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Pages:
3 pages/β‰ˆ825 words
Sources:
2 Sources
Style:
APA
Subject:
Accounting, Finance, SPSS
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
Document:
MS Word
Date:
Total cost:
$ 14.04
Topic:

Artificial Intelligence in Government and Nonprofit Accounting

Essay Instructions:

Not-for-Profit Accounting Analysis
(Based on an article “One Attorney General’s Response to “Creative” Nonprofit Accounting (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” by Ruth McCambridge in NonProfit Quarterly May 11, 2018)
https://nonprofitquarterly(dot)org/one-attorney-generals-response-creative-nonprofit-accounting/
You are a new auditor reviewing the financial statements for a not-for-profit charity providing overseas needs relief utilizing donated clothing, food, and medications. You recall from your Not-for-Profit Accounting Class in college that not-for-profit charities have some unique accounting rules that don’t apply to other types of businesses, but you don’t remember exactly what those rules were. You decide to make an overview of the financials before you look into those rules.
One of the first things you do is to compute the program’s services ratio by taking program service expenses divided by total expenses. You are surprised to find that ratio is very high, which should be indicative of the organization’s ability to operate with very low overhead costs. You’ve heard of the organization before, but it did not seem like the organization was of the size that it could operate very efficiently since they provided relief items to mostly third world countries.
Upon further examination, it comes to your attention is the substantial revenue claimed given the majority of its income is in-kind donations of pharmaceuticals. Although pharmaceuticals can be very expensive, these (you are told) are close to the expiration date and therefore, by law, they cannot be sold to customers in the United States. They are able to be utilized in foreign countries. The value of the in-kind pharmaceutical donations was in the financials as $1.6 billion.
The more you review the financials the more you feel like something just doesn’t seem right. Before you spend more time on the project, you approach your manager to run the scenario by her.
After a few minutes of your discussion, the manager agrees that something doesn’t seem quite right.
She asks you to put together a memo to her that details:
What you have found in your review regarding accounting issues;
What you believe the appropriate accounting treatment should be on items you are questioning;
Any positive or negative informational items you can find regarding the charity by researching it online; and
In the case of suspicious activity, there are likely AI technology options that could help with narrowing down the issues, so be sure to make at least one AI application recommendation in your letter.
Paper Requirements:
You will be required to come up with fictional data for your memo. It may be advantageous to lay them out at the beginning of the letter for your instructor to follow more easily.
Submit your memo response in a 3-page document in MS Word.
Please make sure your responses are well written.
Assignment should follow APA guidelines (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. with respect to use of subheadings, 1” margins, and double spaced.
The required number of pages for the assignment does not include the title page and references page.
References need to include your textbook plus two additional credible academic references. All sources used, including your textbook must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations and cited per APA guidelines.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Artificial Intelligence in Government and Nonprofit Accounting
Name
Course
Date
TO:
FROM:
DATE: June 4, 2018
SUBJECT: Not-for-Profit Accounting Analysis
Overestimating in-kind pharmaceutical donations and nonprofit accounting
Review of accounting issues
There has been increased concern misreporting of donations in nonprofit accounting, and especially about overestimating in-kind pharmaceutical donations. The charity receives donated clothing, food, and medication, and there was in-kind pharmaceutical donations reported as $1.6 billion, and this increased the revenue balance for the NGO (McCambridge, 2018). There appears to be overreporting of the revenues in nonprofit accounting given that the donations were medications that were close to expiration and the NGO operated in developing nations where the pharmaceutical donations would be used and not the US. Typically, revenues for NGOs revenue includes all the money collected including donations received, but also the sales of products and / or provision of services as well as restricted revenues with commitments and /or agreements that restrict. The account of expenditures includes the costs and expenses of the NGO during a financial period.
The NGO valued the in-kind donations using the US market prices even as they ought to have been reported in foreign market prices. Despite reporting a high program services ratio, there are measures of nonprofit performance including governance and accountability, and these have been ignored with a focus on increasing the revenues reported by the organization. The program efficiency is necessary to show how a nonprofit is efficient in fulfilling its mission, and this tends to attract more funds, and the ratio compares the program expenses to the total expenses. Determining the association between the managers’ compensation and donation revenue using the program services ratio can provide insight on changes in program service over time and the extent which the pharmaceutical donations affect revenues.
Appropriate accounting treatment
For the in-kind donations and gifts using the international market prices is necessary to reflect the expected income and program expense. One of the most common ways to misallocate expense is through overreporting the revenues and wrongly shows that an NGO is better managed and financially viable (McCambridge, 2018). The more people support the operations, the more likely the donations will increase and the more the organization has money to spend and justify funding various programs (Arya & Mittendorf, 2016). High donations revenues will increase the managerial compensation and the organization may attract more donations revenues. As there are incentives to overreport the revenues and expenses, using the international prices is necessary to report more accurate income.
Charity the fair value of in-kind donations they receive, which is donated revenu...
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