Pleasant Co. manufactures specialty bike accessories. The company is known for product quality, and it has offered one of the best warranties in the industry on its higher-priced productsa lifetime guarantee, performing all the warranty work in its own shops. The warranty on these products is included in the sales price.

Due to the recent introduction and growth in sales of some products targeted to the low-price market, Pleasant is considering partnering with another company to do the warranty work on this line of products, if customers purchase a service contract at the time of original product purchase. Pleasant has called you to advise the company on the accounting for this new warranty arrangement.

Question 1:

Pleasant Co. is considering issuing bonds for the expansion of its business overseas. Is it more advantageous for Pleasant Co. to offer customers the option to purchase additional service contracts or to provide warranties on all products sold considering its upcoming bond issuance?

Suggested approach to answer this question:

1. Write out the journal entries for Assurance-typed warranties and Service-typed warranties and think of the balance sheet impact of each.
2. Think about how the balance sheet impact would impact the selling price of bonds. Remember that investors look at liquidity ratios when determining the risk of a bond issuance

Question 2:

Pleasant Co. currently relies upon third-party service providers to repair products under assurance-typed warranties and is considering opening service locations.

Opening service locations would require significant fixed asset investment but would be less expensive per repair.

Discuss the impact on the balance sheet and impact on any two liquidity ratios of moving from a per unit more expensive third-party service provider to a less expensive in-house warranty servicing in an e-mail format to your hypothetical manager.

Suggested approach to answer this question:

• Consider where Pleasant Co. would gather funds for the investment in fixed assets to open service locations and its effects on the balance sheet.
• Write out the journal entries for assurance-typed warranties and think of how the estimates in the journal entries are affected by this proposed change.