SALES RETURN PROCEDURES
An organization can expect that a certain percentage of its sales will be returned. This occurs for a number of reasons, some of which may be:
• The company shipped the customer the wrong merchandise.
• The goods were defective.
• The product was damaged in shipment.
• The buyer refused delivery because the seller shipped the goods too late or they were delayed in transit.
When a return is necessary, the buyer requests credit for the unwanted products. This involves reversing the previous transaction in the sales order procedure. Using the DFD in Figure 4-7, let’s now review the procedures for approving and processing returned items
Because general ledger accounts are used to prepare financial statements, they contain only summary figures (no supporting detail) and require only summary posting information. Second, this information supports an important independent verification control. The AR summary, which the AR function independently provides, is used to verify the accuracy of the journal vouchers from billing. The AR summary figures should equal the total debits to AR reflected in the journal vouchers for the transaction period. By reconciling these figures, the general ledger function can detect many types of errors. We examine this point more fully in a later section dealing with revenue cycle controls.