What does Best Buy’s Form

10-K disclose about its

receivables?

Copyright © 2016 by Dr. Wendy Tietz.

Original blog posting (October 4, 2016) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
 Best Buy Co., Inc.

• Consumer electronics
company
• Fiscal year end of Saturday
nearest the end of January
• Publicly-held, files a Form
10-K with the SEC
• Best Buy’s condensed and
adapted balance sheets follow
on the next slide
 Best Buy Co., Inc.
The notes to the financial statements contain additional information
about the company. To follow is an excerpt from Best Buy’s 2016
Form 10-K related to its receivables.
1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (page 61 of Best
Buy’s 2016 Form 10-K):

Receivables
Receivables consist principally of amounts due from mobile phone
network operators for commissions earned; banks for customer credit card
and debit card transactions; and vendors for various vendor funding
programs.
We establish allowances for uncollectible receivables based on historical
collection trends and write-off history. Our allowances for uncollectible
receivables were $49 million and $59 million at January 30, 2016, and
January 31, 2015, respectively.
Question 1

Why do you think that Best Buy

would select the fiscal year ending that
it did?
Question 2
What types of Best Buy transactions
result in receivables on Best Buy’s
balance sheet? How do you know?
Question 3
Calculate the gross amount of Best
Buy’s receivables balance for each of
the two fiscal years presented in the
balance sheet. How did you calculate
these amounts?
Question Recap
1. Why do you think that Best Buy would select
the fiscal year ending that it did?
2. What types of Best Buy transactions result in
receivables on Best Buy’s balance sheet? How do
you know?
3. Calculate the gross amount of Best Buy’s
receivables balance for each of the two fiscal
years presented in the balance sheet. How did you
calculate these amounts?
For additional news stories to use in the accounting classroom, see the
Accounting in the Headlines blog at http://accountingintheheadlines.com/

Questions or comments? Contact Dr. Wendy Tietz at wtietz@kent.edu

Copyright © 2016 by Dr. Wendy Tietz.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.