...Internal Controls Essay Carole Crews Accounting 1010 section 6 Let’s first talk about what “internal control” means. It is a process that helps to protect the assets of a company whether that asset be money, equipment, or merchandise. What are the objectives of internal controls? • Safeguard assets (accounting) such as cash or merchandise from loss or theft • Compliance (administrative) of laws and regulations • Accomplishment of goals (internal) of sales, profits • Reliability and integrity of data (accounting) • Economics (administrative) The two most important are the accounting controls There are five areas of internal control: • Control environment • Risk Assessment • Control activities • Information and communication • Monitoring A system of internal control relies on the people who implement it. Human error, or purposeful collusion and a failure to recognize changing conditions can all lead to a system failure. Examples of internal controls 1. Separation of duties For any asset or any transaction you should separate the following jobs: Custodian…Those who have actual physical or financial control of the asset or transaction. For example anyone allowed to write checks should not have access to the journal books. People who have access to cash should be specifically designated and their number limited. If they have access to cash, the employee should be bonded. Recordkeeper… The person or persons...
Words: 1287 - Pages: 6
...ACCOUNTING AND INTERNAL CONTROL SYSTEM (ISA 400) Definitions Accounting systems Refers to the systems and procedures that management has put in place to ensure that the company maintains proper books of accounts. The auditor should ascertain the client’s system of recording and processing transactions and assess its adequacy as a basis for the preparation of financial statements. An accounting system provides for the orderly assembly of accounting information and appropriate analysis to facilitate the preparation of financial statements. The management of an organisation requires complete and accurate accounting and other records to assist in: a) Controlling the business b) Safeguarding the assets c) Preparation of the financial statements d) Complying with legislation Internal controls If the auditor wishes to place reliance on any internal controls he should ascertain and evaluate those controls and perform compliance tests on their operation. If the clients system is evaluating as being effective, the auditor can rely on these controls and reduce the level of detailed substantive work. Definition An internal control systems consists of all the policies and procedures (internal controls) adopted by management of an entity to assist in achieving management’s objective of ensuring, as far as practicable the orderly and efficient conduct of its business, including adherence to management policies, safeguarding of assets, the prevention and detection of fraud and...
Words: 3769 - Pages: 16
...Accounting System Controls In accounting systems, certain controls are needed to ensure that employees are doing their jobs properly and ensure that the system runs properly. These checks are in the best interest of the organization. These controls come in the form of internal and external controls for the system. The internal controls are the checks that are placed in the system my the company's own management and directors. Today more and more companies are moving from the manual accounting systems to computerized accounting information systems. The advantages of a computerized system are increases in the speed and accuracy of processing accounting information. However, as systems become computerized, the internal controls for that system has to be adapted accordingly. This is because computerized systems bring with them certain unique problems that can only be removed or minimized by adapting the present controls and adding new controls. These problems are · In a manual system there is a paper trail for the internal auditor to follow. All records and transactions are kept on paper and so an auditor has clear and documented proof of what has transpired. Computerized systems rarely have a clear paper trail to follow. Since computers do all of the sorting of the information the company rarely sorts the source documents. Also the computer does most of the calculations and processing so there would not be the amount of documentation that...
Words: 2198 - Pages: 9
...ACCOUNTING H525: MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING AND CONTROL Winter Quarter 2004 INSTRUCTOR: Professor D. L. Jensen 428 Fisher Hall jensen.7@osu.edu (I check my e-mail several times daily and will respond ASAP) 292-2529 at office (Please leave recorded message; if I'm not in, I'll return your call.) 488-8177 at home (Please leave recorded message; if I'm not in, I'll return your call.) Office Hours: By appointment or chance COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT: Ms. Rama Ramamurthy 640 Fisher Hall ramamurthy.3@osu.edu 292-7397 Office Hours: REQUIRED TEXT MATERIALS: Anthony and Govindarajan. Management Control Systems, Eleventh edition. Homewood: Irwin, Inc., 2004 (abbreviated A&G) Supplementary materials (abbreviated S) are sold in a package by CopEz. Some supplementary items may be distributed in class or made available on the Internet. OPTIONAL MATERIALS FOR REFERENCE: Horngren, Charles T., George Foster, and Srikant M. Datar. Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis. Eleventh edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2003 (or another cost accounting text) Kaplan, Robert S., and Robin Cooper. Cost and Effect: Using Integrated Cost Systems to Drive Profitability and Performance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1998. Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1996. ...
