Flowchart Narrative Flowchart 1 Group 1 ACC 305 Flowchart 1 is an overview of the Production Cycle.

The Production Cycle is a recurring set of business activities and related data processing operations associated with the manufacture of products. In understanding the flowchart it is best to look at its relationships and interactions with the other cycles. Using a context diagram, the Production Cycle was shown as being linked to the Revenue Cycle by receiving customer orders and sales forecasts from the Revenue Cycle, and sending finished goods to the revenue cycle. It is linked to the Expenditure Cycle by sending purchase requisitions to order raw materials to the Expenditure Cycle, and the Expenditure Cycle then allocates overhead and raw materials costs to the Production Cycle. The Production Cycle is linked to the Human Resource/Payroll Cycle by requesting labor from HRP, which then allocates the labor costs to the Production Cycle. Management receives reports from the Production Cycle, which sends cost of goods produced information to the General Ledger and Reporting System. The overall performance of the Production Cycle can be improved through technology. The entire process should be integrated, using relational databases linked to internal and external sources as part of an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) operation. CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) using robots and on-line terminals can rapidly implement production plans, reducing costs. Data about the costs of production, stored in the work in process file and used in cost accounting, can be integrated with production operations information regarding the physical aspects of the manufacturing operation to give real time information to enable companies to monitor quality and correct defects before they drive up costs. This is a basis for the ABC (Activity Based Accounting) systems. ABC cost systems allocate costs to the activities that create them, such as grinding and polishing, and then subsequently allocate those products to departments or products. An underlying objective of activity based costing is to link costs to corporate strategy. Corporate strategy results in decisions about what goods and services to produce. Activities must be performed to produce these goods and services, which in turn incur costs. Consequently, by measuring the costs of basic activities, such as materials handling or processing purchase orders, ABC provides information to management for evaluating the consequences of strategic decisions. As cost accounting is the basis of decision making in the organization, and detailed, relevant information used in its proper context is the basis of decision making, ABC costing can be a powerful tool.

Flowchart Narrative Flowchart 1 Group 1 ACC 305 The basic activities of the production cycle are product design, planning and scheduling, production operations, and cost accounting. Accountants input is extremely important in the design stage, where comparisons of various components and methods for quality and cost need accounting data and analysis. Similarly, accounting data is gathered at every stage to include in management reports and financial statements. The managerial reports can be wide-ranging, dealing with vendor quality and reliability, worker performance, inventory control, re-work and back-order issues among many others. There are four symbols on the flowchart; documents are represented by a rectangle with an irregular bottom edge, input/output by a parallelogram, computer processing by a rectangle, and data storage by cylinder. The starting point of the flowchart depends on the type of product being produced. If demand is known and regular, the MRP11 (Materials Resource Planning) method would be used, where the purchase order on the upper left corner would be the starting point. This would be the system used for such products as cereal, where you would pre-order materials anticipating demand. If demand is unknown or uncertain, then JIT (Just in Time) would be used. Then the process would start on the right side of the flowchart with the sales order. This would entail working closely with flexible suppliers that could deliver materials quickly as sales orders are received. New apparel fashions, where demand might not be known, are an example. Whatever the starting point, the first step would be to see if there are enough raw materials (upper left hand of flowchart). If there are enough raw materials, then create a raw material inventory status report. If there is not enough, then you would create a purchase order to buy them. The materials are then ordered by requisition through the expenditure cycle, which generates a purchase order that is sent to the vendor. The vendor ships the order, accompanied by a vendor invoice, and it is received by the receiving department, which makes out a receiving report detailing the type, quantity, and quality of goods received. It is compared with the purchase order, and any discrepancies are ironed out with the supplier, such as insufficient quantities, damaged goods, or suspect quality (usually by credit memo). Bar-coding and radio frequency tags can increase efficiency in establishing correct quantities. Signing the receiving report can be done at the receiving station through terminals that have access controls and require an electronic signature. Once it has been decided to accept shipment of the goods, they are then transferred from receiving to inventory, with the goods being entered into the raw materials inventory master file. From the product design activity two documents are created, the bill of materials and the operations list.

Flowchart Narrative Flowchart 1 Group 1 ACC 305 The bill of materials specifies the part number, description, and quantity of each component used in the finished product, the operations list specifies the labor and machine requirements needed to manufacture the product. Materials requisitions, containing the production order number, date of issue, and based on the bill of materials, the parts number and quantities of all necessary raw materials would authorize any subsequent removal of raw materials from the storeroom to the factory location where they will be used. Subsequent transfers of the materials through the factory are documented by move tickets, specifying the parts being transferred, the location to which they are transferred, and the time of transfer. Electronic signature requirements at stations accepting the transfers, with access controls, are a control improvement. The next part of the flowchart details the cost accounting procedures to be followed. It is important to keep in mind the principal objectives of cost accounting, accurate and timely decision making regarding product mix, product pricing, resource allocation and planning, and cost management. On the flowchart, standard cost documents containing budgeted rates for labor/oh and cost of raw materials estimated from previous periods data, forecasts, and managerial creative input, are put in the standard cost file. They are then compared to the actual costs of labor/oh from time cards/labor tickets, and raw materials from the raw materials/inventory files. Appropriate accounts are then debited/credited, updating WIP/inventory files. A cost activity report/cost variance report is then sent to management, detailing the differences in actual/estimated costs. The following phase is work in process. This follows the raw materials processing and cost accounting phases. Activity based costing is used to capture performance cost data by each cost driver. If products have been rushed into production due to favorable sales forecasts, opportunities to standardize component usage with other products can result in lower costs and higher quality and should be forwarded to the design phase. The next phase is finished goods inventory management, where the major considerations are quality control, re-work, controls to ensure the security of the finished goods, and ways to improve the manufacturing process that can be passed on to product design. Prevention costs through increased training and quality control of raw materials, inspection costs associated with testing, internal failure costs associated with re-working defective products, and external failure costs of selling defective products must be examined and weighed against one another. Calculating inventory and cost of goods sold values for the companys financial statements are done at this step by way of the cost of goods sold file and the finished goods inventory status report, which is generated by the batch totals from the finished goods master file. The cost of goods sold file is also updated

Flowchart Narrative Flowchart 1 Group 1 ACC 305 using the batch totals by a double entry, one debiting accounts receivable and crediting sales, the other debiting cost of goods sold and crediting inventory. To ensure accuracy and reliability in recording and posting, edit controls, bar-code scanning, and reconciliation of recorded amounts to physical amounts should be used. Disaster and recovery plans should be formulated, including off site storage of duplicate files.