Reference no: EM133934423

Case: Purchase Point Media Corporation (PPMC)

Project Requirements

The project requires three steps to be presented.

Step 1 - Identify Form and Substance Errors.

Step 2 - Compute the Purchase Point Media (PPMC) break-even points in terms of carts and stores.

Step 3 - Determine the number of grocery stores for various food chains.

In one Word document, provide individual sections for each Step. This Word document along with the Excel file (described below for Step 2) will be uploaded when you click on the Take Exam button on your Student Portal to submit your project (described under the "Submitting Your Assignment" later in the instructions).

The knowledge and skills required for this project include English Composition, Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Information Literacy and the abilities to think critically, do research and to present your work in a professional manner.
Substance Versus Form and Critical Thinking

Step 1
In the infamous Enron bankruptcy case, the form of the financial statements prepared by the Enron Corporation and WorldCom was very professional; however, the substance was lacking, leading to audit and market failures and the eventual bankruptcy of both of these big-cap, or large capitalization firms. PPMC represents a reverse case, in which the form of the data contained in the PPMC news release and corporate website was very poor.

To begin, read the PPMC report, focusing on problems with the form of the report. ("Form" means spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are correct and that the text is grammatically correct. Also, form means that the format of the text as far as font, bold, underlining, indents, and so on are correct.) Prepare a typed, clearly communicated summary of all errors or weaknesses you find in the form of this report. This should be a numbered list. There are well over 30 form errors in the document. (The ways to go about doing this for this step is to think of yourself as an English Composition instructor and a student has turned in a required paper that was written.) Although the PPMC report isn't well-written, don't attempt to rewrite the report. Only present a numbered list of the errors found. Get top-notch online assignment help now.

To report the numbered list of form errors for this step, each error should have three components:
The location of the error.
What the error is.
How the text should have been written correctly.
Here is an example of how you'll present the form errors.
Summary of Errors in the Form of the PPMC Report
Location:
The first page of Exhibit 1, the last sentence of the first paragraph states "You should independently investigate and fully understand all risk before making investment decisions."
Error:
The word risk is singular. It should be plural.
Correction:
It should have been written, "You should independently investigate and fully understand all risks before making investment decisions."
Next, reread the PPMC report, focusing on problems with the substance of the report. ("Substance" means the figures and data that are being reported and making sure the math is correct.) Identify the obvious errors or problems first by focusing on the addition or math errors. Prepare a typed, clearly communicated summary of all the errors you find in the substance of this report. These should be presented in a numbered list.
To report the numbered list of substance errors for this step, each error should have three components the same as the presentation of the form errors:
The location of the error.
What the error is.
How the text should have been written correctly.
The heading for the substance errors should be "Summary of Errors in the Substance of the PPMC Report".
Do not take this step lightly. The data and figures found in the report are used to calculate the break-even analysis for Step 2. As presented, the data is incorrect and therefore, the break-even analysis would be incorrect. Therefore, it is important that you find "all" of the substance errors and correct them as these corrected figures will be what you use to make the break-even calculations for Step 2.

Step 2
The PPMC Notes in the document appear to be organized by cost behavior. This is similar to the approach you used in your Managerial Accounting course. You should follow this approach or framework as you compute the PPMC breakeven point in terms of carts and stores. Begin with revenues, follow with variable costs (VCs), develop the contribution margin (CM; in aggregate), followed by fixed costs (FCs), and, finally, compute PPMC's net operating income (NOI) and break-even point in terms of both carts and stores.

At the beginning of the assignment, on the right-hand side under "Optional Study Materials" select the "PPMC Excel Spreadsheet" menu item to download the required Excel spreadsheet.

Step 2 requires that you calculate the break-even points for both carts and stores. Download this file and use it to calculate the break-even points.

Reference the Excel spreadsheet for Step 2 in the Word document and include the spreadsheet as a separate file when submitting the project. The spreadsheet for the calculations is too large to include in a table in a Word document or be able to read if an Excel spreadsheet is inserted. Therefore, there should be two files submitted for the project - this Word document and the Excel spreadsheet with your work for Step 2.

