Question 1. How to address the problems with accounts receivables and with unsold merchandise at the same time to increases profit realization? Explain 2. Suppose that customers express greater satisfaction with the accuracy of their charge account bills but the performance measures for the average age of accounts receivable and for bad debts do not improve. There are two possible explanations for the ineffectiveness of the company's collection operations and credit evaluations. In other words, the issue may not even be associated with the inaccurate charge account invoices. It is possible that the methods for collecting past-due accounts are ineffective. What specific actions should the management take to solve this problem? With detailed explanation 3. Suppose the customers express greater satisfaction with the accuracy of their charge account bills but the performance measures for the average age of accounts receivables. and for bad debts do not improve. Explain why this might happen. How will the company resolve this problem? Explain 4. The problem lies in the company's procedure for collecting receivables. It could also be due to their poor credit checking. What should the company do to resolve this problem? Explain 5. What actions should the manager take to reduce the average age of account receivables? With a detailed explanation 6. How will the company improve the bad debt? with explanation 7. Aside from using the JIT method and lowering the price of out-of-season products. What should the business do with the unsold inventory? 8. What should the company need to consider in using JIT method? CASE LO10-4 connect BUILDING YOUR SKILLS Haglund Department Store is located in the downtown area of a small city. While the store had been profitable for many years, it is facing increasing competition from large national chains that have set up stores on the outskirts of the city. Recently the downtown area has been undergoing revitalization, and the owners of Haglund Department Store are somewhat optimistic that profitability can be restored. In an attempt to accelerate the return to profitability, management of Ilaglund Department Store is in the process of designing a balanced scorecard for the company. Management believes the company should focus on two key problems. First, customers are taking longer and longer to pay the bills they incur using the department store's charge card, and the company has far more bad debts than are normal for the industry. If this problem were solved, the company would have more cash to make much needed renova- tions. Investigation has revealed that much of the problem with late payments and unpaid bills results from customers disputing incorrect charges on their bills. These incorrect charges usually occur because salesclerks incorrectly enter data on the charge account slip. Second, the company has been incurring large losses on unsold seasonal apparel. Such items are ordinarily resold at a loss to discount stores that specialize in such distress items. The meeting in which the balanced scorecard approach was discussed was disorganized and ineffectively led possibly because no one other than one of the vice presidents had read anything about how to build a balanced scorecard. Nevertheless, a number of potential performance measures were suggested by various managers. These potential performance measures are: a. Percentage of charge account bills containing errors. b. Percentage of salesclerks trained to correctly enter data on charge account slips. c. Average age of accounts receivables. d. Profit per employee. e. Customer satisfaction with accuracy of charge account bills from monthly customer survey. f. Total sales revenue. g. Sales per employee. h. Travel expenses for buyers for trips to fashion shows. i. Unsold inventory at the end of the season as a percentage of total cost of sales. j. Courtesy shown by junior staff members to senior staff members based on surveys of senior staff. k. Percentage of suppliers making just-in-time deliveries. 1. Sales per square foot of floor space. m. Written-off accounts receivable (bad debts) as a percentage of sales. n. Quality of food in the staff cafeteria based on staff surveys. o. Percentage of employees who have attended the city's cultural diversity workshop. p. Total profit.