B. Acy Bachelor of Accountancy Bachelor of Science in Accountancy: BEC 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A company's weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is best described as:
- The cost of the most expensive financing source
- The minimum return a company must earn to satisfy all capital providers (Correct answer)
- The average interest rate on all outstanding debt
- The required return on equity only
Correct answer: The minimum return a company must earn to satisfy all capital providers
WACC represents the blended cost of all capital sources weighted by their proportion, serving as the minimum acceptable return on investments.
Question 2: Under the economic order quantity (EOQ) model, which pair of costs are being balanced?
- Storage costs and insurance costs
- Ordering costs and carrying costs (Correct answer)
- Purchase price and freight costs
- Setup costs and quality costs
Correct answer: Ordering costs and carrying costs
EOQ minimizes total inventory cost by finding the order quantity where ordering costs and carrying (holding) costs are equal.
Question 3: Which corporate governance body is primarily responsible for overseeing the financial reporting process and the external auditors?
- Board of directors
- Audit committee (Correct answer)
- Compensation committee
- Nominating committee
Correct answer: Audit committee
The audit committee, a subcommittee of the board composed of independent directors, oversees financial reporting integrity and external auditor relationships.
Question 4: A firm has a current ratio of 2.5 and a quick ratio of 1.0. This most likely indicates:
- The firm is highly liquid with minimal inventory
- The firm carries a large amount of inventory relative to current assets (Correct answer)
- The firm has excessive accounts receivable
- The firm has more current liabilities than current assets
Correct answer: The firm carries a large amount of inventory relative to current assets
A large gap between the current ratio and quick ratio signals that inventory makes up a substantial portion of current assets, since inventory is excluded from the quick ratio.
Question 5: In a competitive market, when supply decreases while demand remains constant, the equilibrium price will:
- Decrease and quantity will increase
- Increase and quantity will decrease (Correct answer)
- Remain unchanged while quantity increases
- Decrease and quantity will decrease
Correct answer: Increase and quantity will decrease
A leftward shift in supply (decrease) raises equilibrium price and lowers equilibrium quantity when demand is held constant.
Question 6: Which IT general control category includes user access provisioning, password policies, and segregation of duties in systems?
- Change management controls
- Physical security controls
- Logical access controls (Correct answer)
- Data backup controls
Correct answer: Logical access controls
Logical access controls govern who can access systems and data, encompassing user provisioning, authentication policies, and system-level segregation of duties.
Question 7: The net present value (NPV) decision rule states that a project should be accepted when:
- NPV equals the initial investment
- NPV is greater than zero (Correct answer)
- NPV equals the cost of capital
- NPV is less than the payback period
Correct answer: NPV is greater than zero
A positive NPV means the project's cash inflows, discounted at the required rate, exceed its costs, thereby adding value to the firm.
A company's weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is best described as: