Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Analysis: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. exhibits internal control and operational issues in its processes as enumerated below.
- Lack of segregation of duties: The production department supervisor - Inadequacy of authorization: The decision of obtaining or replacing
Toni, is not only tasked to inspect employees clock in with their time fixed assets rest solely on the user department manager. This poses
cards, he is also the one assigned to both review AND distribute the a problem when the fixed assets involved have a relatively high
payroll checks. This leaves the firm extremely vulnerable to ghost value.
employees where authorized people, including Toni, could collude and - Absence of supervision: Fixed assets are widely utilized in the
create a non-existent employee who would still receive wages. operations of the company. The lack of supervision makes the
- Verification: It is a positive practice of the firm that Toni supervises and assets susceptible to misappropriation and theft.
watches the employees when they clock in and out using their time - Lack of segregation of duties: The responsibilities of asset custody
cards. and record keeping being solely assigned to the user department
- Uninvolvement of necessary authority - The AP department authorizes, poses a risk to the company’s internal control system. The lack of
as well as processes, the check for the company’s payroll when a checks and balances in the system heightens the risk of inaccurately
separate department should do so. recording depreciation and its reasonableness.
- Account balance reconciliation and operational efficiency issues: As the - Uninvolvement of necessary authority - The AP department receives
computer systems of the company are yet to be integrated, the company the goods, together with pertinent documents, from the vendor when
runs the risk of payable journal vouchers, cash credits, and general ledger a separate department should do so.
entries not reconciling. Separate manual entries heightens the risk of - Verification: As previously stated, the user department solely
manual error and slows down the processes in general too. manages the maintenance of fixed assets. In this current system,
- Lack of accounting records - The lack of a payroll subsidiary ledger the automatic depreciation charges calculated is not verified for its
account which facilitates capturing employee related information and accuracy. This increases the risk of overstating operating expenses
processing payroll transactions weakens the audit trail for the company. resulting to distorted financials.
Recommendations: To solve persisting issues about the company’s internal control, the group recommends for (1) a reengineering of the payroll and
fixed asset functions as to be described below and in the appended flowcharts, and (2) the usage of an integrated automated system to reduce
operational bottlenecks, risk of manual error caused by manual processes, and to enhance internal control; thereby, reducing the possibility of fraud.
Doing so will allow for departments to only access certain records and controls that are pertinent to their function. Together with a more comprehensive
filing system, a centralized information processing department can provide for a more exhaustive compilation of accounting records that provides for
adequate existence of audit trail, more importantly for the fixed asset system, in which high-value assets are involved. Lastly, it is important to note that
payroll processing will be done through a batch-basis, as what is effective for a company with 250 employees.
- Lack of segregation of duties: Instead of having the - Inadequacy of authorization: Proper authorization should be incorporated in this
department supervisor review and distribute checks, the system and should not be left to the discretion of the user department. Each
company should utilize an independent paymaster, to purchase, above a certain threshold, should be explicitly authorized by a separate
protect the company from ghost employees. fixed asset department. For high-value assets, an independent assessment might
- Verification: While the company ensures proper verification be necessary to evaluate the purchase on a cost-benefit approach and should
with regards to the timing in and out of employees, the subsequently be subject to approval by the higher-ups.
group further recommends an automated biometrics - Operational efficiency issues - To combat the potential bottlenecks that could be
system to be put in place. Since this system essentially caused by a more extensive authorization schemes for purchases of fixed assets,
prevents employees from clocking in for one another the company should allow for routinary fixed asset purchases for assets below a
through the use of unique identification (e.g. fingerprint), certain monetary threshold.
the supervisor can instead, focus on verifying that jobs - Absence of Supervision: To ensure that the company’s assets are used in
worked on by the employees were in fact true, and accordance with the company’s policy, the company must employ sufficient
authorized. supervision to monitor the security of the fixed assets may it be from theft or
- Uninvolvement of necessary authority: Even if preparation misuse.
of paychecks would be a function of the IT department in - Lack of Segregation of Duties: Implementation of a computerized system
this recommendation, it is still necessary that the cash automates the recording of depreciation and additions which removes the
disbursements department be tasked to sign the actual recording function from the user department; thus, separating the recording and
cash disbursement, NOT the accounts payable department. custody of the fixed assets. This also decreases errors that could be made when
- Account balance reconciliation and operational efficiency done manually.
issues: The usage of an integrated automated system - Uninvolvement of necessary authority - The receiving department should be
makes reconciliation of account balances (e.g., credits to responsible for receiving the fixed asset purchased, before transferring to the
AP and to cash subsequently, debits to expenses) easier, appropriate user department.
while simultaneously making the operations of the - Verification: Even with the automation of the charges to the fixed asset account,
company more efficient. This practice can specifically be the company must still appoint an independent appraiser to check the valuation of
seen in the cash disbursement department wherein the assets, and must regularly test the reasonableness of the accounting estimates
reconciliation is a must before funds can be transferred. and parameters put in place.
Centeno | De Dios | Dy | Fernandez | Hung | Tejada, M. - Group 2 BA 121 THY - Calso
APPENDIX