Quantitative Methods and Analysis/ FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

TOTAL OF 10 MIN. PAGES

EACH PROJECT SHOULD BE A SEPARATE PAPER WITH SEPARATE REFRENCES.

WORK CITED IS NOT CONSIDERED A PAGE

PROJECT PAPER 1 (1-2 PAGES)

Please read the relevant parts of your textbook, which refer to cash flow and financial planning.

To avoid any uncertainty regarding his business' financing needs at the time when such needs may arise, Cyrus Brown wants to develop a cash budget for his latest venture: Cyrus Brown Manufacturing (CBM). He has estimated the following sales forecast for CBM over the next 9 months:

He has also gathered the following collection estimates regarding the forecast sales:

• Payment collection within the month of sale = 25%
• Payment collection the month following sales = 55%
• Payment collection the second month following sales = 20%

Payments for direct manufacturing costs like raw materials and labor are made during the month that follows the one in which such costs have been incurred. These costs are estimated as follows:

Additional financial information is as follows:

• Administrative salaries will approximately amount to $35,000 a month.
• Lease payments around $15,000 a month.
• Depreciation charges, $15,000 a month.
• A one-time new plant investment in the amount of $95,000 is expected to be incurred and paid in June.
• Income tax payments estimated to be around $55,000 will be due in both June and September.
• And finally, miscellaneous costs are estimated to be around $10,000 a month.
• Cash on hand on March 1 will be around $50,000, and a minimum cash balance of $50,000 shall be on hand at all times.

To receive full credit on this assignment, please show all work, including formulas and calculations used to arrive at the financial values.

Group Project Guidelines

• As a group, prepare a monthly cash budget for Cyrus Brown Manufacturing for the 9-month period of March through November.
  • Use Excel to prepare the monthly cash budget.
• Based on your cash budget findings, answer the following questions:
  • Will the company need any outside financing?
  • What is the minimum line of credit that CBM will need?
  • What do you think of CBM's cash position during the budget period? Do you see any concerns for the company in this regard?
  • If you were a bank manager, would you want CBM as your client? Why or why not?
• It is up to the members of the group to divide the assignment tasks evenly. You will be graded on group participation

Your submitted Group Project (150 points) must include the following:

• 75 Points. An Excel spreadsheet that contains your group's monthly cash budget for Cyrus Brown Manufacturing.
• 75 Points. A double-spaced Word document of 1–2 pages that contains your answers to the questions listed in the Assignment Guidelines.

Grading

You will be graded on the accuracy of your monthly cash budget and your demonstrated understanding of financial analysis procedures. You will also be graded on your group participation.

Please add your file.

PROJECT PAPER 2 (2-3 PAGES)

A manufacturing company is thinking of launching a new product. The company expects to sell $950,000 of the new product in the first year and $1,500,000 each year thereafter. Direct costs including labor and materials will be 45% of sales. Indirect incremental costs are estimated at $95,000 a year. The project requires a new plant that will cost a total of $1,500,000, which will be a depreciated straight line over the next 5 years. The new line will also require an additional net investment in inventory and receivables in the amount of $200,000.

Assume there is no need for additional investment in building the land for the project. The firm's marginal tax rate is 35%, and its cost of capital is 10%.

To receive full credit on this assignment, please show all work, including formulae and calculations used to arrive at financial values.

Assignment Guidelines

• Using the information in the assignment description:
  • Prepare a statement showing the incremental cash flows for this project over an 8-year period.
  • Calculate the payback period (P/B) and the net present value (NPV) for the project.
  • Answer the following questions based on your P/B and NPV calculations:
    • Do you think the project should be accepted? Why?
      • Assume the company has a P/B (payback) policy of not accepting projects with life of over 3 years.
    • If the project required additional investment in land and building, how would this affect your decision? Explain.

Your submitted assignment (130 points) must include the following:

• A double-spaced Word document of 2–3 pages that contains your calculation values, your complete calculations, any formulae that you used, and your answers to the two questions listed in the assignment guidelines.
  • You must include your explanation of how you used Excel for your calculations if applicable.

Grading

You will be graded on the accuracy of your value calculations as well as your demonstrated understanding of payback periods, net present value, and cash flows.

This assignment will be assessed using the rubric provided here.

Please submit your assignment.

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

Individual Project Rubric

PROJECT PAPER 3 (1-2 PAGES)

Click here to download the selected financial statements for Micro Chip Computer Corporation. Answer questions 1 and 2 below based on the financial data.

1. Determine the year-to-year percentage annual growth in total net sales.
2. Based only on your answers to question #1, do you think the company achieved its sales goal of +10% annual revenue growth in 2009? Determine the target revenue figure, and explain why you do or do not feel that the company hit its target.

Next, consider Micro Chip's Consolidated Statement of Operations for the year ended September 25, 2008. Download the file here and answer questions 1 and 2.

1. Use the Percentage Sales Method and a 25% increase in sales to forecast Micro Chip's Consolidated Statement of Operations for the period of September 26, 2008 through September 25, 2009. Assume a 15% tax rate and restructuring costs of 5% of the new sales figure.
2. Discuss your results from question number #1. What assumptions have you made? Do any of your assumptions seem unreasonable?

To receive full credit on this assignment, please show all work, including formulae and calculations used to arrive at the financial values. Students using Microsoft Excel must provide an adequate explanation of the methodology used to arrive at that answer.

Assignment Guidelines

• Download the financial statements and consolidated statement of operations by clicking on the links above in the assignment description.
• Analyze the statements and then answer the four questions listed in the assignment description.
• Show all work including calculations and formulas. If applicable, provide a detailed explanation of how you used Microsoft Excel to arrive at your answers.
• Organize your answers, mathematical calculations, and Microsoft Excel data into a Word document of 1–2 pages.

