Courtney Delacey is the assistant chief accountant at BIT Company, a manufacturer of computer chips and cellular

Question:

Courtney Delacey is the assistant chief accountant at BIT Company, a manufacturer of computer chips and cellular phones. The company presently has total sales of $20 million. It is the end of the first quarter and Courtney is hurriedly trying to prepare a general ledger trial balance so that quarterly can be prepared and released to management and the regulatory agencies. The total credits on the trial balance exceed the debits by $1,000.
In order to meet the 4 P.M. deadline, Courtney decides to force the debits and credits into balance by adding the amount of the difference to the Equipment account. She chose Equipment because it is one of the larger account balances; percentage-wise it will be the least misstated. Courtney plugs the difference! She believes that the difference is quite small and will not affect anyone’s decisions. She wishes that she had another few days to find the error but realizes that the are already late.

Instructions
(a) Who are the in this situation?
(b) What ethical issues are involved?
(c) What are Courtney’s alternatives?

Financial Statements
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A person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an organization. Stakeholders can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies. Some examples of key stakeholders are creditors, directors, employees,...