| Course | AC116 Accounting II |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 9 |
| Paper type | Seminar reflection |
| Length | About 810 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Accounting |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for AC116 Unit 9
Too Hopeful, Not Wrong: A Unit 9 Seminar Reflection on an Allowance That a Hailstorm Proved Too Small
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
AC116: Accounting II
Unit 9 Seminar Reflection
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Ridgeline Orchard Supply, Inc., its customers and the figures are composite; the accounting changes standard, credit loss standard and textbook cited are real.
What I Believed Going In
My assumption was simple. If Ridgeline's allowance at the end of Year 1 turned out to be too small, then Year 1's bad debt expense was understated and Year 1's net income was overstated. Accounting should tell the truth, so the honest step seemed to be going back, correcting Year 1, and reissuing it.
The Case
The seminar used Ridgeline's receivables. At December 31 of Year 1, the aging schedule required an allowance of $3,497, and that was what the company booked. In July of Year 2, a hailstorm destroyed most of the crop of Upper Valley Growers, a cooperative that was Ridgeline's largest customer, and the cooperative closed in September owing $7,600. Two smaller growers failed with it. Write-offs for Year 2 reached $9,800.
1. Allowance at the start of Year 2: $3,497 credit.
2. Write-offs during Year 2: $9,800.
3. Allowance before the year-end adjustment: $6,303 debit.
4. Required balance from the Year 2 aging: $3,900 credit; adjustment and expense: $10,203.
The adjustment had to cover both this year's required allowance and last year's shortfall, which is why Year 2 bad debt expense of $10,203 is almost three times the Year 1 figure.
The Rule That Changed My Mind
The instructor asked a question I could not answer: on the day Ridgeline issued its Year 1 statements, what did it know about a hailstorm that had not happened yet? Nothing. The Year 1 estimate used the aging, the payment history and the conditions that existed then. It was a reasonable estimate that later events overtook.
That is the difference between an error and a change in estimate. When a company misapplies a principle, miscalculates, or ignores facts it had, the earlier statements are restated. When later events or fresh facts revise a judgment that was sound when made, the revision runs through the current year and the years after it (Financial Accounting Standards Board, 2005). Estimates are expected to change; if every revised estimate required restatement, financial statements would never be final.
I also had to accept that the larger Year 2 expense is not a distortion. It reports what happened in Year 2: Ridgeline learned that its customers carried more risk than it had believed, and it paid for that lesson in the year it learned it. Restating Year 1 would also have rewritten a report that lenders and the owners had already used to make decisions, which would make every earlier figure provisional.
A Classmate's Objection
A classmate pushed back on the instructor. She argued that Ridgeline did know something in Year 1: the cooperative was its largest customer, fruit growers face weather risk every season, and the Year 1 aging gave the cooperative's balance the same 1 percent rate as every other current account. Was that not an error of judgment? For me, the twenty minutes after her question taught more than anything else that evening. The instructor agreed the estimate might have been better if it had weighed the concentration, and said that is exactly the kind of judgment current guidance asks companies to make. But a weaker judgment is still not an error in the accounting sense, provided Ridgeline reached it honestly from what it knew at the time. The remedy is a better estimate next year, not a rewritten Year 1.
That distinction changed how I think about the aging itself. The percentages are not facts about the accounts; they are judgments about them, and the notes should let a reader see how those judgments were made.
What Still Bothers Me
A reader looking only at Year 2 sees a jump in expense and might blame Year 2's credit decisions, when much of it reflects Year 1 sales to a customer that later failed. The seminar's answer was disclosure. Current guidance requires companies to show how the allowance changed during the year, including write-offs and recoveries, and to explain the factors behind their estimates (Financial Accounting Standards Board, 2016).
What I Will Look for Now
When I read a company's notes, I will look for the allowance rollforward and compare write-offs with the opening balance. If write-offs regularly exceed the allowance, the estimates are consistently too hopeful, and that is worth questioning even though no single year is an error. I will also look for concentrations, because Ridgeline's risk was not spread across many growers; about one receivable dollar in eight sat with a single cooperative in a single valley (Franklin et al., 2019).
