This report analyzes the Bell Studio case study on the purchases, cash disbursements, and payroll systems. It includes data flow diagrams, system flowcharts, and identifies internal control weaknesses and associated risks.
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Case Study – Bell Studio report Student’s name Institution Affiliation(s)
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Table of Contents Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................2 Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3 Data flow diagram of purchases and cash disbursements systems...............................................................3 Data flow diagram of payroll system...........................................................................................................6 System flowchart of purchases system........................................................................................................7 System flowchart of cash disbursements system.........................................................................................9 System flowchart of payroll system...........................................................................................................10 Internal control weakness and the associated risks....................................................................................11 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................12 References.................................................................................................................................................13 Table of Figures Figure 1: Data flow diagram of purchases and cash disbursements systems...............................................4 Figure 2: Data flow diagram of payroll system...........................................................................................6 Figure 3: System flowchart of purchases system.........................................................................................7 Figure 4: System flowchart of cash disbursements system..........................................................................9 Figure 5: System flowchart of payroll system...........................................................................................10
Executive Summary Bell Studio Company outsources its various inventories from manufacturers around the world including New Zealand, Japan, China, and Australia. Bell Studio has a centralized accounting system that has networked terminals at each of the company’s different locations. The case study describes Bell Studio’s expenditure cycle procedures. The report analyses the three main departments at Bell Studio organization which are the purchases system, cash disbursement system and the payroll system. The report is prepared from a business analyst point of view.
Introduction The aim of this report is to analyses the Bell Studio case study describing the various transaction cycles, financial reporting, e-commerce, and management reporting systems. The case study has identified three main departments that need describing these departments are the payroll system, cash disbursement system and the purchases system. In addition to describing this three main system, the report will also come up with the data flow diagram and system flowchart diagrams for the mentioned departments. Also, the report will describe the internal control weakness in each of these three systems and the risk associated with the identified weaknesses The report will be structured by having a cover page, an executive summary, an introduction, the conclusion and the main body where these three systems will be described. Also, the table of contents will be given for easier navigation in the report. Data flow diagram of purchases and cash disbursements systems Bell Studio has a centralized accounting system that has networked terminals at each of the company’s different locations. A data processing system is used to take input data, process it and produce output. A starting point for system design work is to establish what data processing is needed. The term data modeling is sometimes used to describe the technique of looking at the system from data handling purposes(Dellisola at al., 2017). One useful way of recording in which data is processed without bothering the equipment is a data flow diagram. In this report data flow diagrams and system, flowcharts are designed to address certain issues and understand the problems and develop transparency within the organization especially in the accounting section of Bell Studio.
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Figure1: Data flow diagram of purchases and cash disbursements systems
Data Flow Diagram represents the network of the system with all the components which might be operated automatically or manually. It gives the idea of the individual components which interfaces with the core component(Trigo, Belfo, & Estébanez, 2014). The main focus of designing Data Flow Diagram is to represent the flow of data between the external entities and the core system and the process involved with the database in managing information and effective flow of data. The data flow diagram for both the purchases and cash disbursements systems shown in figure 1, details the processes involved in the accounting system for the two departments. This will help the management to understand the internal processes involved with the different departments ofBell Studio. This will address the queries of the staffs in need from the purchases and cash disbursements departments immediately due to direct communication of the different departments. The communication between the purchases department, the cash disbursements, and the payroll departments need to be very transparent for efficient transfer of the information regarding various financial transactions, order transactions, invoicing, communications with the suppliers and vendors and various reporting activities among other vital business transactions (Chiu, Liu, Muehlmann, & Baldwin, 2019). Knowing the details of the purchases department and the cash disbursements will be able to send data to the government departments about accounting statistics and publish their various accounts on different media. Also, a smooth flow of information will show how well Bell Studio is observing the set accounting rules and accounting principles(Belfo & Trigo, 2013). The database stores the data about the various accounting related transactions which can be accessed by Bell Studio employee’s at any point of time irrespective of the presence of the organization
heads and the secured data can also show the payroll records and other information which can be accessed in a centralized manner by the management(Olszak & Kisielnicki, 2018). Data flow diagram of payroll system Figure2: Data flow diagram of payroll system The data flow diagram for the payroll department is not different from the data flow diagram that included the purchases and the cash disbursement system(Worrell, Gangi, & Bush,
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2013). The data flow diagram for the payroll system shows the process involved and how the data flows from the payroll clerk when they input the time card data for various employees into the system to when the general ledger department post the payroll register and the disbursement voucher to the general ledger after filing these documents. This data flow diagram shows some disconnect when the payroll clerk sends the prepared cheque to supervisors for signing. The information flow from the payroll clerk to the department supervisor is clearly shown. However, the data flow from the various department supervisors to the other departments is not clear (Trigo, Belfo, & Estébanez, 2016). System flowchart of purchases system Start End Purchasing clerk checks the inventory subsidiary ledger Purchasing clerk selects a vendor from the valid vendor file Purchasing clerk prepares a digital purchase order and prints 2 copies Receiving clerk sends goods to the inventory and shelves them Purchasing clerksends to the vendor, and the other is filed in the purchasing department. Receiving clerk inspect goods and reconciles them against the digital purchase order and the packing slip Receiving clerk updates the inventory subsidiary ledger Receiving clerk sends a copy of the receiving report to the accounts payable department Receiving clerk manually prepares two hard copies of the receiving reports Receiving clerk files the receiving report in the department Accounts payable clerk files the receiving report Accounts payable clerk reconciles the receiving report, the digital purchase order and the supplier’s invoice Accounts payable clerk receives supplier’s invoice Accounts payable clerksends the invoice, receiving report, and the purchase order copy to the cash disbursement department Accounts payable clerk updates , the accounts payable control account Accounts payable clerk the inventory control account in the general ledger Accounts payable clerk updates the digital accounts payable subsidiary ledger Figure3: System flowchart of purchases system
