Internal Control Essay

4. Organisation background Inkwell Limited is a manufacturer of re-cycle inkjet and laser toner printer cartridges. Inkwell Limited printer cartridge is widely applicable. The main commercial focus is on strong retail market that demand cheaper and greener products Inkwell Ltd has a couple of small main suppliers that produce 4.1 Inkwell Limited is a limited company, established in 2003. The head office and Warehouse is based in Birmingham West Midland. 4.2 Their business model is to offer a part exchange facility whereby customer either post used cartridge to the company’s on the line shop or physically take them onto one of over 60 shops in the company’s chain that are situated in all major UK cities, and many large towns. If customers do bring their old cartridge in they are then given a 10% discount against the cost of a replacement cartridge. 4.3 Its mains mission is to save customers money by not compromising quality and at the same time help ensure a greener environmental future by better use of inkjet and toner cartridge. 4.3 Inkwell is a company, mainly owned by shareholders. The managing director own the most numbers of share, while both the sale director and the finance director own equal shares. 4.4 The three directors and the company accountant are the main decision makers in the company with the help of managers and supervisors. 4.5 The shop managers are responsible for their own staff by preparing rotas and ensuring adequate staff coverage for all of the opening hours of their shop. 4.6 Finance, Marketing and Sales are the main departments In Appendix a there are a organisation Chart. 5. Structure and Function of the accounting System at Inkwell See Appendix a for Organisation Chart 5.1 Inkwell is a ‘tall’ structure company. They are different levels of people, each level is control by the level above. This very common of such a big organisation where each level is centralised. 5.2 The accounting function is a small section of Inkwell Limited. It consist of Anil Gupta as the Finance Director who his fully responsible for all finance, legal and accounting procedures and systems. This in tail producing the company annual report, dealing with all banking and finance issues. Michael O’Panye the Company Accountant, who’s duties are producing the monthly management report, approving all payments to suppliers. However his main role is to manage the work of the accounting technicians and clerks. 5.3 Alex Fox, account technician compiling this report, have worked for Inkwell for the past 6 months reviewing the company’s systems and procedures pin pointing any recommend charges where needed. The main duties that’s covered within the account department by others consist of sales and purchase ledger entries, preparing supplier’s payment, payment allocation, cash book entry, petty cash summary, cost analyst, bank reconciliation, payroll run and personal data up keep. 6. Weakness and finding of the current system 6.1 A SWOT analysis has been carried out on the current accounting function in Inkwell showing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat (Appendix – ) From the SWOT analysis it can be seen that there are the following key weaknesses in the payroll process. 6.2 System Integration – Whiles the payroll is integrated with the personnel data system, allowing them to talk to one another, information could be sent from one application to the other, it is not been used to its full potential due to time consuming caused by lack of experience and knowledge 6.3 Hourly paid – The weekly hourly paid staff pay is calculated manually from a weekly rota prepared by the shop manager’s. This situation is not ideal its open to mistakes and potential to fraud. By simply installing online time clock terminals lets managers control where employees clock in/out from by setting up specific time clock locations and shift planning’s web-based time clock software gets rid of the need for expensive stand-alone equipment while streamlining the process of time sheet management allowing the payroll clerk to take work data direct to payroll. 6.4 Time Management – The payroll clerk is responsible for managing a weekly payroll Including calculating overtime worked and sales commission for over 60 shops, two separate monthly payrolls (the total employee is around 180) issues all statutory forms required by HMRC, and the annual tax returns, updating and maintaining the personnel database. Managing a vast work load is very difficult and any possible ways of improving the processes to make them more efficient should be taken advantage of. By installing an online time clock terminal can allow mangers to plan shifts automatically. It reduce the time spent calculating individual time sheets and allow the payroll clerk the information direct to payroll. 6.5 Knowledge – The payroll clerk is responsible for the both the payroll and the personnel database which is integrated. As the payroll clerk only had one-day in house intensive training course on the system therefore the payroll found it difficult to get to grips with both the payroll and the personnel data system after just one day’s of training. By the company supplying training, the payroll clerk can perform more efficient and feel more confident. 6.6 Commission – All sales staff and shop managers earn a commission of 2% each on the first  £4000.00 of sales per month, and 5% on any sales over that figure, this is based on for each shop rather than the individual. Inkwell Ltd have over 60 shops, with 3 or 4 employee per shop with annual turnover of 16 million pound would suggest the average amount per shop per week is  £5,128.00. Every shop staff including managers would be paid commission each month 6.7 These four factors outline the main problems affecting the accounting function payroll. The commission to all shop staff is one of most obvious cost effective that could be saved each month, due to weekly intake’s from each shop over  £5,000.00. Not only would Inkwell save a great deal of money which in turn could be sent on other things such as improving the performance of the accounting system. 6.8 Cutting the commission to just individual per shop would mean also the Less time spent preparing the figures for bonuses, more hours gain to do other Things