What is this?

This is a Windows Forms application that gives partial information from a GAAP-based income statement and asks the user to solve for other related accounts. Information is currently only displayed in a list, but an income statement version may come soon.

This application is based around the Texas UIL Accounting exams which occasionally give a question group asking for contestants to solve for the remaining accounts given partial account information.

Additionally, income statement information is based on a 3-column traditional income statement. This is not to be confused with a horizontal analysis income statement.

Formulas used

Since there are various disagreeing sources on what Cost of Transported Goods (Cost of Delivered Merchandise) actually is, this is a list of what this program uses.

• Cost Of Delivered Merchandise = Purchases + Transportation In
• Net Purchases = Cost Of DeliveredMerchandise - Purchases Returns And Allowances - Purchases Discounts
• Net Sales = Sales - Sales Discounts - Sales Returns And Allowances
• Cost Of Merchandise Available For Sale = Beginning Inventory + Net Purchases
• Cost Of Merchandise Sold = Cost Of Merchandise Available For Sale - Ending Inventory
• Gross Profit = Net Sales - Cost Of Merchandise Sold

How it works

1. The initialization of the variables starts in the InitializeAccounts method, which generates random values for each variable.
2. The program then moves on to initializing the solve state of each account in random order. This is done using the SetSolveStatesAlternative method.
3. SetSolveStates checks the list of substitutes to see if the variable can be set to a needs solving state by using the IsSolvable method for the AccountVal object.
4. IsSolvable returns true if the variable has already been set to a given state or if the variable has a usable substitute using UsableSubstitute.
5. UsableSubstitute checks if the variable's substitutes are solvable using IsSolvableRecursive, which does the same thing as UsableSubstitute but it checks whether the current variable is already in a given state.
6. Thus, the program returns to SetSolveStates using the return value of IsSolvable, and if the variable "is solvable" then the method sets the variable to a needs solving state.

Example account values

Based on the 2018-District UIL Accounting test, the following is an example of the accounts you would be required to solve for:

Cost of delivered merchandise 64,295

Cost of merchandise available for sale 81,112

Gross profit 40,488

Net purchases 58,612

Net sales 96,400

Purchases ?

Purchases discounts ?

Purchases returns and allowances 3,487

Sales 101,810

Sales discounts ?

Sales returns and allowances 3,270

Transportation in 4,288

Terminology

Given state - The value of the variable will be given in the generated question set. A solve state.

Needs solving state - The value of the variable will not be given in the generated question set. The variable will instead be asked for in a question. A solve state.

Solve state - Represented with a boolean; whether a variable will be given [true] (i.e. does not need to be solved for) in the generated question set, or needs to be solved for [false].

Substitute group - A group of variables that can be used to substitute a different, single variable's value. See substitution for system of equations for more information.