FILES. The revenue cycle employs several temporary and permanent files that contribute to the audit trail. The following are typical examples:
• Open sales order file shows the status of customer orders.
• Shipping log specifies orders shipped during the period.
• Credit records file provides customer credit data.
• Sales order pending file contains open orders not yet shipped or billed.
• Back-order file contains customer orders for out-of-stock items.
• Journal voucher file is a compilation of all journal vouchers posted to the general ledger.
Access Controls
Access controls prevent and detect unauthorized and illegal access to the firm’s assets. The physical assets at risk in the revenue cycle are inventories and cash. Limiting access to these items includes:
• Warehouse security, such as fences, alarms, and guards.
• Depositing cash daily in the bank.
• Using a safe or night deposit box for cash.
• Locking cash drawers and safes in the cash receipts department.
Information is also an important asset at risk. Access control over information involves restricting access to documents that control physical assets including source documents, journals, and ledgers. An individual with unrestricted access to records can effectively manipulate the physical assets of the firm. The following are examples of access risks in the revenue cycle:
1. An individual with access to the AR subsidiary ledger could remove his or her account (or someone else’s) from the books. With no record of the account, the firm would not send the customer monthly statements.
2. Access to sales order documents may permit an unauthorized individual to trigger the shipment of a product.
3. An individual with access to both cash and the general ledger cash account could remove cash from the firm and adjust the cash account to cover the act.
Independent Verification
The objective of independent verification is to verify the accuracy and completeness of tasks that other functions in the process perform. To be effective, independent verifications must occur at key points in the process where errors can be detected quickly and corrected. Independent verification controls in the revenue cycle exist at the following points:
1. The shipping function verifies that the goods sent from the warehouse are correct in type and quantity. Before the goods are sent to the customer, the stock release document and the packing slip are reconciled.
2. The billing function reconciles the original sales order with the shipping notice to ensure that custom- ers are billed for only the quantities shipped.
3. Prior to posting to control accounts, the general ledger function reconciles journal vouchers and summary reports prepared independently in different function areas. The billing function summarizes the sales journal, inventory control summarizes changes in the inventory subsidiary ledger, the cash receipts function summarizes the cash receipts journal, and accounts receivable summarizes the
AR subsidiary ledger.
Discrepancies between the numbers supplied by these various sources will signal errors that need to be resolved before posting to the general ledger can take place. For example, the general ledger function would detect a sales transaction that had been entered in the sales journal but not posted to the customer’s account in the AR subsidiary ledger. The journal voucher from billing, summarizing total credit sales, would not equal the total increases posted to the AR subsidiary ledger. The specific customer account causing the out-of-balance condition would not be determinable at this point, but the error would be noted. Finding it may require examining all the transactions processed during the period. Depending on the technology in place, this could be a tedious task.