Words: 5076 - Pages: 21
...CONTROL AND AIS (Version 1 – Brief, just for the exam) Overview of Control Concepts * Internal Control - plan of organization and the methods a business uses to safeguard assets, provide accurate and reliable information, promote and improve operational efficiency and encourage adherence to prescribed management procedures. * Management Control - broader than internal control 1. Integral part of management responsibilities. 2. Is designed to reduce errors and irregularities and achieve goals 3. Is personnel oriented and seeks to help employees attain company goals by following policies. * Administrative Controls - help ensure operational efficiency and adherence to managerial policies. * Accounting controls - safeguard assets and ensure the reliability of accounting records. * Internal control structure - policies and procedures established to provide reasonable assurance that the organization's specific objectives will be achieved. 1. Control environment 2. Accounting system 3. Control procedures * Internal control classifications 1. Preventive, detective, corrective 2. Feedback, feedforward 3. General, application 4. Input, processing and output COSO - Committee of Sponsoring Organizations * Internal control - process implemented by management, the BOD, and those under their direction to provide reasonable assurance that control objectives are achieved with regard to: ...
Words: 5228 - Pages: 21
...Introduction to the Theory of Accounting and Control ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Three ideas are central to understanding accounting and control in organizations. First, all organizations are sets of contracts among individuals or groups of indi viduals. Second, provision of shared information among the contracting parties helps design and implement these contracts. Finally, control in organizations is a sustainable balance or equilibrium among the interests of its participants. It should be distinguished from control of organizations, which suggests manipulation or exploitation of some participants by others. We start this overview by stating these ideas briefly, leaving most definitions and details for the following chapters. We conclude with a summary of ideas about micro and macro aspects of accounting and control presented in the book. Organizations as a Set of Contracts Organizations are many things to many people. Business firms, for example, are employers to those who work for them; customers to the purveyors of goods and services; suppliers to their own customers; benefactors to those who receive their charity; investments to those who save; taxpayers to the government; a threat to the livelihood of their competitors; impersonal bureaucracies to the powerless; and pillars of free enterprise to the believers. Organizations are variously seen as com plex networks of human relationships, production functions, hierarchies, even garbage cans....
Words: 3313 - Pages: 14
...Famima!! Internal Control When looking for a quick drink or fast meal, it is sometimes very troublesome to have to drive to a market and wait in potentially long checkout lines. This sparked the idea for a smaller store that only carries the most frequently bought items for the customer’s convenience. Nicknamed convenience stores for very obvious reasons, these little establishments exist all over the world and carry just about any little thing you might need at a very local distance. Inventory differs largely based on location and ownership, but these stores will carry everything from water to groceries and even motor oil. In Japan, most convenience stores are smaller and family owned with many of the locals nicknaming them “family marts.” One lucky owner managed to make enough money to open several stores and created a franchinse named Famima!!, a contraction of the family mart nickname. Through smart investing and marketing, he was able to turn his tiny convenience store into a corporation and business. Today Famima!! has extended its reach into the United States and offers an alternative to the well-known and dominant 7-11’s and Circle K’s. The Famima!! stores currently serve the greater Los Angeles area and one of the stores has even appeared in the 2010 movie Inception by Christopher Nolan. Today I will be meeting with Kevin Chan, the Los Angeles District Manager and interviewing him about the internal control policies Famima!! Co. has in place. Name, Title and number...
Words: 1507 - Pages: 7
...CHAPTER 10 Budgetary Control and Responsibility Accounting ASSIGNMENT CLASSIFICATION TABLE Learning Objectives 1. Describe the concept of budgetary control. Evaluate the usefulness of static budget reports. Explain the development of flexible budgets and the usefulness of flexible budget reports. Describe the concept of responsibility accounting. Indicate the features of responsibility reports for cost centers. Identify the content of responsibility reports for profit centers. Explain the basis and formula used in evaluating performance in investment centers. Explain the difference between ROI and residual income. Questions 1, 2 Brief Exercises Do It! Exercises 1 A Problems B Problems 2. 3, 4, 5 1, 2 1, 2, 8, 10 3A 3B 3. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 3, 4, 5 1, 2 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 1A, 2A, 3A 1B, 2B, 3B 4. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 24 19 6 13 6A 6B 5. 9, 11, 14 6. 20, 21 7 3 15, 16 4A 4B 7. 22, 23, 24 8, 9, 10 4 16, 17, 18, 19 5A 5B *8. 25, 26 11, 12 20, 21 7A 7B *Note: All asterisked Questions, Exercises, and Problems relate to material contained in the appendix to the chapter. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Weygandt, Managerial Accounting, 6/e, Solution Transparencies (For Instructor Use Only) 10-1 ASSIGNMENT CHARACTERISTICS TABLE Problem Number 1A Description Prepare flexible budget and budget report for manufacturing...
Words: 15393 - Pages: 62
...Seventh Edition Accounting for Decision Making and Control Jerold L. Zimmerman University of Rochester To: Conner, Easton, and Jillian ACCOUNTING FOR DECISION MAKING AND CONTROL, SEVENTH EDITION Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Previous editions © 2009, 2006, and 2003. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the United States. This book is printed on acid-free paper. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 DOW/DOW 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 ISBN MHID 978-0-07-813672-6 0-07-813672-5 Vice President & Editor-in-Chief: Brent Gordon Vice President of EDP: Sesha Bolisetty Editorial Director: Stewart Mattson Sponsoring Editor: Dick Hercher Marketing Manager: Sankha Basu Editorial Coordinator: Rebecca Mann Project Manager: Erin Melloy Design Coordinator: Brenda A. Rolwes Cover Designer: Studio Montage, St. Louis, Missouri Production Supervisor: Sue Culbertson Media Project Manager: Balaji Sundararaman Compositor: MPS Limited, A Macmillan Company...
Words: 209552 - Pages: 839
...Managerial Accounting and Organizational Controls Unit 1 Individual Project By Allen Neff For this project I will be using the supplied data below: Suppose we are running a restaurant and have identified certain costs along with the number of annual units sold of 1000. Item: Raw Materials (cost for hamburgers) Total Annual Cost: 650 Item: Building Rent Total Annual Cost: 9000 Raw materials: The raw materials for the hamburgers are a variable cost. Variable costs are a cost that changes in direct proportion to changes in the cost-driver level. (Horngren, Sundem and Stratton, 2005) As the production of hamburgers increases so does the total annual cost of the raw materials. Conversely as the production of hamburgers decreases so does the total annual cost of the raw materials. Building rent: Building rent is a fixed cost. Fixed costs are un-expired assets or expenses whose total does not change in proportion to the activity of a business, within the relevant time period or scale of production. (Fixed Cost) Building rent is a constant cost throughout the year or the life of the contract. This cost does not change with an increase or decrease in production of hamburgers. (2) What is the cost per unit of each? The cost per unit of the material is: 650 (current total annual cost of raw materials) / 1000 (total annual units sold) = $0.65 The cost per unit for rent is: 9000 (total annual...
Words: 436 - Pages: 2
...EURIDIS Research Monograph SCHEMATIC EVALUATION OF INTERNAL ACCOUNTING CONTROL SYSTEMS Kuo-Tay Chen* and Ronald M. Lee# * Department of Management Purdue University at Calumet Hammond, IN 46323 U.S.A. chenk@pucal.bitnet # Erasmus University Research Institute for Decision and Information Systems (EURIDIS) Erasmus University Rotterdam The Netherlands rlee@fac.fbk.eur.nl ERASMUS UNIVERSITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR DECISION AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS Schematic Evaluation of Internal Accounting Control Systems by Kuo-Tay Chen and Ronald M. Lee Monograph No. RM-1992-08-1 (August 11, 1992) EURIDIS Research Monograph Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands © Kuo-Tay Chen and Ronald M. Lee Permission to copy this monograph without fee is granted provided that (1) the copies are not distributed for the direct commercial purpose and (2) this copyright page including the copyright notice, the EURIDIS monograph number, and date appear. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................... 1 1.1 BACKGROUND .......................................... 1 1.2 MOTIVATION ............................................. 3 1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY .......................... 4 1.4 ISSUES OF INTEREST .................................. 6 1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY................................. 7 1.6 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE STUDY .................. 8 CHAPTER 2. DECISION AIDS RESEARCH FOR INTERNAL CONTROL EVALUATION ............................................ 9...
