Nicole Martins is the controller at UMC Corp., a publicly traded manufacturing company. Last year, UMC had annual sales revenue of $15 million. The first quarter of this year just ended, and Nicole needs to prepare a trial balance so she can prepare the quarterly financial statements. However, the trial balance is out of balance by $750 (credits exceed debits).

Nicole is running out of time as the report is due today! Therefore, she decides to balance by plugging the $750 into the Equipment account. She chose the Equipment account because it has the largest account balance. Therefore, with the $750 added, it will be the least-misstated account.

• Identify the stakeholders in the case.
• Explain the ethical issues the case involves.
• If you were Nicole, what would you do?