The Wyetown branch of XZ Ltd has forty administrative staff and more than 200 manufacturing staff. Internal audit staff are visiting each branch in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the debtors’ ledger systems. The following notes have been prepared on the Wyetown system:

(a) There are three clerks in the sales ledger department. The ledger is split alphabetically.

Smith handles the section from A to K, Jones deals with L to N, and Brown with O to Z. There are equal numbers of accounts in each section.

(b) Sales invoices are typed in the accounts department. Each member of the debtors’ ledger staff then records the invoices in a sales day book, one for each section of the ledger. The clerks total the sales day books and inform the nominal ledger clerk of the grand total each month. The sales day books are then used to update the debtors’ ledger.

(c) Most of the incoming mail contains either cheques from customers or, increasingly, queries about the monthly statements prepared by the debtors’ ledger clerks. Smith, Jones and Brown take it in turns to collect the mail from the reception area each month. The person collecting the mail is responsible for opening it and passing any correspondence addressed to other departments to the relevant person.

(d) Cheques received through the post are recorded in the debtors’ ledger. They are kept in a locked cash box until the end of the week when whichever of the debtors’ ledger clerks is least busy takes them to the bank. The cash book and nominal ledger accounts are updated from the bank pay-in slips.

You are required to do the following:

(a) Identify the weaknesses in the above system and suggest how they should be rectified.

(b) Describe the actions to be taken if:
(i) the branch manager agrees to implement the proposed changes, or (ii) he refuses to change the system on the grounds that the staff are long-serving, trusted employees.