Leveraging Accounts Receivable

All businesses and organisations have to check to see that the information they have stored is accurate. For example, the money coming in and going out have to be correctly recorded otherwise it will look as if the company has not made much profit and it can affect the share prices of the company, affect the employees as the company might not be able to pay the employees and will have to cut down on staff, lenders will not agree to lend money, etc.

Sales invoices are prepared in batches on a daily basis using numbered sales invoices. Sales invoice numbers are automatically generated by the company’s computer system. The accounts receivable clerk does not have appropriate computer rights to override the computer-generated invoice number. Upon preparing sales invoices, the accounts receivable clerk verifies that the first invoice number of the batch is consistent with the last invoice number of the previous batch. Inconsistencies or skipped sales invoice numbers are investigated and resolved before new sales invoices are prepared. The items shipped are compared to the items billed for proper quantity, price, and other sales order terms.

In order to confirm the accounts receivable balances, I decided to use positive confirmations since this was my first time auditing the company and the collateral for the loan would be the receivables. The confirmations helped to verify the accuracy and existence of the accounts. I also calculated the Receivables Turnover Ratio in order to better evaluate the overall success of collection on accounts. The sample size that I chose was determined by the factors of tolerable misstatement, inherent risk, control risk, achieved detection risk

Since the majority of US thrive on the use of credit cards, the accounts receivables for a company may no longer be on a cash-to-cash basis. A company may need to sell these accounts to other companies who specialize in handling accounts receivables if they need cash more quickly or if it would be too costly to perform the necessary billing to collect on the account.

Accounts receivable turnover measures how many times a company can turn its accounts receivables into cash. This ratio shows how well the company is collecting credit sales from its customers. The equation for accounts receivable turnover

Accounts receivable are amounts owed by customers on account. They result from the sale of goods and services on credit. These receivables are generally expected to be collected within 30 to 60 days. They are typically the most significant type of claim held by a company. Accounts receivable and notes receivable resulting from sales are also known as trade receivables. Accounts receivable resulting from sales are referred to as trade receivables in Alcatel's financial statements.

Team 5 also recommends implementing an automated process system that automatically scans and enters invoices into the payment processing software. With the implementation of this software, Pay Later Invoices and Pay Now Invoices can be eliminated from the process. Additionally, Team 5 suggests moving the two employees from Pay Now and Pay Later Invoices to the Final Check activity. This will eliminate the bottleneck of over utilization at the Final Check because the number of employees increases to three. Although the utilization decreases by over 30%, it leaves room for variability and decreases the stress put

Rapid cash collections are indicative of high turnover; however, loss of customers to rival firms and tight credit levels arise from extremely high accounts receivable turnover level, (Horngren, 2013, p. 805).The accounts receivable turnover for Harry Jones in 2014 was 7.93 times. This figure decreased to 5.63 times in 2015. Both figures are less than the industry average of 9 times. Low inventory turnover levels might be attributed to reduced accounts receivable turnover levels throughout both 2014 and 2015. Inventory levels can be increased in the future to achieve higher accounts receivable turnover, (Horngren, 2013, p. 805).

You should also learn how changes to the Fair Debt Collection Act relates to a customer's access to credit reporting information. Should the customer wish to verify information contained in their credit report, you will need to ensure that the information you provide is always accurate. Not adhering to these laws, business owners could face fines, and in some instances, the debt owed to them might be

The accounts payable department reconciles the vendor invoice, purchase order, and receiving report prior to approving the payment to the vendor.

Account receivables accounts for purchases which consumers have not yet aid for. This takes cares of any losses that the firm might incur due to allowing credit to certain clients. Bad debts are recorded in the income statement and they represent the des which the company doesn’t expect to be paid back. The account

11. Accounts receivable turnover and days sales in accounts receivable for the last three years:

Accounts receivable turnover is the second method by which a company’s trade receivables’ liquidity can be evaluated (Gibson, 2011). Žager et al. (2012) noted turnover ratios should be as high as possible as this indicates a firm’s ability to convert its assets more often. 3M’s accounts receivable turnover for years 2007 and 2008 is shown in Exhibit 2. In 2007, 3M turned its accounts receivable over 7.12 times and 7.70 times in 2008. This calculates into a turnover of its accounts receivable every 51.28 days in 2007 and 47.38 days in 2008. The increase in accounts receivable turnover times per year (decrease in number of days to turnover accounts receivables) from 2007 to 2008 is a positive trend for 3M. It suggests, along with the prior calculation, the management of receivables is likely to be improving in efficiency.

To illustrate the importance of maintaining a good accounting system for tracking company sales and expense data.

Account Payable – records information about money that organization owes to suppliers and service providers