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Chapter 7: Q15E (page 415)

Evaluating internal control over cash payments Gary’s Great Cars purchases high-performance auto parts from a Nebraska vendor. Dave Simon, the accountant for Gary’s, verifies receipt of merchandise and then prepares, signs, and mails the check to the vendor.

Requirements

1. Identify the internal control weakness over cash payments.

2. What could the business do to correct the weakness?

Short Answer

Expert verified

There is a weakness in the assignment of responsibilities.

Step by step solution

01

Step-by-Step Solution Step 1: Definition of internal control over cash payments

Internal control over cash payments means controlling the activities of cash payments.

02

Internal control weakness

The weakness of internal control is that one person is performing all responsibilities. Hence, the main weakness is the assignment of responsibilities.

03

Way to correct the weakness

This weakness is correct by assigning different responsibilities to different persons.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

What are some common controls used with a bank account?

Controlling petty cash Just Hangin’ Night Club maintains an imprest petty cash fund of \(150, which is under the control of Sandra Morgan. At March 31, the fund holds \)14 cash and petty cash tickets for office supplies, \(128, and delivery expense, \)15.

Requirements

1. Explain how an imprest petty cash system works.

2. Journalize the establishment of the petty cash fund on March 1 and the replenishing of the fund on March 31.

3. Prepare a T-account for Petty Cash and post to the account. What is the balance of the Petty Cash account at all times?

Match the accounting terminology to the definitions.

1. Sarbanes-Oxley Act

2. Internal control

3. Encryption

4. Separation of duties

5. Internal auditors

a. Organizational plan and all the related measures adopted by an entity to safeguard assets, encourage employees to follow company policies, promote operational efficiency, and ensure accurate and reliable accounting records.

b. Employees of the business who ensure that the company’s employees are following company policies and meeting legal requirements and that operations are running efficiently.

c. Rearranging plain-text messages by a mathematical process—the primary method of achieving security in e-commerce.

d. Requires companies to review internal control and take responsibility for the accuracy and

completeness of their financial reports.

e. Dividing responsibilities between two or more people.

Understanding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and identifying internal control strengths and weaknesses. The following situations suggest a strength or a weakness in internal control.

a. Top managers delegate all internal control procedures to the accounting department.

b. Accounting department staff (or the bookkeeper) orders merchandise and approves invoices for payment.

c. Cash received over the counter is controlled by the sales clerk, who rings up the sale and places the cash in the register. The sales clerk matches the total recorded by the register to each day’s cash sales.

d. The employee who signs checks need not examine the payment packet because he is confident the amounts are correct.

Requirements

1. Define internalcontrol.

2. The system of internal control must be tested by external auditors. What law or rule requires this testing?

3. Identify each item in the list above as either a strength or a weakness in internal control, and give your reason for each answer.

Correcting internal control weaknesses

Each of the following situations has an internal control weakness.

a. Jade Applications has decided that one way to cut costs in the upcoming year is to

fire the external auditor. The business believes that the internal auditor should be

able to efficiently monitor the company’s internal controls.

b. In an effort to minimize the amount of paperwork, Ross Homes has decided that it

will not keep copies of customer invoices related to sales revenue. Ross believes that

this effort will minimize the amount of data storage the company will have to pay for.

c. Elle Bee, a trusted employee for many years, has never taken a vacation. The owner

believes that he’s lucky that she is so committed to her job.

d. The Medicine Chest Company keeps a small petty cash fund to handle small cash

transactions. Because no one wants to volunteer to be the custodian, the business

manager has decided that all employees should have access to the petty cash. She

figures that as long as each employee fills out a petty cash ticket, then there are

proper controls in place.

e. Due to the cost of maintaining the security cameras, Wings and More has decided

that it will remove the cameras that monitor the cash register.

f. Bryan Miller, manager of Hardware Emporium, prides himself on hiring

exceptionally skilled employees who need no training to do their jobs.

Requirements

1. Identify the missing internal control characteristics in each situation.

2. Identify the possible problem caused by each control weakness.

3. Propose a solution to each internal control problem.
See all solutions

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