An effective accounting information system has the ability to sort through the millions of things that happen in a company during an accounting cycle and capture only the business transactions that impact the accounting equation.
Questions
1. What responsibility or role does the accountant have in this process?
2. Should information provided by management and other non-accounting personnel be assumed accurate or is it the accountant’s responsibility to investigate each item submitted for legitimacy?
3. In the situation that follows, does Jane have any responsibility to find out the legitimacy of the expenses she is processing or is her job to just pay the bill?
Below is an example of a situation where this would come into play.
Jane is the accounts payable clerk for ABC Corporation. One of her job duties is to process the travel expenses of the chief financial officer and pay the associated business credit card bill. Jane has noticed lately that the CEO’s expense reports are steadily increasing in amount and frequency. From receipts and other documentation that Jane processes, she suspects the CEO is running personal expenses through the company; however, she is not 100% sure.
**A thoughtful opening response will consider the balance of having financial records based on source documents from management that are accurate versus the time needed by an accountant to verify every transaction is correct. Where is this balance is the real consideration in this question?
* Use lecture notes and textbook: Fundamental Accounting Principles 25e by John Wild as sources
