Question

Green Products Garden Supply (Stand-Alone PC-Based Accounting System)

Green Products Garden (GPG) Supply sells and distributes a wide range of garden products and equipment including organic fertilizers, premium flower and grass seeds, organic pesticides, and garden spreaders. GPG's headquarters and warehouse is located in Hopewell, Virginia. Their customers are primarily small garden centers and landscape companies in the Mid-Atlantic States. Sales are on credit.

GPG's current information system includes manual procedures supported by independent (non-networked) PCs in each department. Communications between departments is entirely through hard-copy documents. Recently, GPG has been receiving complaints from customers and suppliers about billing, shipping, and payment errors. Management believes that these complaints stem, in part, from their antiquated computer system. You have been hired to assess GPG's procedures and internal controls. The following is a description of GPG's revenue cycle.

Sales Procedures

The revenue cycle begins when a customer places an order with a sales representative by phone or fax. A sales department employee enters the customer order into a standard sales order format using a word processor installed on a PC to produce: three sales order copies, a stock release document, a shipping notice, and a packing slip. The accounting department receives a copy of the sales order, the warehouse receives the stock release and a copy of the sales order, and the shipping department receives a shipping notice and packing slip. The sales clerk files a copy of the sales order in the department.

Upon receipt of the sales order, the accounting department clerk manually prepares an invoice and sends it to the customer. Using data from the sales order, the clerk then enters the sale in the department PC and records the sale in the sales journal and in the AR subsidiary ledger. At the end of the day the clerk prepares a hard-copy sales journal voucher, which is sent to the general ledger department.

Upon receipt of the sales order and stock release the warehouse clerk picks the products and sends them to the shipping department, along with the stock release. The warehouse clerk then updates the inventory records on the warehouse PC and files the sales order in the warehouse. At the end of the day the clerk prepares a hard-copy inventory account summary and sends it to the general ledger department. The shipping department clerk receives a shipping notice and packing slip from the sales department. The clerk files the shipping notice and holds open the packing slip until he receives the stock release and products from the warehouse. Upon receipt of the stock release, the shipping clerk prepares the two copies of a BOL using a word processor. The bills of lading and the packing slip are sent with the product to the carrier. The clerk then files the stock release in the department. The general ledger clerk posts the journal voucher and inventory summary to the general ledger, which is stored on the department PC, and the clerk then files these documents in the general ledger department.

Cash Receipts Procedures

Mail room employees open cash receipts from customers and reconcile the amounts on the checks and remittance advices. The remittance advices are sent to the accounting department, where a clerk records each remittance advice on a remittance list. The remittance list is then sent to the cash receipts department. Using the remittance advices, the accounting clerk updates the customer AR on the department PC and files the advice in the department. At the end of the day the clerk prepares an AR summary on the PC. A hard copy of the summary is sent to the general ledger department.

The mail room clerk sends the checks to the cash receipts department, where a clerk endorses each check with the words "For Deposit Only." Next, the clerk reconciles the checks with the remittance list and records the cash receipts in the cash receipts journal on the department PC. Finally, the clerk prepares a deposit slip and sends it and the checks to the bank.

The general ledger clerk posts the AR summary to general ledger and files it in the general ledger department.

Required:

b.   Create a system flowchart of the existing system.

c.   Analyze the physical internal control weaknesses in the system.

Answer 1

The weakness in the current system are:

• The invoice should be prepared after the delivery of the goods to the customer
• The accounting clerk should check with the bank statement for the amount received
• There should be a record of Cash receipts and cheques collected and BRS has to be prepared daily by the clerk

answer to point 1:

As per the existing system, the process has been defined as under:

Customer places order Sales order prepared by Sales Department and sent to Accounting Department Warehouse Department Prepares invoice Sent stock release to Shipping Department Shipping department on receipt of Stock release, prepare 2 BOL Sales Entry passed in AR Ledger by clerk Sent inventory count Sent Summary to GL Hard Copy JV sent to department