Mail, processing and availability days, each turned into dollars of idle balance, are what GF583's Unit 3 float analysis prices across three collection routes for one distributor. Searches like "gf 583 unit 3 assignment example", "gf583 unit 3 sample" and "gf583 unit 3 example" land here.
What a finished GF583 Unit 3 float analysis looks like
Four pages holding a float table, a comparison of three collection routes and a cost line for each. Clinic checks make up 34 percent of receipts, 809.2 million a year or 2.217 million per calendar day, arriving as roughly 1,651 items each business day at an average of 1,960 dollars. The current route, mailed to headquarters and deposited through remote capture, spends 2.6 days in the mail, 1.2 in processing and 1.0 waiting for the bank to release funds: 4.8 days, or 10.64 million of balance nobody can use. At a 4.05 percent short-term rate that idle money forgoes about 431,000 a year. A single-site bank lockbox cuts the total to 2.7 days, and converting 40 percent of check dollars to electronic payment releases 3.37 million.
How a GF583 Unit 3 example is structured
The analysis opens with a definition and a unit: float measured in days, then in dollars of balance, then in dollars of annual earnings at a stated rate. Each component is sized from the firm's own evidence, with mail time taken from postmark sampling, processing from deposit logs and availability from the funds-availability terms the bank sets. A table lays the three routes side by side. Costs follow, since a lockbox that saves float can still lose money once per-item charges are counted: the bank's 0.21 per item and monthly fee come to 113,100 a year against 62,800 for the in-house process, leaving a net gain of 138,200. A section on electronic conversion sizes its release and notes that it depends on clinics agreeing to change how they pay. Disbursement float gets the last paragraph, with the reason it is not simply the mirror image.
Days measured, then converted
Mail, processing and availability are timed separately and then summed, so the 4.8-day total can be traced to its parts before any rate is applied to it.
One day of float, priced
Each day of check collections holds 2.217 million out of reach. At 4.05 percent that single day is worth about 89,800 a year, the figure every later comparison rests on.
Lockbox fees on the same page
Per-item charges on 1,651 checks a business day, plus a monthly site fee, cost 113,100 a year, 50,300 more than processing in-house. The released 4.66 million earns 188,600, so the net stays positive.
Clinics moved to electronic payment
Shifting 40 percent of check dollars to electronic payment removes mail and processing time on that share, releasing 3.37 million and about 136,500 a year if the clinics agree.
A rate below which the lockbox fails
At a short-term rate under 1.08 percent the lockbox would cost more than it saves. The threshold is stated so the choice can be revisited if rates fall that far.
Where marks go in GF583 Unit 3
Float measured in days and left there is the gap graders in GF583 point to most often, since the unit asks what those days cost. Opportunity rates chosen without a source draw comment, and so does applying a borrowing rate in a period when the firm holds surplus cash. A lockbox recommended on float alone, per-item fees never counted, can reverse the answer the arithmetic would give; here the benefit survives the fees, but the paper has to show that it does. Business days and calendar days mixed in one table produce balances that do not reconcile with annual receipts. Analyses treating collection and disbursement float as equal and opposite miss that a firm can shorten one without lengthening the other. Reporting the break-even rate, 1.08 percent, earns a further line of credit.
Get a GF583 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
Collection volumes, average item size, the delays your Unit 3 case reports and any bank price list it supplies, plus the rubric, feed the analysis. Within 24-48h a custom version prices each day of float at a stated rate and weighs every route against its own fees; a first request is free.
GF583 Unit 3 questions, answered
Which interest rate should price the float?
The rate the released money would actually earn or save. If the firm holds surplus cash, that is its short-term investment yield; if it is borrowing, the line of credit rate is the better measure. State which applies to the period in your case and why. Some analyses show both, which also reveals how sensitive the recommendation is to that choice.
Is float still relevant when so many payments are electronic?
Less than it once was, but rarely zero. Business payments in many industries still include checks, and card settlements and some transfers carry a day or two before funds are released. The same arithmetic applies to those channels. A course question on float usually expects the check case worked in full, with a note on where electronic methods shorten it.
Does disbursement float work the same way in reverse?
Partly. Checks a firm writes take time to clear, and that delay keeps money in its account longer. Deliberately stretching the delay, for example by paying from distant banks, is widely viewed as poor practice and can strain supplier relations. Most analyses treat disbursement float as something to measure and forecast accurately rather than something to engineer.