Discuss how the current ratio influences Sparkit’s IT department’s decision-making.

Introduction
During your career as an IT manager, you will be asked to conduct analyses to make well-reasoned financial decisions. It is important that you be able to not only complete an analysis but also communicate and provide support for your decisions to a chief executive officer (CEO) and board of directors.

Your financial decisions will need to align with the mission and strategic goals of the company. Your responsibilities will likely include determining the budgets for the IT department, making financial decisions about IT projects and enhancements, and managing the procurement of technology resources.

For this task, you will analyze and interpret two sets of financial statements, which are attached in the Supporting Documents section. This task will require you to answer a series of questions regarding those financial statements.
The skills you showcase in completing this report will be useful in your career when conducting analyses and making financial decisions. This report may also be added to your portfolio to show to future employers.

Note: For the remainder of the task to work properly, follow the directions below.
1. Download “Figure A1.1 Sparkit Financial Statements” as an .xlsx file.
• Enter your 9-digit student ID number in cell B8 and press “Enter.”
• Enter your name in cell B9 and press “Enter.”
• Click save.
• Use this copy of the file to respond to the task prompts.
2. Download “Figure A1.2 Sparkit Balance Sheet” as an .xlsx file.
• Enter your 9-digit student ID number in cell B8 and press “Enter.”
• Enter your name in cell B9 and press “Enter.”
• Click save.
• Use this copy of the file to respond to the task prompts.
Scenario
Sparkit Technologies Corporation is a diversified advanced technology company with headquarters in Houston, Texas, and offices and manufacturing plants throughout the world. Sparkit designs, manufactures, and markets advanced electronics, robotics, subassemblies, engines, and other types of systems for automotive, medical, aerospace, manufacturing, defense, governmental, and other applications.

At the end of the year, Sparkit had 45,000 total employees, an annual revenue of about $60 billion, an annual net income of about $3.8 billion, and an annual IT budget of about $2.4 million. Sparkit is organized in a traditional hierarchical management structure with divisions structured according to function. The IT department is responsible for all IT functions within the firm.
Requirements
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The similarity report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.

You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.

Tasks may not be submitted as cloud links, such as links to Google Docs, Google Slides, OneDrive, etc., unless specified in the task requirements. All other submissions must be file types that are uploaded and submitted as attachments (e.g., .docx, .xlsx, pdf, .ppt).

Note: Refer to the Introduction section for instructions on how to access and download the .xlsx files used in this task. In order for your submission to be evaluated, ensure you have attached both .xlsx files.
A. Attach both completed Figures A1.1 (Income Statement) and A1.2 (Balance Sheet) that you used to respond to the task prompts with the Student ID entered into cell B8 and the Student Name entered into cell B9.

B. Analyze the current ratio measure of liquidity for Sparkit using the attached Figure A1.2 (Balance Sheet) .xlsx file by doing the following:
1. Discuss why it is important for Sparkit’s IT manager to understand the current ratio.
2. Discuss how the current ratio influences Sparkit’s IT department’s decision-making.
3. Provide the current ratio values for Fiscal Year 2 from Figure A1.2 (Balance Sheet), including how you calculated your answer.

C. Analyze the ratio of fixed assets to long-term liabilities measure of solvency for Sparkit using the attached Figure A1.2 (Balance Sheet) .xlsx file by doing the following:
1. Discuss why it is important for Sparkit’s IT manager to understand the ratio of fixed assets to long-term liabilities.
2. Discuss how the ratio of fixed assets to long-term liabilities influences Sparkit’s IT department’s operational sustainability.
3. Provide the ratio of fixed assets to long-term liabilities value for Fiscal Year 2 from Figure A1.2 (Balance Sheet), including how you calculated your answer.

D. Analyze the Return on Equity measure of profitability for Sparkit using the attached Figures A1.1 and A1.2 .xlsx files by doing the following:
1. Discuss why it is important for Sparkit’s IT manager to understand Return on Equity.
2. Discuss how Return on Equity influences Sparkit’s IT department’s productivity.
3. Provide the Return on Equity values for Fiscal Year 2 from Figures A1.1 (Income Statement) and A1.2 (Balance Sheet), including how you calculated your answer.

E. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

F. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.

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