The majority of the work has been done for you when using the spreadsheet. The setup to be able to calculate the CM, NOI and the break-even points are part of the spreadsheet. What you need to do to interpret the Notes from the PPMC document, input the data into the spreadsheet (be sure to use your "corrected substance" figures/data from Step 1), and do the calculations required to obtain the break-even point for the carts and the break-even point for the stores. (Hint: Some cells in the spreadsheet have comments inserted. Pay attention to these comments. For example, there is a comment in a cell that has the formula to be used to calculate the break-even point.)

Step 3
Step 3 requires three items:
The ticker symbol for the store chain.
The number of stores for the store chain.
A Works Cited page for the figures found as the number of stores.
Table 1 should be reproduced as a table in your Word document for Step 3 and the ticker symbol and the number of stores inserted from your own research.

To find the ticker symbol for each of the store chains, it is as easy as opening up Google Chrome as your web browser and typing in the store name followed by "ticker symbol" into the search box. The hits form the search should reveal the ticker symbol for that store. Alternatively, you could use a financial website such as Yahoo Finance, E-trade, and so on to do your searching. All of the stores have a ticker symbol with the exception of one which is a private company.

Using your own research skills and abilities, determine the number of grocery stores for each store chain. How you go about doing this is up to you and your research skills.

Here is what you are looking for as far as the number of stores is concerned:

You are looking for the most "current" information. However, current doesn't mean today.

For example, if store A (which has 10 stores) took over store B (which had 3 stores) in a merger, then B is no longer in business. The number of stores for A will be 13 as of today because it is still in business. The number of stores for B will be 3 which is how many it had before the merger. That is the most current for B - not zero.

As another example, if a store declares bankruptcy, it all depends upon the bankruptcy status. If the store is in Chapter 11, which is reorganization then the number of stores will be the current information. If the store is in Chapter 13, which is a closing of the business, then the number of stores will be zero.

Be aware that the solution to the number of stores in the table is kept current, but that doesn't mean that data will all be "as of today." It is possible that the most current information might be 2017 or 2018. It all depends upon your research and what is available. Finding the correct information is the purpose behind doing research.

One other thing to watch out for in doing your research is a "name change." If a store changes its name, then list both the old name and the new name and the current information available for the number of stores.

You should rarely use third-party sites such as Google Finance, InvestSnips, Investopedia, Wikipedia, newspaper articles, and so on as these don't have the most current and accurate information. You should use information from the business website, SEC filings, Annual Reports, and so on for the most applicable, relevant and current information.

Lastly, this step involves research. "Research" is not doing a quick search and picking a website or two and going with what is found. Research is looking at quite a few sources and thinking critically about what is found as to relevancy, currency, and accuracy. For example, one web page may say "about 500" stores, but, another page on the website will say "536 stores" exactly. Or one website might have information from March 2016 and another might have information from December 2016. Which is more current and relevant? The December 2016 website. Not only do you need to do research, but, you also must think critically about the information you find.

Along with Table 1, a Works Cited page needs to be included for Step 3. This is Standard English Composition. Work and/or figures that are not your own need to be cited as part of a paper.

There should be a correctly formatted citation for each figure for the number of stores for the grocery store chain. This is standard for English Composition and should follow APA formatting. If you do not remember how to make a properly formatted APA citation, go to the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) website by doing the following:
do a search on the Internet for "Purdue OWL" and go to the homepage
in the menu on the left, click on "Research and Citation"
from the drop-down menu click on "APA Style"
then click on "APA Formatting and Style Guide"
finally, select "Reference List: Electronic Resources
Alternatively, you can telephone and speak to an English Instructor.
The web address provided for the citation should take the reader directly to the web page where the number of stores can be found. The reader should not have to search for your information. Do not provide a generic web address such as the homepage of a website unless the actual number of stores is on that web page.

Attachment:- PPMC Excel Spreadsheet.rar