CHAPTER 12/THE REVENUE CYCLE
cerned with the sales invoice, credit memo, remittance advice, and write-off notice, since they initiate entries into the accounting cycle.
Most of the above-mentioned hard-copy documents are also likely to be used in firms employing computer-based processing. Documents provide visible and tangible evidence and are necessary for certain users. For instance, sales invoices in hardcopy form are clear evidence to most retail customers and are necessary when customers are not electronically linked to the selling firms.
When computer-based systems are present, however, data from hard-copy forms are often transcribed onto computer-readable media. Certain input documents may be redesigned to aid this purpose. For example, the sales order document in Figure 12-3 has been designed to accord with the data fields in the computerized records and to be a more user-friendly input form. Data-entry clerks can more quickly enter the necessary data elements from the structured boxes, with fewer transcription er-
rors.
Alternatively, transaction data can be entered with the aid of on-line preformat-
ted screens. Figure 12-4 displays the on-line entry of a batch of cash receipts with the aid of a preformatted screen. The underlying data-entry computer program assists in several ways. The date and batch number are entered automatically when the pre-