uses of a company's cash. While the income statement and balance sheet are based on accrual accounting, the statement of cash flow is intended to represent the cash-flow consequences of business activities. Most of the challenge with preparing, and ultimately understanding, the statement of cash flow is due to a failure to appreciate the relation between the statement of cash flow and other financial statements. The purpose of this note is to discuss the conceptual framework underlying the preparation of the statement of cash flow that is based on that relation.

This note provides an overview of intercorporate investments, including passive investments (marketable securities), investments that result in significant influence, and investments that result in control. Then, the accounting for marketable equity and debt securities is described in detail.

Alice Handy, an investment professional with 30 years' experience as head of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company, has opened a new asset management firm targeted at midsize endowments and nonprofit institutions in January 2004. Her business, Investure, LLC, offered outsourced investment services to institutions with $150 million to $1 billion in assets and access to top-performing managers at lower cost than a fund of funds (FoF). Smith College, a prestigious liberal arts college with a nearly $1 billion endowment, is interested in increasing its current allocation to private equity. Handy and her partner are preparing to meet with Smith's trustees in an attempt to win Smith College as Investure's first client. The case presents three different approaches to private equity investing: direct investment through a traditional limited partnership, investment through an FoF, or investment through Investure's outsourced model. The class discussion presents an opportunity to evaluate advantages and shortcomings of each approach, introduce key terminology, and discuss the current trends in the private equity market. Students are given the cash inflows and outflows for a representative investment in a venture capital fund of the type Handy hopes to invest in on behalf of Smith College. The main analytical task requires students to evaluate the expected gross and net returns generated by the representative investment under each of the different approaches and fee structures. This case was written for an early class in courses on entrepreneurial finance, venture capital, or private equity. It can also be used in specialized courses for fund trustees interested in alternative assets.

After interviewing for the position of chief financial officer at a small business, North Mountain Nursery, John Powers decides to look at its financial statements for 2006. Discovering that there is no statement of cash flow, he decides to create one himself.

Alphadale Community Bank, Inc., began operating as a one-branch bank on January 1, 2006. It was dedicated to serving those in the small community of Alphadale who just wanted basic banking services without all the bells and whistles in a place where they felt comfortable and at home every time they walked through the door. The transactions that took place during its first year of operation are listed, and students are asked to record all transactions related to the first year of operations, prepare a December 31, 2006 balance sheet, and prepare an income statement for the year ended. The worksheet to record these transactions is provided.

Students are presented with the balance sheet, income statement, and selected footnotes from Berkshire Hathaway's 2004 annual report and are asked to respond to several questions regarding information in the materials. Questions center around the company's classification of its investments as held-to-maturity, available for sale, or trading securities and the effect of the accounting for the company's securities on its balance sheet and income statement. "Berkshire Hathaway-Intercorporate Investments (B)" (UV1026) can be used as a supplement to this case.

Students are presented with the income-taxes footnote from Ann Taylor Stores Corporation's 2004 Annual Report and are asked to respond to several questions regarding information in the footnote. Questions center around what can be inferred about income-tax expense, deferred-tax expense, and deferred-tax assets and liabilities from the footnote.

Students are presented with the balance sheet, income statement, accounts-receivable footnote, excerpts from the footnote on significant accounting policies, and excerpts from Management's Discussion and Analysis from MGM Mirage's 2004 Annual Report, and are asked to respond to several questions regarding information in the materials. Questions center around what can be inferred about the impact of accounts receivable, allowance for doubtful accounts, write-offs, and other data on the balance sheet and income statement.

Monroe Clock Company, a producer of electrical timers, is trying to decide how to price a new device by considering the method of overhead allocation and its impact on the cost of the household timer. The B case can be taught independently or in conjunction with the A case (UV1331), which considers variable versus fixed costs, the relevance of certain costs, and information regarding capacity utilization.

Monroe Clock Company, a producer of electrical timers, is trying to decide how to price a new device by considering variable versus fixed costs, the relevance of certain costs, and information regarding capacity utilization. The A case can be taught independently or in conjunction with the B case (UV1333), which considers the method of overhead allocation and its impact on the cost of the household timer.

Breeden Electronics USA is a start-up division of a German company. It plans to produce two products, both electronic signaling devices. Herman Klein, the division president, has asked his controller, Marlene Baer, to compute several breakeven sales figures as they assess the sales level that is necessary to meet the profit target established by the parent company. Baer must conduct several breakeven analyses and consider the impact on profit if production exceeds sales. This is the first in a series of three cases that can be used to explore the evolution of cost systems. The main issues of the three cases are as follows: in the A case, the company uses a traditional costing system. The main questions relate to breakeven analysis and the effect of inventory buildup on profit. The B case (UV1732) introduces the definition of activities, costing those activities, and computing product cost based on their use of the activities. The revised product costs are not dramatically different, but analyzing what causes the differences is important to discovering where ABC can provide valuable information. The C case (UV1734) takes place after the end of the year, when profits have been reduced by the need to take care of a growing and increasingly complex packing and shipping activity. The controller defines a new activity (order handling), computes the cost per order, and begins to revise the data on product profitability and to develop new data on customer profitability. Having discovered the high cost of handling each order, the controller now has good reason to work on activity-based management: making that process more efficient, and perhaps more customer friendly. The three cases can be used in three classes, or the A and B cases together in one class and the C case in a second class.

John Johnson, the owner of the FinePrint Company, is presented with several opportunities to consider: (1) whether to accept a one-time special printing order (the A case), (2) whether to outsource some of his printing to another printing company (the B case, UVA-C-2194), and (3) whether to both accept the one-time special order and outsource it to another printing company (the C case, UVA-C-2195). In making his decision, he must consider the relevance of certain costs, the behavior of those costs, and the extent to which he has capacity constraints.

Supplement to case UV1722. John Johnson, the owner of the FinePrint Company, is presented with several opportunities to consider: (1) whether to accept a one-time special printing order (the A case, UVA-C-2193), (2) whether to outsource some of his printing to another printing company (the B case, UVA-C-2194), and (3) whether to both accept the one-time special order and outsource it to another printing company (the C case). In making his decision, he must consider the relevance of certain costs, the behavior of those costs, and the extent to which he has capacity constraints.

Supplement to case UV1722. John Johnson, the owner of the FinePrint Company, is presented with several opportunities to consider: (1) whether to accept a one-time special printing order (the A case, UVA-C-2193), (2) whether to outsource some of his printing to another printing company (the B case), and (3) whether to both accept the one-time special order and outsource it to another printing company (the C case, UVA-C-2195). In making his decision, he must consider the relevance of certain costs, the behavior of those costs, and the extent to which he has capacity constraints.

This case exposes students to the process of creating an operating plan. In addition, it introduces the concept of flexible expense budgeting. It may be used as a stand-alone case on budgeting, or it may be paired with the B case (UV1704) in a module on budgeting and strategic-profitability analysis or flexible expense budgeting.

In this case, Maverick Lodging, a hotel-management company, assesses the initial effectiveness of its recently implemented balanced scorecard system. The case gives students exposure to (1) determining an appropriate management-control and performance-measurement system for an organization once its strategy and structure have been established, (2) evaluating the design and implementation of a comprehensive balanced scorecard framework, (3) analyzing the usefulness of flexible budgeting as part of a balanced scorecard, and (4) assessing the performance of operating managers.