Question

Sales $ 79,000 $ 65,000 $ 61,000 $ 57,000 $ 50,000 Cost of goods sold 75,900 50,100 49,800 40,200 30,000 Dollar amounts stated are in thousands. a. Compute trend percentages for the above items taken from the financial statements of Lopez Plumbing over a five-year period. Treat 2017 as the base year. b. State whether the trends are favorable or unfavorable.

Answer 1

This is a two part question and the answer is given in two separate headings.

Step-by-step explanation:

Trend Percentages

Year 2021 2020 2019 2018

Sales* 58% 30% 22% 14%

Cost of Goods Sold** 153% 67% 66% 34%

*Sales is calculated by dividing the difference (between current Sales and Base Sales Year) by the Base Sale Year 2017 * 100. Example for 2018 the percentage is 14% [(57,000 - 50,000) / 50,000 * 100]. The same way other years have been calculated.

**Cost of Goods Sold has been calculated by dividing the difference (between current Cost of Goods Sold and Base Year Cost of Goods Sold) by the Base Year Cost of Goods Sold 2017 * 100. Example for 2018 the percentage is 14% [(40,200 - 30,000) / 30,000 * 100]. The same way other years have been calculated.

Trends Favourable or Unfavourable

It is noted that the trend is unfavourable for the five-year period. This is because the sales have been increasing but in comparison to the Cost of Goods Sold the rise is fairly slow. As shown in the above table where sales have increased by only 58% since its inception. However, the Cost of Goods Sold has increased rapidly and by the last trending year the rise in comparison to the base year 2017 was by 153%.