For your Accounting System Analysis write-up, refer to your experience(s) (past or current) working for a business, running a business, or a combination of both to analyze. If you do not have any experience you can refer to, you may also interview someone with these experiences. Examples of someone you can interview are a family member, a friend, or a co-worker/colleague.

Listed below are examples of analysis points of Internal Control Policies and Procedures to analyze:

• Accounting system
  • How are Cash Receipts and Accts Rec handled (Sales/Cash Rec)?
  • Procedures around depositing monies
    • Who makes the deposits, etc.?
  • How is Payroll handled?
  • How are Cash Disbursement and Accts Pay handled (Purchases/Cash Disb)?
    • Who authorizes payments, etc.?
  • Procedures around the separation of duties, how source documents are handled, document flow, etc.
  • Other internal control procedures set to safeguard the accounting system and company assets
    
• Financial reporting
  • Who keeps the books?
  • Is the bookkeeper an employee, or is an outside bookkeeper used (outsourced)?
  • Are budgets prepared? Financial statements? How often?
  • Who prepares the annual income tax returns?
  • Who prepares Payroll reporting?
    
• Add any other accounting system or financial reporting experience(s) you may know or want to share.

Important: Much of what you learn by completing the eSUA project will help you understand how to structure your write-up -including the flowcharts used in the project.

Include in your write-up the following (keep the write-up concise):

1. What type of business organization are you writing about; sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, etc?
   
2. What services or products does the business sell (what are they in business for)?
   
3. Include any example of the analysis points listed above. You may create and add analysis points of your own.
   
   
4. Choose one aspect of your chosen business' accounting system (cash receipts, cash disbursements, Payroll, etc.). Using the eSUA project flowcharts as examples, create a flowchart documenting the flow of your real-world accounting system. The flowchart should describe the business, not the perfect theoretical accounting system. Do the best you can with this activity.
   
   
5. Discuss how the accounting system should be done using the classroom (theoretical) models you studied and gained knowledge on in the courses you have completed over the past two years (or more). This part of your write-up should be a compare-and-contrast discussion of the real world vs. the theoretical. Identify the business' accounting system's strengths and weaknesses and the steps to mitigate or minimize the weaknesses.