P6-45. Interpreting Accounts Receivable and Uncollectible Accounts Mattel, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets a broad variety of toy products worldwide which are sold to its customers and directly to consumers. The company's brands include American Girl, Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels, and Barbie. The following information is taken from the company's 10-K annual report for its fiscal year ending December 31, 2017. ($ thousands) Accounts receivable..... Allowance for doubtful accounts.. Accounts receivable, net.... 2017 2016 2015 $1,153,988 $1,136,593 $1,169,469 25,378 1,128,610 21,376 24,370 1,115,217 1,145,099 Activity in the allowance for doubtful accounts for the past three fiscal years is as follows: ($ thousands) Balance at beginning of year Charged to income.... Deductions... Allowance at end of year 2017 2016 2015 $21,376 $24,370 $26,283 17,568 9,165 5,813 13,566 12,159 7,726 25,378 21,376 24,370 * Includes write-offs, recoveries of previous write-offs, and currency translation adjustments. Mattel's revenues were $4,881,951 thousand and $5,456,650 thousand for fiscal years 2017 and 2016, respectively. REQUIRED a. What amount did Mattel report as accounts receivable, net in its January 31, 2017, balance sheet? b. Prepare journal entries to record bad debts expense and write-offs of uncollectible accounts in fiscal 2017. (Assume that Deductions did not include recoveries or foreign currency adjust- ments.) Post these entries to T-accounts. Now suppose Mattel experienced a $350 thousand re- covery of a previously written-off receivable. How should the company record this recovery? Compute the ratio of allowance for doubtful accounts to gross accounts receivable for fiscal 2016 and 2017. C. d. Compute Mattel's accounts receivable turnover and average collection period for 2017 and 2016. e. What might be the cause of the changes that you observe in parts c and d?