On January 20, 2014, Jennifer Nelson, the staff accountant for Newby Enterprises, is feeling pressure to complete the preparation of the annual financial statements. The president of the company has said he needs up-to-date financial statements to share with several hankers on January 21 at a dinner meeting that has been called to discuss the possibility of Newby's obtaining loan financing for a special building project. Jennifer knows that she won't be able to gather all the needed information in the next 24 hours to prepare the entire set of adjusting entries that must be posted before the financial statements will accurately portray the company's performance and financial position for the fiscal period just ended December 31, 2013. Jennifer ultimately decides to estimate several expense accruals at the last minute. When deciding on estimates for the expenses Jennifer uses low estimates as she doesn't want to make the financial statements look worse than they possibly are in reality. Jennifer finishes the financial statements before the deadline and gives them to the president without mentioning that several accounts could only be estimated as to their balance on December 31, 2013.
Required
a. List several courses of action that Jennifer could have taken instead of the one on which she ultimately decided.
b. If you had been in Jennifer's situation, what would you have done? Briefly justify your response.