Assume you are a newly-hired accountant for a local manufacturing firm. You have enjoyed working for the company and are looking forward to your first experience participating in the preparation of the company’s financial statements for the year-ending December 31, the end of the company’s fiscal year. 

As you are preparing your assigned journal entries, your supervisor approaches you and asks to speak with you. Your supervisor is concerned because, based on her preliminary estimates, the company will fall just shy of its financial targets for the year. If the estimates are true, this means that all 176 employees of the company will not receive year-end bonuses, which represent a significant portion of their pay.

One of the entries that you will prepare involves the upcoming bond interest payment that will be paid on January 15 of the next year. Your supervisor has calculated that, if the journal entry is dated on January 1 of the following year rather than on December 31 of the current year, the company will likely meet its financial goals thereby allowing all employees to receive year-end bonuses. Your supervisor asks you if you will consider dating the journal entry on January 1 instead of December 31 of the current year. Assess the implications of the various stakeholders and explain what your answer will be.