Words: 32893 - Pages: 132
...1. Discuss the role of accounting and accounting information with regard to control and performance evolution of modern organizations. In you discussion you should consider the positive impact and limitations of accounting and accounting information on MCS. The use of accounting information had been started from the traditional cost accounting developments and has undergone many revolutionary attributes such as ROI measure, capital budgeting, agency theory and transaction cost economics. The primary objective of for–profit organizations is to maximize shareholder value. Thus, the results control idea would be to reward each individual employee for doing what s/he does to increase firm value. However, direct measurements of the individual’s contributions to value creation are rarely possible. Therefore, firms have to look for control alternatives. Most firms base their higher managerial level results controls on accounting measures of performance. That is accounting profits and returns and their components. Short-term accounting profit and return measures provide imperfect, surrogate indicators of changes in firm value. Management myopia is an almost inevitable side-effect of the use of financial results control system built on accounting measures of performance. Management myopia can be avoided at top management levels by holding these managers accountable for increasing market valuations. When markets are informed and efficient...
Words: 1047 - Pages: 5
...Name: Professor’s name: Dr. Wright Course: AF 211 Accounting for Planning and Control Managers in making investment decisions are faced with the problem of limited resources. This, therefore, necessitates an understanding of the topic of capital budgeting. Capital budgeting is the process of determining and pursuing investments which cash flows are expected in the future period usually more than a year. It entails the decision on the acquisition of new assets or equipment that is to be utilized by the business to increase its future cash flows and profitability. Managers are, therefore, faced with the challenge of determining which project to invest in order to avert the adverse effect on the financial performance. In making investment decisions, various factors must be considered. Managers have to know that the success of the business entirely depends on how best the investments are analyzed before they are undertaken. First, capital budgeting requires large capital outlay (Dugdale 16). Most of the capital budgeting decisions require a large proportion of business funds. It, thus, implies that failure to make proper investment decisions will lead to losses for the organization. Secondly, investment decisions are irreversible. After deciding on what projects to invest in, managers will lack the ability to reverse their decisions, i.e., equipment once acquired cannot be easily disposed of. The managers must therefore be careful before settling on a particular investment...
Words: 946 - Pages: 4
...Asia-Pacific Development Journal Vol. 8, No. 1, June 2001 ISSUES IN TAX REFORMS Azizul Islam* This paper seeks to describe the principles that have guided recent tax reforms in Asian developing countries. It critically examines the purported rationale underlying these reforms and raises some issues connected with these reforms. The paper first discusses the new direction of the perceived role of taxation as a macroeconomic tool and the principles which have formed the basis of recent tax reforms. It then analyses the implications of the application of these principles for the level and structure of taxes. It concludes with a summary of the key issues raised in the paper. Developing countries implemented an array of major economic reforms during the 1980s and the 1990s. Tax reforms formed an integral part of these reforms. The impetus for tax reforms was provided by a number of domestic and external factors (ADB, 1993). The last two decades were marked by a fundamental reassessment in developing countries of the role of the Government in economic development. There was a discernible shift in favour of assigning a greater role to the private sector, including foreign enterprises. This required re-examination of the structure of tax systems. Faced with declining external assistance, many Governments came under pressure to reduce budgetary deficits in the interest of macroeconomic stability. Multilateral development agencies required deficit reduction as a precondition...
Words: 5101 - Pages: 21
...budgets are used by management to control operations. Focuses on two management control : I. aspect of budgetary control; and II. responsibility accounting Preview of Chapter 10 Budgetary Control and Responsibility Accounting Budgetary Control Budget report Control activities Reporting System Static Budget Reports Examples Uses and limitation Flexible Budgets Why flexible budgets Development Case study Reports Responsibility Accounting Controllable vs noncontrollabe Performance Evaluation Reporting System Types of Responsibility Centers Cost Centers Profit Centers Investment Centers The content and organization chart of Chapter 10 Learning Objectives Describe the concept of budgetary control. Evaluate the usefulness budget reports. of static Explain the development of flexible budgets and the usefulness of flexible budget reports. Describe the concept of responsibility accounting Indicate the features of responsibility reports for cost centers. Identify the content of responsibility reports for profit centers. Explain the basis and formula used in evaluating performance in investment centers Learning Objectives Describe the concept of budgetary control. Evaluate the usefulness budget reports. of static Explain the development of flexible budgets and the usefulness of flexible budget reports. Describe the concept of responsibility accounting Indicate the features of responsibility...
Words: 1571 - Pages: 7