Management Science Series #156: Solution to the Understanding Receivables and Revenue Recognition: Medium

Refer to Amazon 10-K for the year 2020.

Record summary journal entries related to the allowance for doubtful accounts for the current year!

What was the effect of bad debt expense entry on “Income before income taxes?” What was the effect on “Net cash provided by operating activities?”

What was the effect of the write-off entry on “Income before income taxes?” What was the effect on “Net cash provided by operating activities?”

Did bad debt expense as a percentage of Net revenues increase or decrease from 2019 to 2020?
Did management disclose any information indicating the reason for the increase or decrease?

Assume that all of Amazon’s sales to customers are on account. Its 10-K indicates that $1 billion bad (trade) accounts receivable were written-off in 2020 and there were no reinstatements. Bad debt expense for the period were recorded by debiting “General and Administrative Expenses” and crediting the “Allowance for doubtful accounts.” What amount of bad debt expense was recorded in 2020?

Assuming all sales revenues were on account, what were collections on accounts receivable during 2020?

Reporting and Interpreting Stockholders’ Equity: Solution

Your company has both debt-type AFS and passive equity-type AFS investments. You did not sell them during the fiscal year. Your debt investments increased in value while your equity investments depreciated. How will this situation affect your net earnings for the year end? Ignoring the effects of all other transactions, will your comprehensive income for the year be greater or lower than your net income? How will these changes affect your cash flows from operations? Can you make a definite judgement on the change in the ending balance of the stockholder’s equity on the balance sheet, assuming that the company did not pay any dividends at year end?