Question

In: Accounting

REVENUE CASE 4 : The customer billing and collection functions of the ThanksMe Company, a small paint manufacturer, are attended to by a receptionist

The customer billing and collection functions of the ThanksMe Company, a small paint manufacturer, are attended to by a receptionist, an accounts receivable clerk, and a cashier who also serves as a secretary. The company’s paint products are sold to wholesalers and retail stores.

The following describes all the procedures performed by the employees of the ThanksMe Company regarding customer billings and collections:

1. The mail is opened by the receptionist, who gives the customers’ purchase orders to the accounts receivable clerk. Fifteen to twenty orders are received each day. Under instructions to expedite the shipment of orders, the accounts receivable clerk at once prepares a five-copy sales invoice form, which is distributed as follows:

a) Copy 1 is the customer billing copy and is held by the accounts receivable clerk until notice of shipment is received.

b) Copy 2 is the accounts receivable department copy and is held for the ultimate posting of the accounts receivable records.

c) Copies 3 and 4 are sent to the shipping department.

d) Copy 5 is sent to the storeroom as authority for release of the goods to the shipping department.

2. After the paint order has been moved from the storeroom to the shipping department, the shipping department prepares the bill of lading and labels the cartons. Sales Invoice Copy 4 is inserted in the carton as a packing slip. After the trucker has picked up the shipment, the customer’s copy of the bill of lading and Copy 3, on which any undershipments are noted, are returned to the accounts receivable clerk. The company does not back order in the event of undershipments; customers are expected to reorder the merchandise. The company’s copy of the bill of lading is filed by the shipping department.

3. When Copy 3 and the customer’s copy of the bill of lading are received by the accounts receivable clerk, Copies 1 and 2 are completed by numbering them and inserting quantities shipped unit prices, extensions, discounts, and totals. The accounts receivable clerk then mails Copy 1 and the copy of the bill of lading to the customer. Copies 2 and 3 are stapled together.

4. The individual accounts receivable ledger cards are posted by the accounts receivable clerk using a one-write system, whereby the sales register is prepared as a carbon copy of the postings. Postings are made from Copy 2, which is then filed, along with staple-attached Copy 3, in numerical order. Monthly, the general ledger clerk summarizes the sales register for posting to the general ledger accounts.

5. Since the ThanksMe Company is short of cash, the deposit of receipts is also expedited. The receptionist turns over all mail receipts and related correspondence to the accounts receivable clerk, who examines the checks and determines that the accompanying vouchers or correspondence contain enough detail to permit the posting of the accounts. The accounts receivable clerk then endorses the checks and gives them to the cashier, who prepares the daily deposit. No currency is received in the mail, and no paint is sold over the counter at the factory.

6. The accounts receivable clerk uses the vouchers or correspondence that accompanied the checks to post the accounts receivable ledger cards. The one-write system prepares the cash receipts register as a carbon copy of the postings. Monthly, the general ledger clerk summarizes the cash receipts register for posting to the general ledger accounts. The accounts receivable clerk also corresponds with customers about unauthorized deductions for discounts, freight or advertising allowances, returns, and so on and prepares the appropriate credit memos. Disputed items of large amounts are turned over to the sales manager for settlement. Each month the accounts receivable clerk prepares a trial balance of the open accounts receivable and compares the resulting total with the general ledger control account for accounts receivable.

Required:

I) Identify four (4) internal control weaknesses in the ThanksMe Company’s procedures related to customer billings and remittances and the accounting for these transactions.

II) For each weakness, identify one (1) error or irregularity that could result.

III) For each weakness, list one (1) substantive audit procedure for testing the significance of the potential error.

Solutions

Expert Solution

(I)

1. Improper duty segregation

- Accounts receivable clerk is assigned a variety of tasks.

2. The lack of supervision (Monitoring control)

- No double checks from a supervisor before proceeding with the next procedure.

3. Lack of authorization control

- The account receivable clerk controls the unauthorized deduction and no authorization process from individuals beyond accounts receivable department.

4. Non-independence in reconciliation process (Reconciliation)

- Bill of lading is filed by the shipping department. Therefore, the sale invoices and bill of lading are not reconciled independently by someone outside of the shipping department.

 

(II)

1. Goods released by unauthorized individuals

2. Accounting errors would not be detected

3. Error in providing allowances

4. Incorrect shipment to customers

 

(III)

1. The audit team should perform inquiry with employees of the department to understand what they are responsible for

2. The audit team can check the balance of books of accounts

3. The audit team can contact customers to confirm that accounts receivable balances are correct

4. The audit team can trace the customers' invoices to master file for names and amounts


Highlight the weaknesses that comes from the internal control and predict the possible error that could happen from the weaknesses and plan the substantive procedure to overcome it.

