Background

Headline news of a series of telephone scams have brought about discomfort toe the public.

The police stations are getting a lot of complaints on scammers and the numbers of reports filed are on the rise. Concerned with the matter currently are the central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, and the Ministry of Finance.

Dahlia is a housewife, aged 35, living in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, with her husband and three young children.Her husband Nik is a management executive in a local petroleum company. During her free time and as a hobby, operating from home, Dahlia sews clothes and takes orders from a nearby tailor, Sandra's Boutique. To date, she sews at least five sets of baju kurung per day and delivers them twice a week. She receives payments though electronic transfer from the boutique. She also buys material online and transfer money for payment for those purchases as well. Besides providing her sewing services to Sandra's Boutique, Dahlia also takes order s from a few customers on a cash-on-delivery system. All in all, she makes at least 10 online banking transactions for her 'business' a week.

Benang Dahlia

Dahlia found that the numbers of orders she receives are increasing and is interested in applying for loans. So far, she sometimes gets help from her two sisters who live in Gombak and Keramat respectively, and she believes that they will be a good resource if she expands her business.

Dahlia sought advice from her niece Aimi, who was studying for a diploma in accounting from a local university college, about keeping simple records for a small business. Aimi suggested that a receipts and payments statement to be kept monthly. Aimi coached Dahlia on basic accounting to record the business transactions. The following information was recorded for Dahlia's business named 'Benang Dahlia'.

BENANG DAHLIA Receipts and payments statement for six months, year ended 31 December 2019 Month July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Receipts (RM'000) 2.1 3.5 2 2.3 3.7 3.5 Payments (RM'000) 1.3 2.1 1.3 1.5 2.1 2.8 Surplus 0.8 1.4 0.7 0.8 1.6 0.7