A school friend who has joined a new company tells you that the company has many controls over cash. He asks you to explain why the following controls exist.

a. Mail opening is carried out by two individuals. They won't allow the cashier or the accounts receivable clerk to open the mail, although they have spare time during the morning.

b. Mail opening is time-consuming because the company requires that all cheques be crossed 'not negotiable' and recorded on a listing of all cheques received.

c. Because the cashier also has free time late in the afternoon, your friend suggested that the cashier receive the bank-validated deposit slips, but the company insisted that the slips be returned to someone else for checking, 

d. The company does have small expenses, so it would be useful to use some of the daily cash receipts to pay them. Instead, they are forced to bank the receipts intact and set up a petty cash system to pay for the small expenses.

e. The cashier takes flexitime every Wednesday afternoon, as he likes to attend the local race meeting. He asked management about not banking on Wednesday, keeping the Wednesday receipts in the safe, then combining them with Thursday's receipts, but the company would not give permission for this.