Accounting & Financial Reporting

Accounting & Financial Reporting

BUSG 503Michael Dimond

Michael DimondSchool of Business Administration

• Smithfield Foods• Minicase 1 is to understand the financials

• Minicase #2 will be to forecast the financials & estimate the value of the business

• Final Cases• Final cases will be the same process, but for a company you choose

• Work in teams of 3 or 4

• You will make a brief presentation of your work-in-progress in two weeks

• Final writeup will be due the following week

Minicase #1


Overview of the Forecasting Process

• Reformulated financial statements - we adjust the financial statements to reflect the company’s net operating assets and the operating income that we expect to persist into the future.

• Garbage-In, Garbage-Out - the quality of our decision is only as good as the quality of the information on which it is based.

• Optimism vs Conservatism - our objective is not to be overly optimistic or overly conservative. The objective for forecasting is accuracy.

• Level of Precision - borderline decisions that depend on a high level of forecasting precision are probably ill-advised.

• Smell Test - our forecasts must appear reasonable and consistent with basic business economics.

• Internal Consistency - forecasted financial statements must articulate and our forecast assumptions must be internally consistent.

• Crucial Forecasting Assumptions - assumptions that are identified as crucial to a decision must be investigated thoroughly to ensure that forecast assumptions are as accurate as possible.


Revenues Forecast Impacts Both the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet


Dynamics of Growth (I/S and B/S)• Cost of goods sold are impacted via increased inventory purchases in anticipation of increased

demand, added manufacturing personnel, and greater depreciation from new manufacturing PPE.• Operating expenses increase concurrently with, or in anticipation of, increased revenues; these

expenses include increased costs for buyers, higher advertising costs, payments to sales personnel, costs of after-sale customer support, logistics costs, and administrative costs.

• Cash increases and decreases directly with increases in revenues as receivables are collected and as payables and accruals are paid.

• Accounts receivable increase directly with increases in revenues as more products and services are sold on credit.

• Inventories normally increase in anticipation of higher sales volume to ensure a sufficient stock of inventory available for sale.

• Prepaid expenses increase with increases in advertising and other expenditures made in anticipation of higher sales.

• PPE assets are usually acquired once the revenues increase is deemed sustainable and the capacity constraint is reached; thus, PPE assets increase with increased revenue, but with a lag.

• Accounts payable increase as inventories are purchased on credit.• Accrued liabilities increase concurrent with increases in revenue-driven operating expenses.• Other operating assets and liabilities such as deferred revenues, deferred taxes, and pensions,

increase and decrease concurrent with revenues.


Dynamics of Balance Sheet Growth


Forecasting Steps

1. Forecast revenues.

2. Forecast operating and nonoperating expenses. We assume a relation between revenue and each specific expense account.

3. Forecast operating and nonoperating assets, liabilities and equity. We assume a relation between revenue and each specific balance sheet account.

4. Adjust short-term investments or short-term debt to balance the balance sheet. We use marketable securities and short-term debt to balance the balance sheet. We then recompute net nonoperating expense (interest/dividend income or interest expense) to reflect any adjustments we make to nonoperating asset and liability account balances.


Forecasting Revenues

• Impact of Acquisitions - revenues from acquisitions are only included from the date of the acquisition. Historical revenues used for comparison do not include the acquired company.

• Impact of Divestitures - revenues and expenses of divested business are excluded form current and historical totals.

• Existing vs. new store growth - new store growth can be more costly than organic growth.

• Impact of unit sales and price disclosures - forecasts that are forecasts that are built from anticipated unit sales and current prices are generally built from anticipated unit sales and current prices are generally more informative, and accurate, than those derived from historical more informative, and accurate, than those derived from historical dollar sales.dollar sales.


Sources of Information

• Public disclosures via meetings and calls• Recordings and supporting documents are frequently available on the

“Investor Relations” section of the company’s web site

• Public reports: segment disclosures and MD&A• Companies are required to disclose summary financial results for each of their

operating segments along with a discussion and analysis of each


P&G Data from MD&A


Determining the Revenue Growth Forecast


Morgan Stanley Forecast

Each product forecast is built from the bottom up; that is, analysts use information about a product’s market share and the forecasted growth rate for the market of each product within each country the product is sold.

Morgan Stanley analysts also have internally-developed databases of commodity-price indices, inflation indices, and other macroeconomic indices against which to evaluate the reasonableness of company-provided forecasts.

Sales forecasts are determined by quantity and price along with growth forecasts of the product markets, the company-provided future pricing strategy, and forecasts of price elasticity of demand.


Forecasting Expenses


Morgan Stanley Forecasts


Forecasted Income Statement for P&G


Forecasting the Balance Sheet


Forecasting Balance Sheet Items

1. Forecast amounts with no change - common for nonoperating assets (investments in securities, discontinued operations, and other nonoperating investments).

2. Forecast contractual or specified amounts - we assume that the required payments are made as projected.

3. Forecast amounts in relation to revenues - the underlying assumption is that, as revenues change, so does that item in some predictable manner.


Computational Options

• Forecasts using percent of revenues :

• Forecasts using turnover rates :

• Forecasts using days outstanding :


Equivalence of Forecasting Methods

We use the percent of sales in our forecasts of balance sheet accounts because 1.it appears to be the most commonly used method, 2.it is the method that P&G management uses in its meetings with analysts, and 3.it is the method used by Morgan Stanley in the real-world analysis illustration we provide in the Module and in Appendix 11A.


Morgan Stanley Assumptions


Forecasted Balance Sheet for P&G


Adjusted Forecasted Income Statementfor P&G


Forecasted SCF for P&G


Reassessing the Financial Statement forecasts• Many analysts and managers prepare “what-if”

forecasted financial statements.

• They change key assumptions, such as the forecasted sales growth or key cost ratios and then recompute the forecasted financial statements.

• These alternative forecasting scenarios indicate the sensitivity of a set of predicted outcomes to different assumptions about future economic conditions.

• Such sensitivity estimates can be useful for setting contingency plans and in identifying areas of vulnerability for company performance and condition.


Two-Year Ahead forecasts of the P&G Income Statement


Two-Year Ahead Forecasts of the P&G Balance Sheet


Two-Year Ahead Forecasts of the SCF


Parsimonious Method of Multiyear Forecasting

Inputs:

• Sales growth

• Net operating profit margin (NOPM = NOPAT / Sales)

• Net operating asset turnover (NOAT = Sales / NOA)



Documents

Accounting & Financial Reporting