Evaluation of a proposed change in the firm's collection policy

Eden Exports, an importer and exporter of precious metals and jewelry from around the world, sells its objets d'art to stores in six southwestern states and generates annual sales of $$7,500,000.$ In response to increasing concerns regarding the firm's slow collections and elevated bad$-$debt ratios, Eden's treasurer has suggested that the firm change its current collection policy. Specifically, he proposes that the firm progress beyond its current collection efforts$-$sending late$-$payment notices and making follow$-$up telephone calls$-$and hire an outside professional collection agency. It is expected that the collection agency will cost $$45,000$ and that the firm's sales and inventory requirements will be unaffected by the policy change.

To facilitate the evaluation of this proposal, the treasurer has had his assistant, Kaitlin, collect the following information and has asked you to determine whether or not Eden should revise its collection policy:

$\backslash$table$[[$Current Credit Data,Forecasted Data for Revised Collection Policy$],[$Days sales outstanding $($DSO$)=95$ days,Days sales outstanding $($DSO$)=70$ days$],[$Bad$-$debt losses $=10\%$ of sales,Bad$-$debt losses $=5\%$ of sales$],[$Contribution margin $=25\%,],[$Return earned on any freed funds $=14\%,]]$

Given this data and assuming that the revised collection policy is implemented, complete the following statements. $($Note: Round your answers to the nearest dollar.$)$

Eden's accounts receivable investment is expected to change by

B$.$ The marginal income earned on any freed funds is expected to be

The change in the firm's bad$-$debt losses is forecast to be

The expected net benefit associated with the revised policy is