You work as an accounting intern for a software developer. You have just been asked to review the company$$s accounts receivable $($AR$)$ process to look for areas where efficiency and accuracy might be improved. Your background in bookkeeping and your accounting courses have prepared you well for this task.

As you begin to review the AR process, you immediately recognize a potential weakness in the system. At your previous job, your company had a similar error, which made it possible for one of your coworkers to embezzle money undetected.

Since you have high ethical standards and you know your company managers would like to know about the weakness as soon as possible, you decide to report the problem immediately. You write a memo explaining the problem and recommending immediate action.

Before leaving the office at the end of the day, you email your supervisor and the CEO and attach the memo reporting the problem. By the time you reach home, you have received a text message asking you to come into the office early the next day to meet with the CEO.

In the preceding scenario, what was the communication need?

A potential weakness in the AR process

Your ethical standards

Your background in bookkeeping