You have been recently employed as junior accountant by Olympiad (Pty) limited, a wholesaler of sports shoes. Your first responsibility is to review the acquisition and the payment cycle to identify weaknesses in the cycle. Frank Ndlovu, the financial accountant, has told you that the company has been experiencing problems with overstocking, substandard inventory shortages and possibly, incorrect or invalid payments to creditors. You have obtained the following information: Staffing The buying department is staffed solely by Jack Lang, the company, buyer, who has been with the company for many years. The warehouse manager, Felix Ntwali, has a staff of six warehouse assistants who are responsible collectively for receiving deliveries from suppliers, picking and dispatching sales orders, and generally maintain the warehouse. Ordering Jack Lang is responsible for placing orders with suppliers. In deciding what items and quantities to order, Jack Lang refers to record he keeps of the orders he placed during the previous year. He also places orders with suppliers when they have promotional sales or "specials". Branded sports shoes are purchased from the local importers of the brand (i.e. they are not imported directly by Olympiad (Pty) Ltd itself) whilst Jack Lang decides on where to purchase other footwear. Olympiad (Pty) Ltd does not maintain perpetual inventory records. Jack Lang regularly visits footwear manufacturers to look at their products and is often visited by sales representatives form show companies. Although he is extremely busy, he has consistently declined the offer by management of Olympiad (Pty) Ltd to appoint an order clerk in the buying department. Jack Lang makes out a preprinted two-part (original plus copy) order form for all orders The original order is either sent by post to the supplier, left with a supplier when Jac Lang visits the supplier's sales representatives when they call on Olympiad (Pty) Ltd. The copy remains in the order book. Prices for branded shoes are set by importer, f products from other suppliers, prices are negotiated by Jack Lang. Receiving When goods from suppliers are delivered to Olympiad (Pty) Ltd, any one of the six warehouse assistants will receive the goods, the warehouse assistant checks the numbers of boxes being delivered against the supplier delivery note, signs the delivery note and retains a copy. Where the boxes delivered do not agree with the suppliers' delivery note, the difference is recorded on the delivery note and signed by both the warehouse assistant and the supplier's delivery personnel. The boxes are left in the receiving area until the warehouse assistants have time to move them into the warehouse where the goods are unpacked and stored. This usually occurs a day or two later. Although Olympiad (Pty) Ltd's accounting records are kept on computer, the company does not wish to "computerise" the ordering or receiving functions. The company is prepared to incur reasonable expenditure arising from your recommendations including the cost of employing an order clerk is you make such a recommendation. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO: Recommend improvements to the ordering and receiving functions of the acquisition and payment cycle at Olympiad (Pty) Ltd, based on the information given above. For each recommendation, you are required to provide reasons/justifications for the recommendation. There may be more than one reason/justification for a single recommendation. Note: Structure your answer under the following heading: 1. Ordering function 2. Receiving function