Recently, while eating lunch with your family at a local cafeteria, you observe a practice that is somewhat unusual. As you reach the end of the cafeteria line, an employee asks how many people are in your party. He then totals the food purchases on the trays for all your family and enters the number of people included in the group. He hands you the receipt and asks you to pay when you finish eating. Near the end of the meal, you decide you want a piece of cake and coffee so you return to the line, select your food and again go through the line. The employee goes through the same procedures, but this time he staples the second receipt to the original and returns it to you.

When you leave the cafeteria, you hand the stapled receipts to the cash register operator who totals the two receipts, takes your money and puts the receipts on a spindle.

REQUIRED

a. What internal controls has the cafeteria instituted for its operations?

b. How can the manager of the cafeteria evaluate the effectiveness of the controls?

c. How do these controls differ from those used by most cafeterias?

d. What are the costs and benefits of the cafeteria's system?