You are an accounts payable manager at Tiptop Sellers, which is a medium size department store. The company is having liquidity issues and needs to free up cash for expansion projects. You have come across the Wall Street Journal article entitled, Delaying Payments to Suppliers Helps Companies Unlock Cash. The article gives you some ideas for increasing liquidity, but you need to do more industry analysis. To help you understand liquidity within the retail sector, your boss creates a dashboard visualization using financial data from largest the five retailers mentioned in the article. The data is sourced from the Reuters website which is publicly available. She asks you to interpret the data and answer the questions below.
 
Click here to view the data in Tableau, and here to view it in Power BI. (The Tableau and Power BI files contain the same data; you can use either to answer the questions in this assignment. Your instructor may specify which program they prefer you to use!)
 
How to Access Tableau: You can open the Tableau file in this problem statement with Tableau Desktop software. If you dont have Tableau Desktop, you can download Tableau Reader, a free program that allows you to open Tableau visualizations. To get it, search for Tableau Reader in your internet browser, or click here.
 
How to Access Power BI: You can open the Power BI file in this problem statement with Power BI Desktop. If you dont have it already, search for Power BI download in your internet browser, or click here for a free download.
1. Which company has the highest current ratio compared to the other companies?
Costco
Walmart
Walgreens
Amazon
2. Which company had a decrease in the acid test ratio from 2018 to 2019?
Walmart
Costco
Walgreens
Amazon
3. Which of the following statement is true?
Companies that had the largest sales revenue had the highest current ratio.
There is no relationship between the amount of sales revenue and the value of the current ratio.
Amazon has acceptable current ratio and acid test ratio values.
Companies that had the lowest sales revenue had the lowest acid test ratio.
4. What can be concluded from the dashboard?
Walmarts Other Current Assets can be used to pay its immediate debts.
The retail sectors share a common quick ratio that can be used as an industry benchmark.
The value of Cash & Equivalents is directly correlated with the companys total revenue.
Walmarts creditors will have concern over Walmarts ability to pay.
You are an accounts payable manager at Tiptop Sellers, which is a medium size department store. The company is having liquidity issues and needs to free up cash for expansion projects. You have come across the Wall Street Journal article entitled, Delaying Payments to Suppliers Helps Companies Unlock Cash. The article gives you some ideas for increasing liquidity, but you need to do more industry analysis. To help you understand liquidity within the retail sector, your boss creates a dashboard visualization using financial data from largest the five retailers mentioned in the article. The data is sourced from the Reuters website which is publicly available. She asks you to interpret the data and answer the questions below.
 
Click here to view the data in Tableau, and here to view it in Power BI. (The Tableau and Power BI files contain the same data; you can use either to answer the questions in this assignment. Your instructor may specify which program they prefer you to use!)
 
How to Access Tableau: You can open the Tableau file in this problem statement with Tableau Desktop software. If you dont have Tableau Desktop, you can download Tableau Reader, a free program that allows you to open Tableau visualizations. To get it, search for Tableau Reader in your internet browser, or click here.
 
How to Access Power BI: You can open the Power BI file in this problem statement with Power BI Desktop. If you dont have it already, search for Power BI download in your internet browser, or click here for a free download.
A. If the average quick ratio was calculated using the values from the dashboard, can it be used as a benchmark for TipTop Sellers? What should be considered when using the average quick ratio as a benchmark?
B. How would you assess the current ratio and the acid test ratio for these five companies? What strategies or tactics can retail companies use to increase their current ratio and acid test ratio?