The first main step of the procure-to-pay cycle is ; the most common way this step begins is through the release of a purchase order. a purchase order (po) is simply a document that authorizes a supplier to deliver a product or service and often includes terms and conditions, such as price, delivery, and quality requirements.

Which of the following statements is correct? large corporations are taxed more favorably than sole proprietorships. corporate stockholders are exposed to unlimited liability. due to limited liability, unlimited lives, and ease of ownership transfer, the vast majority of u.s. businesses (in terms of number of businesses) are organized as corporations. most businesses (by number and total dollar sales) are organized as partnerships or proprietorships because it is easier to set up and operate in one of these forms rather than as a corporation. however, if the business gets very large, it becomes advantageous to convert to a corporation, mainly because corporations have important tax advantages over proprietorships and partnerships. most business (measured by dollar sales) is conducted by corporations in spite of large corporations’ often less favorable tax treatment, due to legal considerations related to ownership transfers and limited liability.

Which of the following statements is correct? a. two firms with identical sales and operating costs but with different amounts of debt and tax rates will have different operating incomes by definition. b. free cash flow (fcf) is, essentially, the cash flow that is available for interest and dividends after the company has made the investments in current and fixed assets that are necessary to sustain ongoing operations. c. retained earnings as reported on the balance sheet represent cash and, therefore, are available to distribute to stockholders as dividends or any other required cash payments to creditors and suppliers. d. if a firm is reporting its income in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, then its net income as reported on the income statement should be equal to its free cash flow. e. after-tax operating income is calculated as ebit(1 - t) + depreciation.

Consider the local telephone company, a natural monopoly. the following graph shows the monthly demand curve for phone services and the company’s marginal revenue (mr), marginal cost (mc), and average total cost (atc) curves. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 price (dollars per subscription) quantity (thousands of subscriptions) d mr mc atc 8, 60 suppose that the government has decided not to regulate this industry, and the firm is free to maximize profits, without constraints. complete the first row of the following table. pricing mechanism short run long-run decision quantity price profit (subscriptions) (dollars per subscription) profit maximization marginal-cost pricing average-cost pricing suppose that the government forces the monopolist to set the price equal to marginal cost. complete the second row of the previous table. suppose that the government forces the monopolist to set the price equal to average total cost. complete the third row of the previous table. under average-cost pricing, the government will raise the price of output whenever a firm’s costs increase, and lower the price whenever a firm’s costs decrease. over time, under the average-cost pricing policy, what will the local telephone company most likely do