1. Weakness - Sarah opens all mail and prepares a list of donations (cash and checks). Sarah could misappropriate anonymous cash donations.
Control - Mail should be opened by both Sarah and the other staff member. The use of lockboxes would also eliminate this problem, but would cost the charity money to implement.
2. Weakness - The donations and donation list are sent to the accountant for recording and to prepare the bank deposit. Therefore, the accountant has custody of the donation and records the donation.
Weakness - Bank reconciliation is performed by the accountant, who also makes the bank deposit.
Control - The donations should be sent to the office manager for deposit and the donation list sent to the accountant for recording. This corrects both weaknesses.
3. Weakness - Each employee has full access (create, read, update, delete) to the accounting system.
Control - Only the accountant and the office manager should have full access to the accounting system.