You are an accounts payable manager at Tiptop Sellers, which is a medium size department store. The company is having liquidity

issues and needs to free up cash for expansion projects. You have come across the Wall Street Journal article entitled, "Delaying

Payments to Suppliers Helps Companies Unlock Cash". The article gives you some ideas for increasing liquidity, but you need to do

more industry analysis. To help you understand liquidity within the retail sector, your boss creates a dashboard visualization using

financial data from the largest five retailers mentioned in the article. The data is sourced from the Reuters website which is publicly

available. She asks you to interpret the data and answer the questions below.

Click here to view the data in Tableau, and here to view it in Power BI$.($The Tableau and Power BI files contain the same data; you can use

either to answer the questions in this assignment. Your instructor may specify which program they prefer you to use!$)$

How to Access Tableau: You can open the Tableau file in this problem statement with Tableau Desktop software. If you don't have

Tableau Desktop, you can download Tableau Reader, a free program that allows you to open Tableau visualizations. To get it$,$ search for

"Tableau Reader" in your internet browser, or click here.

How to Access Power BI: You can open the Power BI file in this problem statement with Power BI Desktop. If you don't have it already,

search for "Power BI download" in your internet browser, or click here for a free download.

Which company has the highest current ratio compared to the other companies?

Costco

Amazon

Walgreens

Walmart

Which company had a decrease in the acid test ratio from $2018$ to $2019?$

Walgreens

Walmart

Amazon

CostcoWhich of the following statement is true?

Companies that had the lowest sales revenue had the lowest acid test ratio.

There is no relationship between the amount of sales revenue and the value of the current ratio.

Companies that had the largest sales revenue had the highest current ratio.

Amazon has acceptable current ratio and acid test ratio values.

What can be concluded from the dashboard?

Walmart's Other Current Assets can be used to pay its immediate debts.

The retail sectors share a common quick ratio that can be used as an industry benchmark.

The value of Cash & Equivalents is directly correlated with the company's total revenue.

Walmart's creditors will have concern over Walmart's ability to pay.Retail Sector Liquidity Ratios Dashboard

Figure $1$: Total Revenue by Company in $2019$

Figure $2$: Acid Test Visualization in $2019$

Cash & Equivalents Short Term Investments Net Receivables Cur Liabilities

Figure $3$: Current Ratio By Year

Figure $4$: Acid Test Ratio By Year

$1\mathrm{.}0$

$1\mathrm{.}0$

Figure $5$: Current Asset Ratio Breakdown in $2019$

$-100bn$

Walmart Amazon Costco Walgreens Kroger

Cash & Equivalents Short Term Investments Net Receivables Other Current Assets Current Liabilities