Pascale Lapointe-Antunes, Brock University Deborah McPhee, Brock University

Amanda Walsh's first year as Vanderville Plastics Company's (VPC) controller had been quite tumultuous. She had discovered on her first day on the job that VPC's financial situation was precarious, and had since witnessed a change in ownership, repeated requests for funding to the new owners to help alleviate VPC's severe cash flow issues, and more recently, the sudden resignation of Peter Giroux, the company's Chief Financial Officer (CFO). As a result of Giroux's resignation, Amanda was now acting interim CFO and reported directly to Michael Stratton, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

A consultant had been hired by the new owners to better understand the causes of VPC's cash flow shortages, and he never seemed satisfied with Amanda's answers. Michael wanted the consultant to make all of his requests to Amanda through him. However, Amanda had no choice but to answer one of the owners' questions when he called her to enquire about a $1 million decrease in accrued liabilities in January 2006. Amanda discovered to her great disbelief that the new owners did not know about the recent payout of bonuses for the 2005 financial year.

Scared and angry, Amanda started to think about the succession of events since she came to VPC to better understand what this all meant, what was likely to happen next, and what she should do.