The general ledger for Cloud 9 and a transcript of a meeting with Carla Johnson is provided in Appendix A.

Required

a. During discussions with management, Josh asked how often the product prices are changed. Carla Johnson, the Financial Controller, responded that they didn’t change that often. Describe a data analytics technique that could be used to corroborate Carla’s statement using the five-step approach.

Be specific in identifying a logical source that Josh might be able to obtain data from in order to better understand pricing fluctuations.

b. It is decided to conduct a regression analysis for Cloud 9 with respect to sales and the number of

“likes” on Cloud 9’s social media pages for each quarter over a number of fiscal years. What assertions will be addressed by this procedure? What are the dependent and independent variables?

What data are needed? How will W&S Partners determine the acceptable difference?