(Cash receipts acceleration systern) Peggy Pierce Designs Inc is a vertically integrated, national manufacturer and retailer of women's clothing Currently, the fimm has no coordinated cash management system. A proposal, however, from the First Pennsylvania Bank aimed at speeding up cash collections is being examined by several of Pierce's corporate executives. The firm currently uses a centralized billing procedure, which requires that all checks be mailed to the Philadelphia head office for processing and eventual deposit Under this arrangement, all the customers' remittance checks take an average of 5 business days to reach the head office Once in Philadelphia, another 1 days are required to process the checks for ultimate deposit at the First Pennsylvania Bank The firm's daily remittances average 51.4 million. The average check size is $2,500. Plerce Designs currently earns 11 percent annually on its markotable-securities portfolio Under the proposed plan, First Pennsylvania said that they could reduce funds tied up by mal float to 3 days, and processing float will be eliminated Funds would then be transferred twice each business day by means of automated depository transfer checks from local banks to the First Pennsylvania Bank Each DTC costs $17. These transfers will occur all 270 business days of the year. Each check processed through the proposed cash collection system will cost $0 16 a. What amount of cash balances will be freed up if Peggy Pierce Designs Inc. adopts the system suggested by First Pennsylvania? b. What is the opportunity cost of maintaining the current banking setup? c. What is the projected annual cost of operating the proposed system? d. Should Pierce adopt the new system? Compute the net annual gain or loss associated with adopting the system