Heidelberg Company has been in business for 100 years. The past three years have been trying ones for the company, which has reported operating losses in each of those three years. The board of directors is planning a huge, year-long celebration of the company’s centennial year. The board has informed the company’s controller that the company must report a profit in each quarter of the centennial year. The board has not told the controller how this is to be done, but the implication is that if the operating results are not enough to generate a profit, the controller must use accounting assumptions to push the company over the top. The controller has identified three areas in which Heidelberg Company has some flexibility in its accounting assumptions: depreciation, bad debts, and pension accounting. Describe specifically how the controller can use accounting assumptions in these three areas to improve Heidelberg’s reported earnings. Also describe which set of financial statement users is most likely to be influenced by this earnings management in the centennial year financial statements.