Bill & Jones Enterprises is a publicly traded company manufacturing office equipment. Gil Lopez is the CFO of the company and is reviewing the budget to actual reports for the 10 months ended October 31, 2021. At the beginning of the year, Lopez budgeted that the companys gross sales and production would grow by approximately 20% during the current fiscal year. Unfortunately, now in preparation for an upcoming annual shareholder meeting in December, Lopez is projecting that due to the continued impacts of the COVID pandemic, sales will be significantly less than expected for the year and that the company will not meet its budgeted goals. Therefore, Lopez has requested budget rollbacks and spending freezes for the remainder of the year as well as into the 2022 budget cycle. In addition, Lopez is investigating whether to close at least one of its current retail locations.

As the accounting manager, prepare a two-page report (double spaced) to the CFO, responding to the following questions (be creative):

• Why are budgets referred to as living, breathing documents? Why would it be necessary and beneficial to update the budget based on the changes in the actual activities?
• What impact would shifting costs from period to product costs have to the companys income statement and balance sheet? Why would Lopez want to do this? Are there any ethical concerns?
• Name three specific ways that Bill & Jones alter its cost structure in order to lower its breakeven point in order to increase the companys likelihood to make a profit during the upcoming year. Fully explain the choices and how they would specifically change the breakeven point.
• What specific financial information would be useful in determining which retail location(s) are suitable to be closed, including the analysis of fixed costs related to the company and the location? Are there any qualitative factors that would impact this decision about whether to close the location?