Fleetfoot Wholesalers is a distributor of several popular lines of sports and leisure shoes. It purchases merchandise from several suppliers and sells to hundreds of retail stores. Here is a partial list of the company’s necessary office routines:
1. Verifying and comparing related purchase documents: purchase orders, purchase invoices, receiving reports, etc.
2. Preparing vouchers for cash disbursements and attaching supporting purchase documents
3. Signing vouchers to authorize payment (after examining vouchers with attached documents)
4. Preparing checks to pay for the purchases
5. Signing checks (after examining voucher authorization and supporting documents)
6. Mailing checks
7. Daily sorting of incoming mail into items that contain money and items that do not
8. Distributing the mail: money to cashier, reports of money received to accounting department, and remainder to various appropriate offices
9. Making daily bank deposits
10. Reconciling monthly bank statements
The company’s chief financial officer has decided that no more than five people will handle all these routines, including himself as necessary.
Prepare a chart to show how these operations could be assigned to the five employees, including the chief financial officer. Use a row for each of the numbered routines and a column for each employee: Financial Officer, A, B, C, D. Place a check mark for each row in one or more of the columns. Observe the rules of the textbook checklist for internal control, especially separation of duties.