It is free to register as a customer, as long as the ABN can be verified. Once registered in the system, all customers are often given 1 month credit on all purchases. Sales managers can have the discretion to extend credit term for customers with the value of more than A$30,000 in annual purchases. During Covid times, to maintain customer loyalty, sales managers can also extend credit term for other customers with a lower value.

Each sales is often initiated by customers asking for a quote from the sales clerks, who prepare the quote in the system and send the quote to the customer via email. The customer accepts the quote and sends back with confirmation or requests for new pricing. In the latter case, further negotiation is often done via phone. If an agreement is reached, the quote is extracted from the system and converted into a sales order, with adjustments as required from the negotiation.

The monthly aging accounts receivable report highlights the top 10 customers with largest arrears. These customers are sent a balance statement and accounts receivable clerks follow up with them via phone to provide reminder and suggestions for payment plans. Sometimes due to busy workload, AR clerks do not have time to follow up with all these customers, resulting in delays in receiving payments. Further, it is sometimes months before they become aware that a customer has gone bankrupt or discontinued business, resulting in large write-offs of debts.

At monthly meeting, the credit manager will review the monthly aging report and decides on the customers who will have their credit sales suspended until their account are cleared. The printed lists of these customers are distributed to the sales department and AR department. On two occasions, sales clerks did not see the list and continued to approve new credit sales for two customers.

Required:

(a)Identify FIVE (5) risks present in the previously listed activities. (1 mark each= 5 marks)

(b)Recommend TWO controls for each of the risks you identified. Explain why the control(s) help mitigate the risks. (3 marks each = 15 marks)

(c)Classify and briefly explain each of the control activities as preventive, detective, or corrective. (1 mark each = 5 marks)