I just wanted to include some notes to help you when organizing the information from the SEC 10-K to incorporate into your paper. I always think it helps to include an example in order for the student...

I just wanted to include some notes to help you when organizing the information from the SEC 10-K to incorporate into your paper.  I always think it helps to include an example in order for the student to be clear on what is expected.  I hope the following information will help!
Divide your paper into categories by heading.  The following information should be included in your paper:
Brief description of the company:  What do they make?  Where are they headquartered?  In what state are they chartered?  What is their fiscal year (for example December 31 or the last Saturday of the month of January.)  Who is their outside audit firm?  You may want to answer a few questions such as the above in your description.  For example, my company is The Coca Cola Company.  The company is the world’s largest beverage company. They own or license and market more than 500 nonalcoholic beverage
ands, primarily sparkling beverages but also a variety of still beverages such as waters, enhanced waters, juices and juice drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, and energy and sports drinks. They own and market four of the world’s top five nonalcoholic sparkling beverage
ands: Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite.  The company is chartered in Delaware.  Their fiscal year end is December 31.  The company’s independent auditors are Ernst and Young LLP.  The majority of this information can be located in the first few pages of the Sec 10-K and in the notes to the Financial Statements. 
Inventory Methods:  What does their inventory consist of, how do they determine their inventory cost?  Did their inventory increase or decrease from 2010 to 2011.  For example, Coca-Cola inventories consist primarily of raw materials and packaging (which includes ingredients and supplies) and finished goods which includes concentrates and syrups in their concentrate operations, and finished beverages in their finished products operations).  Inventories are valued at the lower of cost or market.  They determine cost on the basis of average cost or first-in, first-out methods.  This information can be located within the financial statements (generally found in section 8 of the SEC 10-K and following the official financial statements you will find the Notes to the Financial Statements. This is the location of details on bad debts and inventory methods. You might want to answer one or two of these questions within your paper as I did in my example.
Accounts Receivable:  What is the accounts receivable balance less any allowances at the end of 2011?  Is any of the company’s accounts receivable derived from international markets?  Coca Cola’s trade accounts receivable balance at the end of 2011 (less allowances of $83 million) is $4,920,000,000.  A significant portion of the net operating revenues and co
esponding accounts receivable is derived from sales of products in international markets.  The accounts receivable balance can be found within the financial statements –balance sheet information (generally found in section 8 of the SEC 10-K).  Additional information pertain to accounts receivable can be found in the Notes to the Financial Statements.  You might want to answer one of these questions or a similar question in your paper. 
Bad Debts/Allowance for Doubtful Accounts/Uncollectible Accounts:  Any information about the company’s estimate for accounting for uncollectible accounts or their actual calculation.  Coca Cola records trade accounts receivable at their net realizable value.  The value includes an appropriate allowance for estimated uncollectible accounts to reflect any loss anticipated on the trade accounts receivable balances and charged to the provision for doubtful accounts.  They calculate this allowance based on their history of write-offs, the level of past-due accounts based on the contractual terms of the receivables, and their relationships with, and the economic status of, their bottling partners and customers.  They believe our exposure to concentrations of credit risk is limited due to the diverse geographic areas by their operations.  This type of information can be found in the Notes to the Financial Statements.  You might want to answer one of these questions or a similar question in your paper. 
Closing comments:  A sentence or two highlighting any point of interest from the 10-K.  For example, Coca Cola notes that health concerns may reduce demand for some of their products.
Your works cited list should include the web address for your SEC 10-K and our textbook. You should only need to refer to the company's Sec 10-K and the text for your information.  However, if you use other resources, they should be cited in text using APA style. We use APA style for in text citations and for the works cited list.  You should only need to refer to the company's Sec 10-K and the text for your information.       
As we continue our discussion postings, most of the information necessary for the paper will be included in the postings.  This should allow you to obtain the information needed for the paper and facilitate your writing of the paper.
This could be a great learning experience!  My intent is to make it as clear and simple as possible.  Hopefully, the paper will not consume a lot of time since you will have all the information you need to complete the paper from the discussion postings.
The paper only needs to be one to two pages. 
Let me know if you have any questions.

As an analyst for a large U.S. multinational corporation, you are assigned to examine a possible acquisition candidate, completing an initial search and review. Your supervisor is a member of the Controller's team. The Controller reports directly to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Your work may be presented to various audiences, so professionalism is essential in all deliverables you create. As you review historical financial statements, you cannot conclude if this company is a good investment.
Report Layout
Write a minimum of a 1 1/2 - 2-page (a full-page typically has at least 300 words) report, single-spaced, one-inch margins, 12-point font, with a double space between paragraphs. This page requirement includes data visualization (charts and graphs) that you create.
Page count does not include a title page, tables and exhibits, and reference list.
Include a title page (include your name on the title page). The report must consist of headings such as Accounts Receivable and Inventory (topics from the textbook); other examples would be Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and the Statement of Shareholders' Equity.
Include a
ief introduction of your company as well as a conclusion/summary at the end. Most of your report should include accounting topics in weeks one through five.
You must include the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Statement of Shareholders' Equity, and Critical Audit Matters in your report.
You are to compare cu
ent and prior year statements and what changed. You can copy directly from the SEC 10-K Report. The statements are not included in the page count.
APA style is required for citations and a reference list. The report must include the reference list.