Please answer each in detail. 2 paragraphs will do, unless more information is needed. Please include references under each one of your responses!

1- Your first assignment is to get to know the team of learners you will be working with. Please introduce yourself in this discussion forum. Focus your introduction on areas you feel are relevant to your work in the course, but give your intro a personal touch as well. Share your major, your location, your career aspirations, and any personal experience or knowledge that may relate to the course. You may also post a picture of yourself.

What experience and interest do you have in government or work with not-for-profit organizations? How might the knowledge and skills associated with this course support your career or life aspirations?

2- Analyze the treatment of debt in a capital lease agreement. Should the entire debt amount from an acquisition of general capital assets be reported as debt of the fund that accounts for the activities of the department or function using the leased asset? Should the debt from an equipment lease used by multiple departments be reported in the governmental activities accounts rather than a fund? Discuss how you concluded the proper treatment of the debt.

3- American Printing publishes magazines, catalogs, and retail inserts for distribution in large metropolitan area newspapers. Its largest customer is the New York News Company, for which American Printing prints sells flyers and coupon inserts.

American has contractual agreements with its customers; its current pricing strategy is cost-plus, and customers also agree to a yearly price escalation based on inflation. American Printing completes the escalation based on cost-of-operations increases.

Recently, Face Social Media proposed a bid to the New York News Company for alternative pricing to counter American Printing’s contract, which will be up for renewal.

To compete against Face Social Media, American Printing will have to employ target costing.

For this discussion:

• What are the differences between cost-plus and target costing approaches to developing appropriate pricing? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.
• How does the duration of the renewed contract impact the approach?
• Are there elements of the value chain that American Printing can leverage to optimize target costing for a mature customer relationship?
• How does the goal of a rate of return impact the target under cost-plus?

4- American Printing Company’s information technology department administers the company’s material requirements planning and general ledger systems. It also provides support to the computer-based shop floor reporting and payroll systems, as well as personnel computing services for each department’s administration.

Recently, American Printing’s Controller, Sally Sound, has been considering outsourcing IT operations to Cloud computing providers to minimize support department expenses. She has been reviewing potential contracts with Cloud suppliers, and interviewed the managers of departments that receive support from the current IT department. Sally Sound determines that the cost savings are approximately $250,000 for the company. Its revenues are presently $50 million.

For this discussion:

• What are the qualitative considerations for the elimination of support departments when strategically minimizing costs?
• What are the quantitative considerations that the Controller must include in the calculation?
• What might the inputs in the decision be if the space and labor costs can be removed in the short run of one year?