DURAPLAST Company Ltd., opened its doors in 1979 as a wholesale supplier of plumbing equipment, tools, and parts to hardware stores, home-improvement centers, and professional plumbers in the Accra-Tema Metropolitan area. Over the years they have expanded their operations to serve customers across the nation and now employ over 200 people as technical representatives, buyers, warehouse workers, and sales and office staff. Most recently DURAPLAST has experienced fierce competition from the large online discount stores such as Qualiplast and Interplast. In addition, the company is suffering from operational inefficiencies related to its archaic information system. DURAPLASTs revenue cycle procedures are described in the following paragraphs.

Revenue Cycle

DURAPLASTs sales department consists of 17 full-time and part-time employees. They receive orders via traditional mail, e-mail, telephone, and the occasional walk-in. Because DURAPLAST is a wholesaler, the vast majority of its business is conducted on a credit basis. The process begins in the sales department, where the sales clerk enters the customers order into the centralized computer sales order system. The computer and file server are housed in DURAPLASTs small data processing department. If the customer has done business with DURAPLAST in the past his or her data are already on file. If the customer is a first-time buyer, however, the clerk creates a new record in the customer file. The system then creates a record of the transaction in the open sales order file. When the order is entered, an electronic copy of it is sent to the customers e-mail address as confirmation.

A clerk in the warehouse department periodically reviews the open sales order file from a terminal and prints two copies of a stock release document for each new sale, which he uses to pick the items sold from the shelves. The warehouse clerk sends one copy of the stock release to the sales department and the second copy, along with the goods, to the shipping department.

The warehouse clerk then updates the inventory subsidiary file to reflect the items and quantities shipped. Upon receipt of the stock release document, the sales clerk accesses the open sales order file from a terminal, closes the sales order, and files the stock release document in the sales department. The sales order system automatically posts these transactions to the sales, inventory control, and cost-of-goods sold accounts in the general ledger file.

Upon receipt of the goods and the stock release, the shipping department clerk prepares the goods for shipment to the customer. The clerk prepares three copies of the bill of lading. Two of these go with the goods to the carrier and the third, along with the stock release document, is filed in the shipping department. The billing department clerk reviews the closed sales orders from a terminal and prepares two copies of the sales invoice. One copy is mailed to the customer and the other is filed in the billing department. The clerk then creates a new record in the account receivable subsidiary file. The sales order system automatically updates the account receivable control account in the general ledger file.

DURAPLAST has hired you to review its sales order procedures for internal control compliance and to make recommendations for changes.

You are required to:

a. Analyze the internal control weaknesses in the system. (14 marks); and

b. Prepare a system flowchart of a redesigned computer-based system that resolves the control weaknesses that you identified. Explain your solution. (20 marks)