Dwight Donovan, the president of Donovan Enterprises, is considering 2 investment opportunities. Because of limited resources, he will be able to invest in only 1 of them.

Project A is to purchase a machine that will enable factory automation; the machine is expected to have a useful life of 4 years and no salvage value.

Project B supports a training program that will improve the skills of employees operating the current equipment. Initial cash expenditures for Project A are $400,000 and for Project B are $160,000. The annual expected cash inflows are $126,000 for Project A and $52,800 for Project B.

Both investments are expected to provide cash flow benefits for the next 4 years. Donovan Enterprises' desired rate of return is 8%. Your task as Senior Accountant is to use your knowledge of net present value and internal rate of return to identify the preferred method and best investment opportunity for the company and present your results to Dwight Donovan.

Answer's calculated in excel:

Project A NPV: $17,327.98

Project B NPV: $14,880.30

Project A IRR: 9.931039%

Project B IRR: 12.110361%

Based on the above scenario/calculations, please provide a detailed answer the following set of questions:

1) ANALYZE THE RESULTS OF THE NET PRESENT VALUE CALCULATIONS AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE RESULTS, SUPPORTED WITH EXAMPLES.

2) DETERMINE WHICH PROJECT SHOULD BE ADOPTED BASED ON THE NET PRESENT VALUE APPROACH AND PROVIDE RATIONALE FOR YOUR DECISION.

3) ANALYZE THE RESULTS OF THE INTERNAL RATE OF RETURN CALCULATION AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE RESULTS, SUPPORTED WITH EXAMPLES.

4) DETERMINE WHICH PROJECT SHOULD BE ADOPTED BASED ON THE INTERNAL RATE OF RETURN APPROACH AND PROVIDE RATIONALE FOR YOUR DECISION.

5) DETERMINE THE PREFERRED METHOD IN THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES AND PROVIDE REASONING AND DETAILS TO SUPPORT THE METHOD SELECTED