Assessment item 3
Risks and Controls and Business Intelligence
Length: maximum of 1,800 words
Submission method options: Alternative submission method
Task
Steven and Angela were impressed with the DFD you prepared for City Adventures. They were, however, concerned, with the number of apparent internal control issues within their sales and cash collection process. Steven and Angela has tasked you with reviewing the cash collection processes of the company and researching the potential implementation of Business Intelligence (BI). Steven and Angela have provided you with an overview of the cash collection process based on interviews with key staff (available in Interact).
Using the information provided to you and undertaking research as required, prepare a business report for the owners including the following:
1. Identification of;
· internal control weaknesses in City Adventures cash collection process; (2.5 marks)
· the impact these weaknesses could have on the organisation; (2.5 marks)
· specific internal controls which could be implemented by City Adventures in the coming weeks to mitigate the risks posed by the internal control weaknesses you have identified. The owners do not want theoretical controls suggested. They want practical controls that they can implement. (5 marks) [ Note: all three (3) parts of question one (1) must be included as a table in your report]
2. An overview of BI, including a discussion of digital dashboards. (2 marks)
3. A comprehensive analysis of how BI would impact on;
· management decision making within the organisation. (3 marks)
· the role of the management accounting team within the organisation. (3 marks)
2 Marks will be allocated for the presentation of your work, including you executive summary, conclusion, use of professional language and application of APA referencing.
This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:
· be able to explain the impact of information technology on the nature and development of accounting.
· be able to analyse organisational processes for risk, and design appropriate control mechanisms to mitigate identified risk.
Presentation
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Your assignment needs to be presented as a business report to the owners. A business report includes;
· a cover page addressed to your desired audience;
· an executive summary (refer to the note below regarding an executive summary);
· a table of contents (linked to the headings in the report);
· headings and sub headings clearly identify what is being discussed;
· a conclusion, including recommendations as required; and
· referencing (using APA style).
Note: an Executive Summary is not an introduction. An Executive Summary should be an overview of the entire report, including recommendations, and no longer than one (1) page in length. This may be the only page read by busy managers.
Marks will be deducted where you have exceeded the word count for your Assignment. The word count does not include your:
· cover page;
· executive summary;
· table of contents;
· tables of figures; and
· referencing (in text citations and reference list).
Requirements
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APA must be used to reference all sources you have used for your assignment. The CSU Li
ary site provides an on-line guide to APA style referencing. This is the referencing style adopted by the School of Accounting and Finance. The guide can be found at: https:
apps.csu.edu.au
eftool
Review the rules regarding plagiarism and if you are not sure contact your lecturer or student learning skills advisor for advice. There is no excuse for presenting the work of others as your own; this includes cutting and pasting material from the web without properly referencing the source.
Your assignment must be submitted via Turnitin in word format only (not in pdf). As a CSU student you are entitled to a free copy of Microsoft Office 2013 Suite. Details to find out further information can be found below under 'Online Submission'.
Any difficulties in submitting your assignments online electronically using Turnitin should be immediately reported by email. Include your name and student number in the header or footer of all documents submitted. Retain a copy of your assignment for your records.
Answer for Question 01 from the text book ( should be connect with the case study)
PowerPoint Presentation
Company Background
City Adventures has grown s igni f icant ly in the last 2 years and now
has a turnover of $2.2m per annum. The main responsibility for the company’s
accounting and financial reporting is in the hands of the company’s Finance
Director, Celeste. Celeste and the Head of Operations report directly to the
Owners of City Adventure.
Owners
Organisation Chart
Note not all position are shown
Finance
Director
Head of
Operations
Accounts
Receivable
Manage
Head of Sales Financial
Accountant
AR Specialist
x3
Master Data
Specialist x2
Sales
Managers x5
General
Accounting
Team x 5
Over the past two years the company has undergone significant growth
esulting in major changes within the company’s operating environment with
turnover of some key personnel. As a result of the c h a n g e s , several
employees were assigned new tasks, which in some cases, has led to blu
ed
esponsibilities over some sub-processes. City Adventures have some
unsubstantiated concerns regarding fraudulent behavior in the company’s
accounting department in recent months.
