The owner of Charlene’s Restaurant believes that her food cost is higher than it should be. Charlene thinks that the problem might be in the receiving area and/or the dining area because she says she has good control over food in storage and production. She has asked you to see what you can determine. By observation, you notice that when drivers make deliveries, they obtain a signature from any restaurant employee who happens to be near the receiving dock in the absence of the receiver or storekeeper.

Deliveries are then left at the receiving dock until the goods received can be moved to a storage area. Sometimes invoices are left with food containers; at other times, no documentation is left. It is assumed that suppliers will mail the missing invoices to Charlene’s office.

In the dining area you notice that the servers do not use printed sales checks to record customers’ orders but simply note orders on scratch pads.

They then tell the cooks what they need, and they pick up and deliver food to the customers. When the customers wish to pay, the servers jot down the total amount due on the scratch pad page, present the page to the customer, collect the cash, and put it into a cash drawer. No sales revenue was recorded in the cash register. “Used” scratch pad pages are placed in a box beside the cash drawer.

In both receiving and dining areas, outline the possible problems that current procedures create and suggest to Charlene practices that would probably solve the problems.

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