Page 273 - Accounting Information Systems

244 PART II Transaction Cycles and Business Processes

valid vendor file (234) voucher register (223)
vendor’s invoice (241) vouchers payable file (223)
voucher packet (227) vouchers payable system (223)

Review Questions

1. Differentiate between a purchase requisition and a 7. How can a manual purchases cash disbursements
purchase order. system be reengineered to reduce discrepancies,
2. What purpose does a purchasing department be more accurate, and reduce processing costs?
serve? 8. What steps of independent verification does the
3. Distinguish between an accounts payable file and a general ledger department perform?
vouchers payable file. 9. What is (are) the purpose(s) of maintaining a valid
4. What are the three logical steps of the cash dis- vendor file?
bursements system? 10. How do computerized purchasing systems help to
5. What general ledger journal entries does the pur- reduce the risk of purchasing bottlenecks?
chases system trigger? From which departments 11. What is the purpose of the blind copy of a pur-
do these journal entries arise? chase order?
6. What two types of exposures can close supervi- 12. Give one advantage of using a vouchers payable
sion of the receiving department reduce? system.

Discussion Questions

1. What three documents must accompany the pay- input of sales and receipts of inventory? What about
ment of an invoice? Discuss where these three for the procedures the receiving department uses?
documents originate and the resulting control 6. What advantages are achieved in choosing
implications.
a. a basic batch computer system over a manual
2. Are any time lags in recording economic events
system?
typically experienced in cash disbursements sys-
b. a batch system with real-time data input over a
tems? If so, what are they? Discuss the accounting
basic batch system?
profession’s view on this matter as it pertains to fi-
nancial reporting. 7. Discuss the major control implications of batch
systems with real-time data input. What compen-
3. Discuss the importance of supervision controls in
sating procedures are available?
the receiving department and the reasons behind
blind fields on the receiving report, such as quan- 8. Discuss some specific examples in which informa-
tity and price. tion systems can reduce time lags and how the
firm is positively affected by such time lags.
4. Why do the inventory control and general ledger
departments seem to disappear in computer-based 9. You are conducting an end-of-year audit. Assume
purchasing systems (Figure 5-14)? Are these func- that the terms of trade between a buyer and a
tions no longer important enough to have their seller are free on board (FOB) destination. What
own departments? document provides evidence that a liability exists
and may be unrecorded?
5. How does the procedure for determining inventory
requirements differ between a basic batch-process- 10. Describe a three-way match.
ing system and batch processing with real-time data