Many "publicly held" companies are required to prepare and file financial statements with the USA Securities and Exchange Commission. The annual report filed with the SEC is known as the 10-K. Such reports are available for download from the SEC website (www.sec.gov). The SEC website has a searchable data base generally found in their web links to "search for company filings."

Form a group of 4 or 5 students. Each member of the group should obtain a recent 10-K for a specific company of choice, and calculate the receivables turnover ratio (you may have to substitute "total sales" for "net credit sales," depending on the amount of available information) and the days outstanding . In addition, find any commentary or information about the company's provision for uncollectible accounts. After each member has gathered information for their specific company, the group should meet and prepare a summary report that "rank orders" the companies based on their respective receivables turnover ratios. Discuss the industry characteristics of each business, and determine if this seems to influence the amount of trade credit and uncollectible accounts.