The system flowchart of the purchases department of Bell Studio shows the process that starts when the purchasing clerk checks the inventory subsidiary ledger(Brandas, Megan, & Didraga, 2015). On determining that the inventory has lower than the required amount of goods, the purchasing clerk selects the suitable vendor from the list of vendor file that is readily available in the purchases department. The purchasing clerk then prepares a digital purchase order after which he prints two hard copies for the same. The clerk sends this digital purchase order to the vendor, and the other one is filed for use by the purchasing department. After the preparation and distribution of the digital purchasing order are done, the receiving clerk takes charge and inspect the goods on arrival(Edmonds, Miller, & Savage, 2019). The receiving clerk inspects the goods and reconciles them against both the packing slip and the digital purchase order. The receiving clerk then manually prepares two hard copies of the receiving reports after which he directs the goods to the inventory for shelving. The receiving clerk then updates the inventory subsidiary ledger. The clerk files the receiving report in the department and sends a copy of the receiving report to the accounts payable department(Patasiene, Zaukas, & Patasius, 2015). On arriving at the accounts payable department, the account payable clerk files the receiving report and wait until they can receive the supplier invoice. When the supplier invoice arrives at the accounts payable department the accounts payable clerk reconciles the three document, that is, the receiving report, the digital purchase order, and a supplier invoice. The account payable clerk then updates the digital accounts payable subsidiary ledger, updates the accounts payable control account and inventory control account in the general ledger. The account payable clerk sends an invoice, a receiving report and the digital purchase order copy to the cash disbursement department(Holm, Kumar, & Plenborg, 2016).
The flow of information in the purchases system can expose various points in the system where the various system users like the purchasing clerk and the account payable clerk can be able to manipulate the system without them being noticed. In the case of an error occurring the system would need to have kept the logs that show what time did an update to the system happen and who initiated the update. In case there's no such log information then it is not easy or totally impossible at all to establish who made a mistake in the purchasing department(Peña & Depeña, 2018). System flowchart of cash disbursements system Figure4: System flowchart of cash disbursements system
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In the centralized accounting system for Bell Studio, the cash disbursement department seems to be the smallest department of the three sections that are involved in accounting activities. In this department, the process starts when the cash disbursement clerk receives documents from the account payable department(Lapinskas & Shubentseva, 2014). On receiving these documents, the cash disbursement clerk files the received documents and then prepares a cheque for invoiced accounts. The prepared cheque is sent to the supervisor for signing. The cash disbursement clerk updates the cheque register, the accounts payable subsidiary ledger and the accounts payable control account(Worrell, Wasko, & Johnston, 2013). After this, the data flows back to the receiving clerk in the purchases department who in turn files the invoice, the purchasing order copy, the receiving report and a copy of the cheque. In this system flowchart, the information seems to flow well, and the connection between the different departments can be established. For instance, the cash disbursement department receives inputs which are documents from the account payable department and after working on these documents they are sent to the receiving clerks who are at the purchasing department(Thomas, 2016).
System flowchart of payroll system Figure5: System flowchart of payroll system As explained using the data flow diagrams for the payroll system the system flowchart also depicts the various processes that information flow within the accounting system and in particular the payroll department happens. In the payroll department, the process starts when the payroll clerk inputs time cards and data as received from the various employees. The clerk then prints hard copies of this time card data and posts to digital employee’s record. The payroll clerk
files these time cards in the payroll department after which he sends paycheques to the various supervisors who are responsible for signing these cheques. The clerk sends copies of the payroll register to the accounts payable department(Ghasemi, Shafeiepour, Aslani, & Barvayeh, 2011). On receiving the payroll register, the accounts payable clerk is responsible for reviewing them and then manually preparing a disbursement voucher. The accounts payable clerk sends the payroll register, and disbursement voucher prepared to the general ledger department after which the general ledger department receives the payroll register and post to the general ledger after it is filed for using the department. Internal control weakness and the associated risks The accounting system as a whole contain various internal control weaknesses which are present in all the three departments that make up the accounting section of Bell Studio. This internal control weakness includes having one person who is responsible for a lot of activities and no one to counter check or verify their work. For instance, the payroll clerk after receiving data from the employee's, inputs this data to the system and no one else verifies whether this data is correctly inputted into the system or not(Spånberg & Shahnazarian, 2019). Also in this payroll system when the accounts payable clerk reviews the payroll register, it is not clear what action(s) they take if they receive and reject a payroll register. After receiving the payroll register, the accounts payable directly goes into preparing a manual disbursement voucher. This means that the disbursement voucher could contain errors that are not known to anybody else except the accounts payable clerk(Ponisciakova, Gogolova, & Ivankova, 2015). The risk of having the same person doing a lot of work without verification from another person is that we can end up having many inconsistent data in the same system or having and
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completely different data from the system to the data in the hard copies(McLaren, Appleyard, & Mitchell, 2016). Conclusion In conclusion, the report has analyzed the Bells Studio case study. This analysis has included the use of data flow diagrams for the purchases and cash disbursement departments and a data flow diagram for the payroll department. Also, the report has used a system flowchart for all the three departments. These diagrams have been well explained to identify the various ways in which data flows in and out of the different departments. A description of the internal control weaknesses and the risk associated with these weakness has been given at the end of the report. The use of data flow and system flowchart diagrams to analyses a case study is useful as it can enable every stakeholder in the company to view the various data flows graphically. When this is done, the various stakeholders can use the results of this report to make key decision for the company.
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