问题如下：
Brown Corporation had average days of sales outstanding of 19 days in the most recent fiscal year. Brown wants to improve its credit policies and collection practices and decrease its collection period in the next fiscal year to match the industry average of 15 days. Credit sales in the most recent fiscal year were $300 million, and Brown expects credit sales to increase to $390 million in the next fiscal year. To achieve Brown’s goal of decreasing the collection period, the change in the average accounts receivable balance that must occur is closest to:
选项：
A. +$0.41 million.
B. –$0.41 million.
C. –$1.22 million.
解释：
A is correct.
The average accounts receivable balances (actual and desired) must be calculated to determine the desired change. The average accounts receivable balance can be calculated as an average day’s credit sales times the DSO. For the most recent fiscal year, the average accounts receivable balance is $15.62 million [= ($300,000,000/365) × 19]. The desired average accounts receivable balance for the next fiscal
year is $16.03 million (= ($390,000,000/365) × 15). This is an increase of $0.41 million (= 16.03 million – 15.62 million). An alternative approach is to calculate the turnover and divide sales by turnover to determine the average accounts receivable balance. Turnover equals 365 divided by DSO. Turnover is 19.21 (= 365/19) for the most recent fiscal year and is targeted to be 24.33 (= 365/15) for the next fiscal year. The average accounts receivable balances are $15.62 million (= $300,000,000/19.21), and $16.03million (= $390,000,000/24.33). The change is an increase in receivables of $0.41 million.
解析：DSO=365/（sales÷AR），公司DSO是19天，credit sales是300million，可以求出其AR=300million/（365÷19）=15.62million，公司希望下一年的DSO变成15天，预期下一年credit sales是390million，求AR的改变量。那我们算出下一年的AR就自然可以得到其改变量。下一年的AR=390million/（365÷15）=16.03million，AR的改变量=16.03-15.62=0.41million，是增加额，所以选A。credit sales是赊销额，在计算AR turnover的时候一般假设公司的销售额都是赊销，等同于sales。
从原来的15.62变成16.03，不是减少0.41吗？
