You are the chief accountant for zm corp., which is located in illinois. in november 2017, that state had the second highest unemployment rate in the midwest: 4.9% (down from 6.1% in january 2015).1 for the past few years, you have noticed that the company's bad debt rate has been about 7% of year-end accounts receivable. that rate of bad debts has severely affected the company's profitability…especially since management has steadily been lowering the standards for granting credit to customers.