Huron Company manufactures and sells eight major product lines with fifteen to twenty-five items in each product line. All sales are on credit, and orders are received by mail or telephone. Huron has a computer-based system that employs magnetic tape as a file medium.

All sales orders received during regular working hours are typed on Huron's own sales order form immediately. This typed form is the source document for the keypunching of a shipment or back-order card for each item ordered. These cards are employed in the after-hours processing at night to complete all necessary record keeping for the current day and to facilitate the shipment of goods the following day. In summary, an order received one day is to be processed that day and night and shipped the next day.

The daily processing which has to be accomplished at night includes the following activities:

1. Preparing the invoice to be sent to the customer at the time of shipment.

2. Updating accounts receivable file.

3. Updating finished goods inventory.

4. Listing of all items back-ordered and short.

Each month, the sales department would like to have a sales summary and analysis. At the end of each month, the monthly statements should be prepared and mailed to customers. Management also wants an aging of accounts receivable each month.

Required:

a. Identify the master files which Huron should maintain in this system to provide for the daily processing. Indicate the data content which should be included in each file and the order in which each file should be maintained.

b. Prepare a systems flowchart of the daily processing required to update the finished goods inventory records and to produce the necessary inventory reports (assume that the necessary magnetic tape devices are available). Use the annotation symbol to describe or explain any facts which cannot be detailed in the individual symbols.

c. Describe (1) the items that should appear in the monthly sales analysis report(s) the sales department should have and (2) the input data and master files that would have to be maintained to prepare these reports.