COMPREHENSIVE EXERCISE: BAER BELLY BIKINIS' SALES TO RETAILERS Baer Belly Bikinis Inc. (BBB) is a small business located in Santa Monica, California. It sells swimwear and related products to specialty stores throughout the United States. It also sells its products to individuals over a company website. Paige Baer founded BBB almost 10 years ago after she graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. She recognized the need for swimsuits sold as separates. Her business has grown rapidly, and now BBB has a large following of customers who want to be able to mix and match to find their ideal swimsuit. Currently, BBB products are carried in more than 1,000 specialty swimwear boutiques and online retailers. During an initial interview with Paige Baer, she outlined BBB's business processes. She acknowledged that she doesn't know much about accounting and information technology. As the business grew, her accounting suffered and information systems page 135 were added piecemeal. So, she is looking forward to an assessment of her requirements and recommendations that would position BBB for substantial further growth. First, Paige described BBB sales to independent boutique retailers. BBB uses a group of independent sales representatives to sell its products to boutique retailers around the country. These sales representatives are not BBB employees. They are paid commissions based on the dollar volume of sales. After working with the sales representatives, individual retailers call BBB to place their order for the upcoming season. BBB will then ship the products when they become available. The retailers are expected to pay for shipments within 30 days. BBB offers a prompt payment discount for payment within 10 days.