Week 1 Financial Acumen Sarbanes Oxley Act Discussions

Task 1:

Part 1: Financial Acumen

Keeping abreast of the financial measures and metrics employed by a company allows employees to better understand its health and position at any given time. 

1. Review at least three (3) articles on financial acuity. Summarize the articles in 400 – 600 words. Use APA formatting throughout including in-text citations and references.

2. Discuss the benefits of establishing solid financial acumen in a company? Discuss your personal experiences in a situation where financial acumen was either not supported as an organizational hallmark or, conversely, was built into the company’s culture.

Part 2: Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)

Write a 200-word commentary on Sarbanes Oxley and the importance this act has for American businesses today. Your commentary should include the following:

A. Rationale for SOX
B. Provisions of SOX
C. Enforcement of SOX

Also, please respond to one peer post in atleast 150 words (I will be posting a peer post for you to respond)

Task 2:

Research and review  Albertsons Companies, Inc. (ACI) to perform a Company Analysis.  

Research and then describe your company’s primary business activities. 

Include: 

1. A brief historical summary, 

2. A list of competitors, 

3. The company’s position within the industry

Thank you!Here’s the peer post to which you have to respond to in atleast 150 wordsFinancial AcumenIf you work in a power plant, you most likely associate the phrase “training” with classes that focus on technical skills, control room fun, administrative skills, or health and wellness. However, financial acumen is another important topic that may be covered in training. Although these are highly important topics for learning, I suspect that very few people ever consider power plants to be classrooms for learning about how to be financially savvy. It’s possible that the top management of the plant believes that the plant personnel already has a strong comprehension of the financial information sources that are utilized to support dynamic, and also that they believe that monetary preparation is really not necessary because of this belief. It’s possible that the budget doesn’t have enough capacity for this kind of planning and preparation. Or to put it another way. It’s possible that this is because the majority of businesses have a dynamic level of leadership that needs review and support from the treasury, a direction or money, which ensures that appropriate financial expertise will be given to the dynamic process (Garven, Beck & Parson, 2018).Any organization in the serious business of developing, transferring, and conveying power may build up a drawn-out serious advantage by disseminating budgeting knowledge via the positions of its administration. This can be done in order to gain a competitive advantage. In light of recent research, there is a growing interest in human capital on the board, and preparing it, which is a big part of the process, will serve to entice investors. When talking about the nation’s power plants that generate electricity, you are talking about options in which the cash cost for a O&M and capital upgrade is more than the cost in certain other industries. Therefore, a little amount of dynamic error might potentially result in a significant and, furthermore, unfavorable influence on the execution of financial matters (Tabbush, 2018).An accurate cost evaluation is necessary for almost every business option that is being evaluated by a shared solidarity-based group. This is essential for determining costs with the human services partner; a lack of understanding of costs may lead to the CBO’s financial disaster. Communication of expenses as a percentage of volume, rather than on a per-timespan basis, should take place if the goal is to assist the executive in making financially wise decisions. In order to build mutually beneficial business organizations with clinical sector entities like health plans, accountable care organizations, and medical clinics, CBOs need to have business acumen. This includes understanding and using concepts like fixed vs variable costs, breakeven analysis, economies of scale as well as degree, and also the ability to absorb information from networks. Having business discernment is having the foresight and agility to comprehend and effectively manage a given business situation in order to achieve a favorable financial outcome. CBOs are faced with a variety of commercial conditions and options, the majority of which include cost considerations (Ikhsan, Wahid & Mustafa, 2020).Strong financial literacy on the part of both the organization and the individuals working there is very necessary. It is useful for them in determining the current financial position of the company, and it provides insight into just how that may be developed more effectively, which could lead to the expansion of the business. The ability to quickly solve any financial challenges that may develop is a vital characteristic for all personnel in a business to possess. This is because having financial acumen enables them to respond more effectively. Working on projects that have shorter timetables and fewer resources takes a degree of financial awareness that is vital. This is something that I’ve learned the hard way through my own experiences since working on projects with shorter deadlines and fewer resources is challenging. This is due to the fact that the costs that we charge our customers differ from one another based on the kind of project they are working on, the resources that are available to them, and the length of time they have available to work with us. In stressful circumstances, this has always been useful to me and my staff in terms of producing accurate estimates as well as supporting the flow of work.Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)Over the course of the last several years, there has been a substantial amount of change regarding the monetary specifics. In any event, unethical behavior in the workplace is one of the most significant contributors to the demise of some businesses, and it is also one of the most common behaviors. The need to use internal controls in an effort to prevent, recognize, and discourage extortion is one of the most important aspects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Sections 302 & 404 of the act were the primary contributors to the degree to which interior control was affected by the legislation. The duty of a corporation to file budget reports is, to a larger extent, an application of the internal controls in a more practical manner. In this specific area, the administration of an organization is required to construct and maintain internal controls as well as plan for internal controls in order to guarantee that essential data that identifies the guarantor as well as its auxiliaries is communicated to the officials who are in charge of the elements. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s fourth and last responsibility is to enforce the rules it has set. The department that handles the investigations and the enforcement program is called the Department of Enforcement as well as Investigations. The program’s goal might either be to just educate or to compete with one another. This is important to the people of the United States of America and comes with a variety of benefits, including the financial broadcasting of a law being much more accurate, the broadcasting of companies being significantly more developed, and the availability of a method to verify the origin of that data (Ahluwalia et al.,  2018).ReferencesAhluwalia, S., Ferrell, O. C., Ferrell, L., & Rittenburg, T. L. (2018). Sarbanes–oxley section 406 code of ethics for senior financial officers and firm behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(3), 693-705.Garven, S. A., Beck, A. W., & Parsons, L. M. (2018). Are audit-related factors associated with financial reporting quality in nonprofit organizations? Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 37(1), 49-68.Ikhsan, S., Wahid, N. H. A., & Mustafa, N. H. (2020). Leveraging the Entrepreneurship Talents Based on Prophet Muhammad’s Business Acumen: The Case of Akademi Bakat ABS. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 9(1), 252-260.Tabbush, V. (2018). Understanding costs: How cbos can build business acumen for future partnerships. Generations, 42(1), 61-64.Leela