Consider each situation separately. Requirements:
1. Identify the missing internal control characteristics in each situation.
2. Identify the possible problem caused by each control weakness.
3. Propose a solution to each internal control problem.
a. Upside-Down Applications develops custom programs to customer's specifications. Recently, development of a new program stopped while the programmers redesigned Upside-Down's accounting system. Upside-Down's accountants could have performed this task.
b. Norma Rottler has been your trusted employee for 24 years. She performs all cash-handling and accounting duties. Norma just purchased a new luxury car and a new home in an expensive suburb. As owner of the company, you wonder how she can afford these luxuries because you pay her only $30,000 a year and she has no source of outside income.
c. Izzie Hardwoods, a private company, falsified sales and inventory figures in order to get an important loan. The loan went through, but Izzie later went bankrupt and could not repay the bank.
d. The office supply company where Pet Grooming Goods purchases sales receipts recently notified Pet Grooming Goods that its documents were not prenumbered. Howard Mustro, the owner, replied that he never uses receipt numbers.
e. Discount stores such as Cusco make most of their sales in cash, with the remainder in credit card sales. To reduce expenses, one store manager ceases purchasing fidelity bonds on the cashiers.
f. Cornelius's Corndogs keeps all cash receipts in an empty box for a week because the owner likes to go to the bank on Tuesdays when Joann is working.
(1) Loss of revenue due to work.
(2) Lost data; unhappy customers; failure to collect receivables.
(3) Lost sales due to delay of product development.
(4) Theft of cash.
(5) Theft of cash and inefficiency.
(6) Unreliable financial statements and lost credibility.