Related Solutions

Jonsons is a national paint manufacturer and retailer. The company is segmented into five divisions: Paint...
Jonsons is a national paint manufacturer and retailer. The company is segmented into five divisions: Paint Stores (branded retail locations), Consumer (paint sold through stores such as Walmart, Home Hardware and Rona), Automotive (sales to auto manufacturers), International, and Administration. The following is selected divisional information for the company’s two largest divisions: Paint Stores and Consumer (in thousands of dollars). Division Sales Operating Income Total Assets Current Liabilities Paint Stores $3,920,000 $490,000 $1,400,000 $350,000 Consumer $1,200,000 $180,000 $1,600,000 $600,000 Management...
Building Your Skills Case [LO6-4, LO6-5, LO6-6] Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of...
Building Your Skills Case [LO6-4, LO6-5, LO6-6] Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company has no sales force of its own; rather, it relies completely on independent sales agents to market its products. These agents are paid a sales commission of 15% for all items sold. Barbara Cheney, Pittman’s controller, has just prepared the company’s budgeted income statement for next year as follows: Pittman Company Budgeted Income Statement For the Year Ended December 31...
Bear Paints is a national paint manufacturer and retailer. The company is segmented into five divisions:...
Bear Paints is a national paint manufacturer and retailer. The company is segmented into five divisions: Paint Stores (branded retail locations), Consumer (paint sold through home improvement stores), Automotive (sales to auto manufacturers), International, and Administration. The following is selected divisional information for its two largest divisions: Paint Stores and Consumer. Net Sales Operating Income Average Total Assets Paint Stores $3,690,000.00 $408,000.00 $1,405,000.00 Consumer 1,529,000.00 168,000.00 1,580,000.00 Management has specified a 21% target rate of return. Calculate each division’s ROI....
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Sales Revenue 100,000 100,000 answer? answer? Contribution Margin...
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Sales Revenue 100,000 100,000 answer? answer? Contribution Margin 40,000 answer? 20,000 answer? Fixed cost 20,000 anwser? answer? answer? Net Income answer? 5,000 9,000 answer? Variable Cost Ratio answer? answer? answer? .20 Contribution Margin Ratio answer? answer? .50 answer? Break even point (dollars) answer? answer? answer? 25,000 Margin of safety (dollars) answer? answer? answer? 20,000
Brayton Inc. is a manufacturer of generators. Recently, the company was approached by a new customer...
Brayton Inc. is a manufacturer of generators. Recently, the company was approached by a new customer with a request for a one-time only special. The customer would like to buy 3,000 units of Brayton's generators. Although Brayton can produce 15,000 generators, actual production is 12,000. The following is per unit data for sales to regular customers: Direct materials: $1,275 Direct labor: $75 Variable overhead: $150 Fixed overhead: $120 Total Manufacturing Costs: $1,620 Markup (15%): $243 Estimated selling price: $1,863 Required:...
Smooth Corporation is a small producer of paint. During June, the company produced 10,000 cases of...
Smooth Corporation is a small producer of paint. During June, the company produced 10,000 cases of paint. Each case contains 12 quarts of paint. To achieve this level of production, Smooth purchased and used 34,000 gallons of direct materials at a cost of $43,520. It also incurred average direct labor costs of $14 per hour for the 8,300 hours worked in June by its production personnel. Manufacturing overhead for the month totaled $21,000, of which $4,500 was considered fixed. Smooth’s...
Write a small C++ program with 4 functions (and main(): getNumbers()- what is the return, what...
Write a small C++ program with 4 functions (and main(): getNumbers()- what is the return, what are the parameters? findMax()- what is the return, what are the parameters? findMin()-what is the return, what are the parameters? find()- should return the index of the element or a -1 indicating not found The main function will call those methods and print the results of each. 1 // declare necessary variables 2 // declare array 3 double numbers[SIZE]; 4 // Function prototypes 5...
Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company has no sales...
Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company has no sales force of its own; rather, it relies completely on independent sales agents to market its products. These agents are paid a sales commission of 15% for all items sold. Barbara Cheney, Pittman’s controller, has just prepared the company’s budgeted income statement for next year as follows: Pittman Company Budgeted Income Statement For the Year Ended December 31 Sales $ 22,000,000 Manufacturing expenses: Variable $...
Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company has no sales...
Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company has no sales force of its own; rather, it relies completely on independent sales agents to market its products. These agents are paid a sales commission of 15% for all items sold. Barbara Cheney, Pittman’s controller, has just prepared the company’s budgeted income statement for next year. The statement follows: Pittman Company Budgeted Income Statement For the Year Ended December 31 Sales $ 18,700,000 Manufacturing expenses: Variable...
Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company has no sales...
Pittman Company is a small but growing manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company has no sales force of its own; rather, it relies completely on independent sales agents to market its products. These agents are paid a sales commission of 16% for all items sold. Barbara Cheney, Pittman’s controller, has just prepared the company’s budgeted income statement for next year. The statement follows: Pittman Company Budgeted Income Statement For the Year Ended December 31 Sales $ 16,300,000 Manufacturing expenses: Variable...
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT