Background Information ABC Co. sells various furniture purchased from manufacturers to retailers across Canada. Purchases When employees from various departments need to purchase something, they fill in a purchase requisition form and send it to their supervisors for approval. Approved purchase requisition forms are sent to the purchasing department. If an approved vendor exists on the approved vendors list, the purchasing clerk will initiate a purchase order to that vendor; otherwise, the purchasing clerk will search for a vendor for goods or services requested. The purchasing clerk runs an inventory report everyday to identify the items that should be purchased based on the reorder point of each inventory item. ABC Co. creates a purchase order for each purchase of inventory items, office supplies, or services. A new purchase order is required for back-order items, so that one receiving report is created for each purchase order and one purchase order only. All the vendors are required to create one invoice for each purchase order after goods are delivered and received in good condition. Accounts Payable The accounts payable clerk prepares checks for payments to various vendors. All payments need to be approved by the Finance Manager before a cheque is prepared. The manager examines the company's financials and decide on whether a vendor's invoice should be paid. Some invoices are paid within their discount periods so that the company can take advantage of the early payment discounts. Some vendors are paid on monthly basis. If an invoice is received from these vendors after the checks are prepared, ABC will hold it until the end of the following month before sending payment. If multiple purchases from the same vendor were made, the accounts payable clerk will combine payments. However, each purchase invoice is either unpaid or paid in full. Once an invoice is paid, the accounts payable clerk stamps the invoice with the check number, the check amount, and the date paid. After the check is prepared and sent out to the vendor, they package all of the source documents and file them. Some cash disbursements involve parties other than vendors (e.g. employee reimbursements). Sales Each type of furniture inventory is given a unique identification number and a suggested selling price. Each sale includes one or more pieces of furniture and can be paid for in one of the following four ways: (1) immediately in cash; (2) on the invoice due date; (3) over the period of six months; (4) at the end of the following month. When a salesperson is hired, he or she is immediately assigned to a group of customers. No more than one salesperson participates in making a particular sale. A salesperson may negotiate with a customer and agree on a selling price that is lower than that furnitures suggested selling price, especially if the customer is a high-volume customer or if that furniture is a slow seller (i.e., it has been in stock for a long time). Salesperson commission rate is determined per contractual arrangement with each salesperson and, for a particular salesperson, it is the same percentage rate no matter what items he or she sells. Salespersons responsibilities include determining whether credit card sales are approved, approving credit sales, and approving sales returns. Cash Receipts Although the vast majority of cash receipts come from customers (any particular cash receipt would be from only one customer) for sales, some cash receipts come from other sources (e.g. interests received from banks). Every cash receipt is processed by exactly one of ABCs several cashiers. At the end of each day, one of the cashiers deposits the cash collected during the day into one of the company's bank accounts. Other Information about furniture, employees, and customers often needs to be entered into the database before any transactions involving them have occurred. Ignore purchase discounts and HST. 1.) Based on your models and your understanding of the business, a) identify at least FOUR threats or vulnerabilities of ABC Co.; b) describe the potential consequences of each identified risk exposure; c) recommend actions to mitigate those risks. A sample answer is given in the table below. Threat or Vulnerability Potential Consequences Recommendations Example The cashier records sales transactions while handling cash The cashier may steal cash from the company and change the record to cover the theft Assign the duties of receiving cash and recording sales to separate employees 2.) Identify at least THREE forms of information technology (e.g. using the bar code technology) and explain how they can be used to improve the business processes in the purchase and revenue cycle of ABC Co. (Use point form). 3.) List at least TWO audit techniques (introduced in this course) that may be used to audit the database program you created, and explain the steps that should be taken to apply those audit techniques to perform the audit. (Use point form)