Problem # 1
The following schedule indicates selected accounts from a city's pre-closing 2015 and post-closing 2014 general fund trial balances:
All of the amounts shown relate only to supplies. All purchases during the year were paid in cash.
1. Assume that the city uses the consumption method to account for supplies.
a. Reconstruct all journal entries relating to supplies that were made in 2015.
b. Make any additional entries that would be required at year-end 2015 to close the accounts.
2. Assume instead that the city uses the purchases method to account for supplies. Assume also that the supplies inventory balance as reported on the pre-losing December 31, 2015, balance sheet is $108,000 (not $162,000 as shown in the schedule), even though actual supplies on hand are still $162,000. (This adjustment is necessary because under the purchases method inventory is maintained throughout the year at the beginning of year balance; it is adjusted only at year-end when the closing entries are made.)
a. Reconstruct all journal entries relating to supplies that were made in 2015.
b. Make any additional entries that would be required at year-end 2015 to close the accounts.
Problem # 2
The following is an excerpt from a note to the ?nancial statements of the city of Boston (dates changed): The city prepares its annual appropriated general fund, debt service fund, and proprietary operating funds budgets on a basis (budget basis) which differs from generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP basis) . . . The major differences between the budget and GAAP bases are that encumbrances are recorded as the equivalent of expenditures (budget) rather than a commitment of fund balance (GAAP) in the governmental funds. The city accounts for inventories on the purchases basis. One of the city's departments, which is accounted for in the general fund, budgeted $390,000 in supplies expenditures for ?scal 2015. It began the 2015 ?scal year with $60,000 of supplies on hand. It also had $24,000 of supplies on order. During the year it ordered an additional $360,000 of supplies, received (and paid for in cash) $370,000 of supplies, and consumed $356,000 of supplies.
1. Prepare all journal entries, consistent with GAAP, including budgetary and encumbrance entries that the department should make in 2015.
2. Indicate the accounts and amounts related to supplies that the city would report on its year-end statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance and balance sheet.
3. By how much did the department over-or underspend its supplies budget (on a budget basis)?
4. Comment on the extent to which the city's statement provides a basis to:
a. Assess the ''true'' economic costs associated with supplies
b. Determine whether the city adhered to budgetary spending mandates
5. Suppose that in the last quarter of the year, department of?cials realized that the department was about to overspend its supplies budget. They therefore ceased placing new orders for supplies. However, they imposed no restrictions on the use of supplies and there by allowed the supplies inventory to decline to near zero.
a. What impact would these cost-cutting measures have on supplies expenditures as reported in an actual-to budget comparison (on a budget basis)?
b. What impact would the year-end measures have on reported supplies expenditures (per GAAP)? Would your response be different if the city accounted for supplies on the consumption basis?