TASK
The following are misstatements that have occurred in Fresh Foods
Grocery Store, a retail and wholesale grocery company:
1. On the last day of the year, a truckload of beef was set aside for shipment but was not shipped. Because it was still on hand, the inventory was counted. The shipping document was dated the last day of the year, so it was also included as a current-year sale.
2. The incorrect price was used on sales invoices for billing shipments to customers because the wrong price was entered into the computer master file of prices.
3. A vendor invoice was paid even though no merchandise was ever received. The ac- counts payable software application does not require the input of a valid receiving report number before payment can be made.
4. Employees in the receiving department took sides of beef for their personal use. When a shipment of meat was received, the receiving department filled out a receiving report and forwarded it to the accounting department for the amount of goods actually received. At that time, two sides of beef were put in an employee’s pickup truck rather than in the storage freezer.
5. An accounts payable clerk processed payments to himself by adding a fictitious vendor address to the approved vendor master file.
6. During the physical count of inventory of the retail grocery, one counter wrote down
the wrong description of several products and miscounted the quantity.
7. A salesperson sold an entire carload of lamb at a price below cost because she did not
know the cost of lamb had increased in the past week.
8. A vendor’s invoice was paid twice for the same shipment because the vendor sent a
duplicate copy of the original 2 weeks after the payment was due.
a. For each misstatement, identify one or more types of controls that were absent.
b. For each misstatement, identify the transaction-related audit objectives impacted.
c. For each misstatement, suggest a control that may have prevented or detected the misstatement.
The division of the following duties is meant to provide the best possible controls for the Meridian Paint Company, a small wholesale store:
†1. Approve credit for customers included in the customer credit master file.
†2. Input shipping and billing information to bill customers, record invoices in the sales
journal, and update the accounts receivable master file.
†3. Open the mail and prepare a prelisting of cash receipts.
†4. Enter cash receipts data to prepare the cash receipts journal and update the accounts
receivable master file.
†5. Prepare daily cash deposits.
†6. Deliver daily cash deposits to the bank.
†7. Assemble the payroll time cards and input the data to prepare payroll checks and
update the payroll journal and payroll master files.
†8. Sign payroll checks.
†9. Assemble supporting documents for general and payroll cash disbursements.
†10. Sign general cash disbursement checks.
†11. Input information to prepare checks for signature, record checks in the cash disbursements journal, and update the appropriate master files.
†12. Mail checks to suppliers and deliver checks to employees.
13. Cancel supporting documents to prevent their reuse.
14. Update the general ledger at the end of each month and review all accounts for unexpected balances.
15. Reconcile the accounts receivable master file with the control account and review accounts outstanding more than 90 days.
16. Prepare monthly statements for customers by printing the accounts receivable master file; then mail the statements to customers.
17. Reconcile the monthly statements from vendors with the accounts payable master file.
18. Reconcile the bank account.
You are to divide the accounting-related duties 1 through 18 among Roberta Sanchez,
James Cooper, and Mohini Singh. All of the responsibilities marked with a dagger (†) are
assumed to take about the same amount of time and must be divided equally between
Sanchez and Cooper. Both employees are equally competent. Singh, who is president of
the company, is not willing to perform any of the functions designated by a dagger and
will perform only a maximum of two of the other functions.