References
Financial Accounting Standards Board. (2005). Accounting changes and error corrections: A replacement of APB Opinion No. 20 and FASB Statement No. 3 (Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 154). https://www.fasb.org
Financial Accounting Standards Board. (2016). Financial instruments, credit losses (Topic 326): Measurement of credit losses on financial instruments (Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-13). https://www.fasb.org
Franklin, M., Graybeal, P., & Cooper, D. (2019). Principles of accounting, volume 1: Financial accounting. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-financial-accounting
AC116 Unit 9 instructions, in plain terms
The ninth AC116 unit asks for a reflection on the seminar's discussion of an estimate that proved wrong, or on the written alternative. Open with the assumption you held before the session. Summarize the case briefly, with a small table showing the estimate, the actual results and the adjustment that followed. Explain the rule that applies, here how a revised estimate is treated differently from a mistake, and how each reaches the financial statements. Discuss any objection raised in the session and how it was resolved. Say what still concerns you, if anything. Close with what you will look for in real company disclosures. Write in the first person, roughly one and a half to two pages. Cite the relevant standards and textbook in APA 7.
How the AC 116 Unit 9 example is put together
The sample begins with the writer's belief that a wrong estimate meant a wrong prior year. The case section describes Ridgeline's $3,497 allowance, the cooperative's failure and the $9,800 of write-offs, then lists the four figures leading to a $10,203 expense. The highlighted sentence explains why that expense is nearly triple the prior year's. A section reports the instructor's question about what was knowable at year end and states the rule for changes in estimate. A classmate's objection about the cooperative's concentration is discussed and resolved. A section on what still bothers the writer cites the credit loss standard's disclosure requirements, and a final section names two checks for company notes.
Where the points sit in the AC116 Unit 9 rubric
Seminar reflections in AC116 are graded on the clarity of the change in thinking and the accuracy of the accounting rule applied. The opening assumption should be specific. The case figures must be correct and consistent. Explaining the difference between an error and a change in estimate, and how each is reported, is usually the heart of the rubric. Engaging with an objection from the session shows depth. Linking the lesson to disclosures a reader would examine earns interpretation credit. Organization and correct terms count in first person. Accurate standards citations in APA 7 finish the marks.
AC116 Unit 9 help from the desk
Reflections on estimates often describe the case without saying what the writer believed beforehand. Others state the rule but apply it wrongly, calling a revised estimate a restatement. The table is missing or its figures do not tie. Some writers treat the large expense as evidence of poor current management. Objections raised in the session are skipped. The closing lesson stays general, when the rubric wants the specific disclosure, such as an allowance rollforward or a concentration note, that the writer will now read first. If you need the reflection written from your seminar notes or the written alternative, our writers can draft it with the figures and rule laid out.
Get an AC116 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
The seminar's estimate from Unit 9, any figures used in the discussion, and the rubric are enough; where a written assignment replaced the live meeting, its prompt serves instead. It returns within 24-48h. A first custom sample is free, which leaves room to add the parts of the discussion only you heard. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More AC116 papers and BS in Accounting samples
- AC116 Unit 1: Inventory Cost Methods Post
- AC116 Unit 2: Receivables Write-Off and Recovery
- AC116 Unit 3: Aging and Allowance Estimate
- AC116 Unit 4: Inventory Costing Comparison
- AC116 Unit 5: Depreciation Schedule, Three Methods
- AC116 Unit 6: Asset Disposal Problem
- AC116 Unit 7: Payroll Register Exercise
- AC116 Unit 8: Bond Amortization Schedule
- AC116 Unit 10: Cash Flow Statement
- AC114 Unit 9: Seminar Reflection on a Prepayment
- AC112 Unit 9: Cash Budget Schedule
AC116 Unit 9 questions, answered
Can the reflection use an estimate other than the allowance?
Yes, and many do. A useful life that proved too long, a warranty reserve that ran short, or a salvage value the resale market did not support all work the same way: the estimate was reasonable when made, the revision is prospective, and the table shows where the shortfall lands. The allowance appears here because the aging work earlier in many AC116 sections makes its numbers familiar.
Does the reflection need the table if the seminar had no numbers?
Not strictly, but a four-line table showing the allowance before and after the write offs does work that a paragraph struggles to do. It makes the debit balance visible, which is the moment the estimate is seen to be wrong. When the session gave no figures, the sample uses round illustrative ones and labels them as such so nobody mistakes them for the seminar's.
How personal should an accounting reflection be?
Personal about the thinking, not the life story. The first-person part is the assumption held before the session and the change afterward; the rest is accounting reasoning written plainly. A workplace example helps if the writer has seen an estimate revised at work, such as a bad debt reserve raised at quarter end, but it stays anonymous and brief.
Where can I find a free AC116 Unit 9 sample paper?
A complete AC116 Unit 9 seminar reflection is available on this page, following an orchard supplier's allowance that a hailstorm proved too small and explaining why the correction is prospective.
Why is the expense so large in the AC116 Unit 9 sample?
Write-offs of $9,800 left the allowance with a $6,303 debit balance. The year-end adjustment had to cover that shortfall and reach the new required balance of $3,900, a total of $10,203.