All business organizations, whether a large corporation or sole proprietorship, need to maintain internal control over the assets belonging to the business. Managers and owners place a high priority on internal control systems because they can prevent avoidable losses, help managers plan operations, and monitor organization performance. This assessment consists of three accounting exercises. The exercises are provided in the Internal Control and Accounting for Assets Worksheet, linked in Resources under the Required Resources heading. Use this worksheet to record and submit your solutions for Exercises 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3. Internal Control and Accounting for Assets Cash and Cash Equivalents All business organizations, whether a large corporation or sole proprietorship, need to maintain internal control over the assets belonging to the business. This is especially important when it comes to the lifeblood of the organization: its cash and cash equivalents. A properly designed internal control system is a key part of systems design, analysis, and performance. Managers and owners place a high priority on internal control systems because they can prevent avoidable losses, help managers plan operations, and monitor organization performance. Internal controls do not provide guarantees; however, they do lower the organization's risk of loss. Receivables Receivables represent amounts of money due from another party. Less common examples of this type of asset account include interest receivable, rent receivable, tax refund receivable, and receivables from employees. The two most common receivable types are accounts receivable and notes receivable. Accounts receivable are monies owed to a business from customers for sales of merchandise on credit. This type of receivable comes about when customers use credit cards issued by third parties and when a business gives credit directly to its customers. When a business does extend credit directly to customers, it will most likely maintain a separate account receivable for each customer, most likely in a subsidiary journal to the main accounts receivable account. The business will also account for bad debts from credit sales. A note receivable is a short-term promise to pay a specific amount of money, with interest, on demand or at a specified future date. These notes are used in transactions such as paying for large amounts of goods or services and lending and borrowing money. A business may sometimes grant customers an overdue account receivable with additional time to pay their account by making them sign such a note receivable. Long-Term Assets When scanning the financial statements of an organization, one cannot help but notice which category of assets on the balance sheet has the largest dollar percentage of the total assets. That distinction would almost always go to long-term assets. For most organizations, these assets are the most productive and are responsible for generating much of the organization's revenues without incurring a substantial portion of its ongoing expenses. Long-term assets can be grouped into plant assets, natural resource assets, and intangible assets. Plant assets, consisting of buildings, land, and equipment, yield depreciation (except for land) that is a large non-cash expense on an organization's income statement. The acquisition or building of a plant asset is often referred to as a capital expenditure. These expenditures are vital to the success of an organization's goals. Natural resource and intangible assets can have a similar impact depending on the type of business the organization generates.

Assignment: Proposal for Implementing Emerging Trends or Technologies Within an OrganizationYou work as an IT analyst at XYZ Corporation, and your manager, Farah Ahmad, has asked you to develop a presentation for a new client on emerging trends and/or technologies that the client organization could integrate into its operations. First, you must research emerging trends or technologies presented in a recent news report, trade magazine, research publication, or other source. Online resources are posted annually outlining the emerging trends and technologies for the current and coming year; make sure you search the Internet for these resources as part of your research. You will also discuss the change management strategies to be used during the adoption process, as well as the strategies for implementation and integration of these technologies into the organization. Note that this PowerPoint presentation will be divided into two parts: analyzing the trends and implementing the trends.(Note: For the purpose of this exercise, the “client company” could be a current or previous employer, Walden University, or any other company or organization with which you are familiar enough to perform your analysis.) Submit your completed presentation, to include the following.Part 1: Analysis of Emerging Trends and Technologies (6–10 slides)Describe the two trends and/or technologies you identified from your research, including an explanation of what characterizes these trends or technologies as emerging. (1–2 slides)Analyze each trend for its application to the selected organization. Specifically:What is the history of the trend, and in what ways has it gained or is gaining popularity? (1 slide)What, if any, other organizations are incorporating this trend? If any, are there any results on its success? (1–2 slides) How could these trends apply to an organization? What is the appeal? (2–3 slides)Include any additional insights on the trends. (1–2 slides)Part 2: Recommendations for Implementation (9–14 slides)Apply each trend. Specifically:What are some strategies and process considerations for implementing change within an organization? Be sure to address any challenges (i.e., organizational culture, reallocation of resources, etc.) that your client must consider upfront when implementing a change management process to incorporate the selected trends/technologies. (2–3 slides)How can these change management challenges be addressed by management within the client organization? (2–3 slides)What are your recommendations for how the organization could implement each trend? (2–3 slides)What are potential issues/risks (i.e., a problem that might arise from the implementation; for example, rejection of a new product by your customer base or unanticipated security risk) to the implementation? (1–2 slides)What are some possible strategies to mitigate these risks? (2–3 slides)Note: In addition to the two parts of this Assignment, you should include a cover slide, a brief introduction to your “client company” (i.e., selected organization), and a References slide that includes properly formatted citations for a minimum of four scholarly sources to support the information you presented. Each content slide should also include detailed speaker’s notes that would be used to make the presentation to the leaders of the client company. Use the Week 3 Assignment Template, provided in this week’s Learning Resources, to complete this Assignment.