Ski Slope, Inc. is a manufacturer of equipment used for snow skiing and snow boarding. The company’s products are sold under two brand names, one comprising its top‐of‐the‐line equipment and the other comprising its line of moderately priced equipment and ski attire. Ski Slope’s sole location near Rochester, New York, is home to both its offices and manufacturing facility. Ski Slope’s products are sold worldwide, and current year sales are expected to reach $180 million.

Ski Slope’s conversion process begins in the storekeeping department, where inventories and the related records are maintained. Alex Barton manages the storekeeping function by reviewing the files on a daily basis to determine the inventory needs. He prepares an inventory status report and forwards it to the production planning and control department. Production planning and control is lead by Eli Walters. Every day Eli prepares bills of materials, routing slips, productions orders, and production schedules. Copies of each of these documents are forwarded to the production floor. Eli concurrently determines inventory needs by reviewing the following documents:

• Inventory status reports received from the storekeeping department

• Sales forecasts from the marketing division If additional quantities of materials inventory are needed, Eli prepares a purchase requisition and forwards copies to the storekeeping and purchasing departments. If inventory quantities are adequate, no further action is taken.

Eli Walters also manages the production processes. Production supervisors on each of the company’s six production lines report to Eli. When these supervisors receive production orders and supporting documentation from the production planning and control department, copies of the bill of materials and routing slips are forwarded to Alex Barton. In return, Alex sends the requested materials to the production line. Alex then updates the inventory ledger and sends the bill of materials and routing slips to the cost accounting department. He then prepares a journal voucher for the change in inventories and forwards it to Alex D’Angelo, who is responsible for the general ledger.

At the production lines, the supervisors prepare job tickets to accumulate costs associated with their activities; these tickets are forwarded to cost accounting. They also collect employee time sheets and send them to cost accounting on a weekly basis. The time sheets are prepared in duplicate, and the second copy is sent to the personnel department. In Ski Slope’s cost accounting department, Josh Richardson collects all of the documents to determine the actual costs of the products. Actual costs are compared with standards, and variances are computed. Total variances are used to evaluate managers and supervisors. Next, Josh updates the work‐in‐process and finished goods inventory files; then he prepares a journal voucher and forwards it to Alex D’Angelo.

In the general ledger department, Alex updates the general ledger by entering the journal vouchers into the general ledger computer software program. Journal vouchers are filed by date.

Required:

a. Draw a process map of the conversion processes at Ski Slope.

b. Draw a document flowchart showing the records used in Ski Slope’s conversion processes.

c. List any strengths and weaknesses in Ski Slope’s internal control procedures. For each weakness, suggest an improvement.