2
Considering the concerns regard ing fraud, recent organizational changes
and the evolving operating environment, City Adventures is interested in
evaluating the risks and the cu
ent state of internal controls in its revenue
process.
Modified
Organisation Chart
Owners
Steven and Angela
Finance
Director
Celeste
Head of Operations
Accounts
Receivable
Manager
May
Head of
Sales
Michael
AR Specialists Master Data
Specialists
Sales Manager -
George
+ 4 others
Interview with several of these staff are included below.
3
Finance Director - Celeste
Celeste joined City Adventures in June last
year. She has three direct reports, including
you the Financial Accountant. She has
overall responsibility for the Sales and
Finance functions of City Adventures and
works closely with the Head of Operations
to ensure that strategic goals of City
Adventures are realised.
4
Back to Organisation Chart
Master Data Specialists
The Master Data Team consists of 2 master data specialists, James and Alison.
Their responsibilities include setting up new customers into company’s operative
systems and making changes to the existing master data. Alison provided the
following overview of customer master maintenance at City Adventures.
“The basic customer data is derived from the sales contracts (Business ID, payment
method, address, contacts etc.) and entered into the billing system as a new
customer profile. After this, a pricing template is created (if the customer prices
differ from the standard price list) and linked to the customer profile. Creation of
the price template is probably the riskiest phase of the customer data set-up since
a lot of detailed data is manually entered into the system. Also, the system view is
pretty “heavy”, making it easy to accidentally misplace data.”
“At present, the data is not reviewed after the initial input unless a specific reason
occurs… Going through all the data would probably be i
ational in terms of cost –
enefit ratio.” Inquiries were also made about the responsibilities and
documentation of the customer set-up process. According to Alison, the set-up
process is centralized to her, James and May, the Accounts Receivable (AR)
manager, no others are authorized to create new customer profiles.
5
Back to Organisation Chart
Master Data Specialists
Alison was asked about changes to master data and average users’ access rights,
especially with respect to modification of price lists. Her response was as follows:
“I think that basically everyone with an access to the system is capable of
changing the basic information, such as billing address, contact information etc.
However, I believe that the access rights are restricted so that only selected people
can alter the price lists and reference structures… There is an official policy with
espect to changes to customer data, and it’s been communicated to everyone.
Whenever a person recognizes a need to update master data, they inform us
through email and we make the changes… Emails are not archived in a specific
manner.”
As a final point, James was asked whether the billing system was utilizing any
automatic data quality tools. His comments were: “There is a standard format in
which the customer data is entered into system, but not all active fields are relevant.
The person entering the data has to be aware of the i
elevant fields as the system
eally doesn’t provide any guidance for the user... An automatic audit tool exists to
prevent duplicate customer entries.”
6
Back to Organisation Chart
Accounts Receivable
Manager - May
The responsibility of accounts receivable is divided between the
Finance Director and the Accounts Receivable (AR) Manager,
who supervises a team of 3 AR Specialists. The Finance
Director’s main responsibility is to ensure that no credit losses
occur, and deal with urgent matters. The AR Manager oversees
the AR process in general and the AR Specialists handle the
everyday routines for the most part. May sends the Finance
Director an age-distributed list of credit customers' open
eceivables at the end of every quarter. Celeste reviews the
customer-specific balances and decides whether any immediate
actions are required. For example, if a small customer has a large
amount of unpaid purchases, it may be necessary to contact
the customer in order to avoid excessive credit risk exposure
(due to credit limit issues) and possibly set credit hold until
the existing balance has been paid off. If a customer has
overdue payments that haven’t been paid regardless of
eminders it may be necessary to call the customer and inquire
about possible issues. May is responsible for following up these
customers