Your submitted assignment (120 points) must include the following:

• A double-spaced Word document of 1–2 pages that contains your answers to the four questions listed in the assignment description, any calculations you performed, and all formulae that were used. Also, provide your Excel data table(s) along with an explanation of how you arrived at your answers if applicable.

Grading

You will be graded on the accuracy of your financial calculations as well as your demonstrated understanding of financial statement analysis.

Please submit your assignment.

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

Individual Project Rubric

PROJECT PAPER 4 (5-6 PAGES)

Students will choose a company of their liking and use any of the 2 (qualitative or quantitative) research and analysis methods to demonstrate selected perceptions (approved by the faculty) of the company. This project requires you to research, review, and analyze perceptions of the company. Specifically, your research paper will include the following:

• Provide background information on the chosen organization
• Description of the diverse literature available on varied research methods
• Identify the type of research method to be used and justify the reasons for using a particular approach
• Undertake the research method for data collection and analysis and present the findings

Present your findings as a Word document of 5–6 pages (body of paper) formatted in APA style.

Please submit your assignment.

Submitting your assignment in APA format means, at a minimum, you will need the following:

1. Title Page: Remember the Running head: AND TITLE IN ALL CAPITALS.
2. Abstract: A summary of your paper, not an introduction. Begin writing in third person voice.
3. Body: The body of your paper begins on the page following the title page and abstract page and must be double-spaced (be careful not to triple- or quadruple-space between paragraphs). The type face should be 12-pt. Times Roman or 12-pt. Courier in regular black type. Do not use color, bold type, or italics except as required for APA-level headings and references. The deliverable length of the body of your paper for this assignment is 5–6 pages. In-body academic citations to support your decisions and analysis are required. A variety of academic sources is encouraged.
4. Reference Page: References that align with your in-body academic sources are listed on the final page of your paper. The references must be in APA format using appropriate spacing, hang indention, italics, and upper and lower case usage as appropriate for the type of resource used. Remember, the Reference Page is not a bibliography but a further listing of the abbreviated in-body citations used in the paper. Every referenced item must have a corresponding in-body citation.

This assignment will be assessed using additional criteria provided here.

Please submit your assignment as a Word document in APA format using the attached template. Using the template without deleting the headings ensures that you cover each segment of the assignment.

Please submit your assignment.

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

PROJECT PAPER 5 (200 WORDS)

How Many People to Survey?

Poll results are prevalent in the media, especially leading up to elections, as are reports on surveys done by universities and research groups.

The survey results of small groups of people are used to portray a general consensus about a population. Do you ever wonder how many people should be included in a survey to make it a meaningful reflection of a population? Now you will be able to answer your own question. After learning this, you might never feel the same about these polls and surveys again.

Using the following specific resources, create a lecture (with citations) that includes the following:

Part 1: Survey Analysis

Entertainment Survey

Using a newspaper article from the AIU library's full-text database: Newsstand (ProQuest), create a lecture (with citations) that includes the following:

• Describe an entertainment poll or survey. Analyze the number of people who participated in the sample compared to the number in the population. Most news articles will not provide information on the number of people surveyed. In this case, critique the validity of the results. (Be sure to cite the article which must be from Newsstand ProQuest) Here is a Research Guide.
• Discuss how the results of the survey can be used to tell a story or support an idea of the sponsoring company or media group.

Political Survey

Use polls from one of the following sources:

Source 1

Source 2

• Describe a political poll or survey. Analyze the number of people who participated in the sample compared to the number in the population.
• Discuss how the results of the survey can be used to tell a story or support an idea of the sponsoring company or media group.

General Survey

Use polls from one of the following sources:

Source 1

Source 2

• Describe a general opinion poll or survey. Analyze the number of people who participated in the sample compared to the number in the population.
• Discuss how the results of the survey can be used to tell a story or support an idea of the sponsoring company or media group.

Overview

Consider the 3 surveys presented.

• Using the knowledge you learned from the textbook, compare and contrast the sample sizes in each of the three surveys mentioned in the post and determine if the samples sizes are appropriate.
• In your opinion, which appears to be the most valid? (Cite and reference the textbook)

This section of the paper will be 2–3 pages in length, and each survey or poll described must come from AIU Library's Newsstand ProQuest Database and the sources provided.

Please do not use quotes or copy definitions. You will not receive credit for understanding the materials if you use the words of others. Keep in mind that because you did research and you have citations in the body of the post, you must also place a reference list at the end containing the textbook and the articles cited.

Part 2: Application

Create your own 3-question entertainment survey or using this General Opinion Survey or another free survey program or this link. Secure a minimum of 20 responses. Your survey respondents may be friends, family or classmates. (Note: The small sample size was chosen for convenience, and as you know, is not a valid sample. The goal is for you to create, deploy, and analyze a simple survey.)

Create Excel charts of your results and describe those charts in words. (You will receive no credit for charts that are copied from the survey software.)

• Include a copy of your survey
• Provide charts of your results and describe those charts in words
• Explain how the results of your survey can be used by a media group or company

This section of the paper will contain 1 page of text and 3 charts.

References

Gallup. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/Home.aspx

Pew Research. (n.d.). Question search. Retrieved from http://people-press.org/question-search

Survey Monkey. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Zoomerang. (n.d.). http://www.zoomerang.com/basic/

Please submit your assignment as a Word document in APA format using the attached template. Using the template without deleting the headings ensures that you cover each segment of the assignment.

Please submit your assignment.

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.