Ethics Case 911 Overstatement of ending inventory

Danville Bottlers is a wholesale beverage company. Danville uses the FIFO inventory method to determine the cost of its ending inventory. Ending inventory quantities are determined by a physical count. For the accounting year-end December 31, 2021, ending inventory was originally determined to be $3,265,000. However, on January 17, 2022, John Howard, the companys controller, discovered an error in the ending inventory count. He determined that the correct ending inventory amount should be $2,600,000. Danville is a privately owned corporation with significant financing provided by a local bank. The bank requires annual audited financial statements as a condition of the loan. By January 17, the auditors had completed their review of the financial statements which are scheduled to be issued on January 25. They did not discover the inventory error. Johns first reaction was to communicate his finding to the auditors and to revise the financial statements before they are issued. However, he knows that his and his fellow workers profit-sharing plans are based on annual pretax earnings, and he is uncertain what effect the error correction would have on pretax earnings.

Required: What is the effect of the inventory error on pretax earnings? How would correcting the error affect employee bonuses? If the error is not corrected in the current year and is discovered by the auditors during the following years audit, how will it be reported in the companys financial statements? Discuss the ethical dilemma John Howard faces.