The following is the description of sales and cash receipts for the Lady’s Fashi
ID: 2564310 • Letter: T
Question
The following is the description of sales and cash receipts for the
Lady’s Fashion Fair, a retail store dealing in expensive women’s clothing. Sales are for
cash or credit, using the store’s own billing rather than credit cards.
Each salesclerk has her own sales book with prenumbered, threecopy, multicolored
sales slips attached, but perforated. Only a central cash register is used. It is operated by
the store supervisor, who has been employed for 10 years by Alice Olson, the store owner.
The cash register is at the store entrance to control theft of clothes.
Salesclerks prepare the sales invoices in triplicate. The original and the second copy
are given to the cashier. The third copy is retained by the salesclerk in the sales book.
When the sale is for cash, the customer pays the salesclerk, who marks all three copies
“paid” and presents the money to the cashier with the invoice copies.
All clothing is put into boxes or packages by the supervisor after comparing the
clothing to the description on the invoice and the price on the sales tag. She also rechecks
the clerk’s calculations. Any corrections are approved by the salesclerk. The clerk changes
her sales book at that time.
A credit sale is approved by the supervisor from an approved credit list after the
salesclerk prepares the threepart invoice. Next, the supervisor enters the sale in her cash
register as a credit or cash sale. The second copy of the invoice, which has been validated
by the cash register, is given to the customer.
At the end of the day, the supervisor recaps the sales and cash and compares the totals
to the cash register tape. The supervisor deposits the cash at the end of each day in the
bank’s deposit box. The cashier’s copies of the invoices are sent to the accounts receivable
clerk along with a summary of the day’s receipts. The bank mails the deposit slip directly
to the accounts receivable clerk.
Each clerk summarizes her sales each day on a daily summary form, which is used in
part to calculate employees’ sales commissions. Marge, the accountant, who is prohibited
from handling cash, receives the supervisor’s summary and the clerk’s daily summary
form. Daily, she puts all sales invoice information into the firm’s computer, which
provides a complete printout of all input and summaries. The accounting summary
includes sales by salesclerk, cash sales, credit sales, and total sales. Marge compares this
output with the supervisor’s and salesclerks’ summaries and reconciles all differences.
The computer updates accounts receivable, inventory, and general ledger master files.
After the update procedure has been run on the computer, Marge’s assistant files all sales
invoices by customer number. A list of the invoice numbers in numerical sequence is
included in the sales printout.
The mail is opened each morning by a secretary in the owner’s office. All correspon
dence and complaints are given to the owner. The secretary prepares a prelist of cash
receipts. He totals the list, prepares a deposit slip, and deposits the cash daily. A copy
of the prelist, the deposit slip, and all remittances returned with the cash receipts are
given to Marge. She uses this list and the remittances to record cash receipts and update
accounts receivable, again by computer. She reconciles the total receipts on the prelist
to the deposit slip and to her printout. At the same time, she compares the deposit slip
received from the bank for cash sales to the cash receipts journal.
A weekly aged trial balance of accounts receivable is automatically generated by the
computer. A separate listing of all unpaid bills over 60 days is also automatically prepared.
These are given to Mrs. Olson, who acts as her own credit collector. She also approves all
writeoffs of uncollectible items and forwards the list to Marge, who writes them off.
Each month Marge mails statements generated by the computer to customers. Com
plaints and disagreements from customers are directed to Mrs. Olson, who resolves
them and informs Marge in writing of any writedowns or misstatements that require
correction.
The computer system also automatically totals the journals and posts the totals to the
general ledger. A general ledger trial balance is printed out, from which Marge prepares
financial statements. Marge also prepares a monthly bank reconciliation and reconciles
the general ledger to the aged accounts receivable trial balance.
Because of the importance of inventory control, Marge prints out the inventory
perpetual totals monthly, on the last day of each month. Salesclerks count all inventory
after store hours on the last day of each month for comparison with the perpetuals. An
inventory shortages report is provided to Mrs. Olson. The perpetuals are adjusted by
Marge after Mrs. Olson has approved the adjustments.
Requirements:
a. Identify the business process of sales (reviving customer order - granting credit, etc)
b. Identify the business cash receipts and apply the deficiencies of control activities
Explanation / Answer
. Business process of Sales (in brief):
1. Sales Order entry:
a. Responding to customer queries.
b. Taking the order and in case of credit sales, checking for the approved credit limit.
2. Credit Approval:
a. Credit sales have been approved by the authorized person.
b. Availability of Customer-wise credit limit at the sales desk. Customer balances to be checked before accepting the sales request.
3. Processing Sales:
a. Pick the stock for dispatch once the item is selected by the customer.
b. Sales clerk to make entry in the order slip & copy of the slip with the amount to pay is given to the customer.
c. Customer pays at the cashier, who collects cash and generates invoice. The invoices should have numerical sequences.
d. Invoice marked as "Paid" is produced at the dispatch section as a proof of payment. Goods are delivered, after verifying the proof of payment.
f. Cashier collects the cash and makes entry in cash book. Daily cash collections are deposited in bank by the cashier.
g. The cash deposit challan is presented to the accountant for accounting and filing.
4. Credit control:
a. Credit sales is monitored for payment. Agewise outstanding is generated and presented to the supervisor.
b. Cheque collections are deposited into bank immediately.
c. Accounts team reconciles the sales and collections and update the Accounts receivable records.
d. Review of uncollected accounts by credit controller. Any write off should be approved by the management.
B. Control deficiencies observed in the firm:
1. Cash register is handled by the supervisor who is employed for more than 10 years. There should be rotation of duties particularly when the cash transactions are handled. No person should be permanently involved in cash dealings.
2. Cash register should not be kept near the entrance, as it is risky. Misappropriation or fraud can take place easily if it is near to the entrance.
3. In cash sale, the payment should be made to the cashier only and not to the Sales clerk. The cashier after collecting the payment, shall note the invoice as “Paid”.
4. There is no division of activities with respect to the cash sales. No one person should be allowed to handle completely the cash transactions. In this case, the Sales clerks receives cash, makes entry in the register and prepares summary for commissions, which is incorrect.
5. Any correction in the invoice should be approved by the accounts team & not by the sales clerk.
6. Sales commission payable on the basis of statement prepared by the sales clerk themselves, which is wrong. They may be tempted to prepare incorrect statements in order to get more commission.
7. The accountant should not reconcile the sales with the summary given by the sales clerks. Instead, it should be reconciled based on the entry in the sales register& the counterfoil of the customer invoices.
8. Sales clerks should not be allowed to count inventories and allowed to make rectification in the perpetual.
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