Managerial accounting is more than recording, maintaining, and reporting financial results. Managerial accountants must provide managers with both financial and nonfinancial information including estimates, projections, and forecasts. There are many accounting estimates that management accountants must make, and Research In Motion must notify shareholders of these estimates.

Required
1.  Access and read Research In Motion’s “Use of Estimates” section of the “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” footnote to its financial statements, from Appendix A. What are some of the accounting estimates that Research In Motion made in preparing its financial statements? What are some of the effects if the company’s actual results differ from its estimates?
2.  What is the management accountant’s role in determining those estimates?
Fast Forward
3.  Access Research In Motion’s annual report for a fiscal year ending after February 27, 2010, from either its Website [RIM.com] or the SEC’s EDGAR database [www.sec.gov]. Answer the questions in parts (1) and (2) after reading the current “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies”. Identify any major changes.