| Interactive Calculators On the Internet of Possible Interest in Management Accounting previous page October 25, 2005 I. Introduction. The purpose of this article is to identify available Internet interactive calculators that might be of possible use to management accountants. The Dogpile meta search engine was used to search for calculators that are available for use, without charge, at websites, and which might be of interest to management accountants. Relevant accounting-related terms were used to search for the calculators. Approximately 90 interactive calculators are identified in this article. In addition to identifying useful calculators, and writing the article, two other goals were selected as being important in completing this article successfully. The first of these two goals was to present the calculators by categories that would optimize an accountant’s efficient and effective selection and use of the calculator that would best serve the needed purpose. The second of the two goals was to test and evaluate the calculators in a way such that useful comments could be made in this article about the calculators' qualities and use. To hopefully accomplish the first goal, a “financial statement” format approached was decided upon to present the calculators. Calculators are presented in categories that relate to accounts that appear on the financial statements. Calculators that are presented can support and compute results that relate to the accounts that the calculators are associated with. There are about 60 calculators that are identified falling into this “financial statement” category. About 30 other interactive calculators were found at websites that were judged to be of possible interest to accountants, but which do not easily relate to financial statement accounts. Therefore, in this article two additional categories of calculators are used: decision-support and tools. The “Decision-Support” category includes calculators that are designed to help in: forecasting results; in evaluating which of two outcomes might be financial best (e.g. leasing or buying equipment); in comparing (benchmarking) a company performance in some area to other standard performances; and in valuing a company’s business. Many of the calculators found in the “Tools” category perform functions that hand-held calculators perform, such as present and future value determinations. Other calculators are included in the Tools category because they do not readily fit into the financial statement or the decision-support category but are believe to be of possible use, as a tool, to accountants to support one or more of the many tasks that accountants are responsible for. In searching for these calculators and preparing this article, a strong motivation has been to provide at one website an efficient and effective “dashboard” to which the accountant, especially the accountant working in a smaller company, responsible for a broad range of accounting duties, can turn to find needed calculators quickly and then to easily make needed computations. The use of one of the Management Accounting Information Center (MAIC)’s 28 front-page topics “Interactive spreadsheets and calculators and spreadsheet and database use”, on the right side of the front page, hopefully provides an efficient and effective “dashboard”, which can be quickly turned to find needed calculators and then to easily make needed calculations. Click on the link “Interactive spreadsheets and calculators and spreadsheet and database use”, and you will quickly find all the links to the calculators that are identified in this article, organized hopefully in a useful manner that assist the accountant’s use. Many of the calculators connected to here require a JavaScript capability and a capable browser. II. Financial Statement Accounts-related Calculators. In this section, calculators are identified that relate to various accounts found on the balance sheet and the income statement. A. Balance Sheet – Assets Cash and Securities Accounts Receivable Inventory Working Capital Fixed Assets 1. Cash and Securities a. A cash flow calculator. www.dindytown.net/java/CashFlow.html. This calculator, from KJE Computer Solution, will compute (or reconcile) cash balances at the beginning of a period to the end of a period. The calculator could be useful to support bank reconciliations, to project ending cash balances given expected inflows and outflows, and to verify and/or problem solve financial statement cash balances. b. Evaluating bonds as company securities. http://bonds.yahoo.com/calculator.html. This link takes you to a Yahoo site from which you can access many calculators that provide results related to bond investment values. Bond types and many decision scenarios are dealt with. These calculations should aid a company’s decisions about bonds as asset securities. c. A bond’s yield to maturity value. www.investopedia.com/calculator/AOYTM. This calculator, from Investopedia, will compute the yield to maturity of a bond that you might be considering to add to the company’s securities. Inputs are the par value, the market value, the annual rate, and the maturity in years. 2. Accounts Receivable (AR) a. Days sales outstanding. www.dnd.ca/resource/dso.html. This calculator, from D&B Canada, computes days sales outstanding (DSO) and best DSOs. The calculator does not provide an AR turnover rate. The calculator is not limited to just an annual period calculation, but will calculate DSO and best DSO for shorter periods (as long as the AR data entered is correct for the period). b. Accounts receivable collection performance indicators. www.crfonline.org/KpiCalculator/KpiCalculator.asp. This calculator, from the Credit Research Foundation, is useful for determining performance indicators for accounts receivable collection. You need to plug in the beginning and ending annual (the calculator only works for annual values) AR balances, the current AR (amount not past due), and the amount of credit sales for the year. In return, you will get: the days sales outstanding (DSO); the best DSO based on ending AR balance; the difference between DSO and best DSO, or the days delinquent; a collection effectiveness indicator (further defined at the site); and the AR turnover rate. Click here to go to next page (page 2) |