A finished BUS-317 Topic 2 statement reading memo example, reading three years of statements for one inventory decision and keeping only the figures that decision needs. Searches like "bus 317 topic 2 assignment example", "bus317 topic 2 sample" and "bus-317 topic 2 example" land here.
What a finished BUS-317 Topic 2 statement reading memo looks like
The finished memo opens with its answer: the business can fund a moderate inventory build from its own resources, though not the full amount the sales team requested. The support follows in plain terms. Cash generated by operations is traced across three years, and its decline is set beside customers paying more slowly each year, which the memo expresses in days so a non-accountant can picture it; in the illustrative case data, collection time stretches from 38 to 51 days. Current assets are compared with obligations falling due within the year. Supplier terms are checked as well, since suppliers already waiting longer than agreed are not an extra source of funding. The arithmetic stays simple enough for a department head to repeat without help.
How a BUS-317 Topic 2 example is structured
The memo is arranged for someone who will read the first paragraph closely and skim the rest. It begins with the decision, the amount at stake and the answer, in that order. The second paragraph names the handful of figures chosen and gives the reason each one matters to an inventory decision. Three short passages follow, one on cash from operations, one on how quickly customers pay and one on what falls due in the coming year, each read across all three years and not from the latest alone. After those comes a paragraph on figures deliberately set aside, such as return on equity, with a line on why they do not bear on this choice. The memo closes with the condition that would change its answer and a proposed check three months later.
The answer leads the memo
A department head reads the opening lines closely and skims the remainder, so the verdict and the amount appear before any supporting figure does.
Figures chosen for this decision
Only the measures bearing on an inventory build are used, and each is introduced with a sentence explaining why it matters to that choice.
Three years read, never one
Reading each figure across the full period shows direction, which a single year cannot, and the slowing collections only become visible that way.
Collection time stated in days
Receivables are converted into the number of days customers take to pay, a measure a manager outside finance can picture and compare quickly.
Measures set aside, with reasons
Return on equity and similar investor measures are named and then excluded, which shows the selection was a judgment and not an oversight.
Where marks go in BUS-317 Topic 2
A table of every ratio the textbook offers is where many drafts go wrong, because it hands the reader the selection problem the memo was supposed to solve. Reading only the latest year is the next loss, since a figure that looks acceptable today can sit at the end of three years of decline. Conclusions firmer than the statements allow also cost marks: the figures can show that collections are slowing, and they cannot show why. A memo that never states the decision it serves reads as a summary of the company, which the topic does not ask for. Arithmetic left for the reader to reconstruct undercuts a document aimed at someone outside finance. Omitting the condition that would reverse the answer leaves the manager unable to judge how firm it is.
Get a BUS-317 Topic 2 example written to your instructions
Send the BUS-317 Topic 2 instructions and your classroom rubric, together with the statements or company your section assigned. We write a custom example to them, with the decision stated first, figures selected for that decision alone, each one read across several years and the excluded measures accounted for, in 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free.
BUS-317 Topic 2 questions, answered
How many figures does a statement reading memo rely on?
As few as the decision requires, which is usually a handful. Each additional ratio adds reading time and dilutes the ones that matter, so the example keeps only measures bearing directly on the inventory question and explains why. A memo resting on five well-chosen figures persuades a department head more reliably than one listing twenty with no sign of which drive the conclusion.
Why read three years of statements instead of the latest?
Because direction matters as much as level. A collection period of fifty-one days might be ordinary in the industry, and it reads differently if it was thirty-eight two years earlier. Only a sequence shows whether a position is improving, holding or deteriorating, and a manager deciding about the coming year needs to know which of those it is.
What does the memo say when the statements cannot settle the question?
That they cannot, followed by what would. Published statements might show receivables growing without revealing whether one large customer is behind it or many small ones. The example admits as much and names the internal aging report that would answer it. Admitting a limit and pointing to the right source is more credible than stretching the available figures past what they show.