Internal Control Essay Example for Free

Internal Control Essay (1) If the LJB Company should decide to become a publicly traded company, a few internal controls should be implemented to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). * Management will need to provide periodic quarterly reports to evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of LJB’s internal controls over financial reporting procedures. * Management should certify the accuracy and fairness of presentation of their financial statements. * Independent auditor(s) outside of LJB will need to attest to management’s assessment of said internal controls. Additionally, non-audit services between these two parties (LJB and said independent auditor) are prohibited. (2) There are a few internal control measures that LJB already has in effect and are better for it: the use of pre-numbered invoices by the accountant and your (the President’s) involvement in the approval and hiring process of new employees. I also recommend the purchase of the indelible ink machine as per the accountant’s request. As this applies to the Internal Control Principle of Physical Control, future check fraud will be more difficult to be accomplished. 3) There are several internal control weaknesses that I assess LJB currently has. Following each weakness I list below is a recommendation from myself to rectify these internal control weaknesses. * One is risk is the accountant who serves as Treasurer and Controller. Although I understand this is to streamline many processes, it possesses a risk where an opportunity is created for this employee to commit fraud. This also violates the Segregation of Duties Principle of Internal Control Principles. I recommend that these two responsibilities be segregated 2 different employees. * When the accountant in charge of payroll leaves employees’ checks in his office unsupervised and unsecured, it presents an opportunity for theft. This violates the Internal Control Principle of Physical Control, as though checks are not constantly kept in the accountant’s office safe prior to pick up. I recommend that these checks remain physically secured at all times (by the accountant, or by delaying delivery to the accountant until he reaches his office). Due to the unorthodox honor system of dealing with petty cash, any single employee can withdraw a substantial amount of petty cash in relative anonymity. This violates two Internal Control Principles: Physical Control and Establishment of Responsibility. It violates the Physical Control Principle because the petty cash is easily accessible with no form of physical protection of theft, and it violates the Establishment of Responsibility Principle because no single person is in charge of the Petty Cash Fund (rather everyone is). This can be remedied by assigning a custodian to be responsible for the fund, as well as creating a secure area to store said funds. * These previous points additionally bring up another weakness, though not actually part of the Internal Control Principles. Though it seems to be LJB’s unofficial policy to trust long-term employees, when a desirable opportunity to commit fraud/theft arises, it becomes at the discretion of the employee to commit these acts for their personal benefit. Another weakness is LJB’s lack of individual passwords which allows personnel to anonymously use the company computers and databases. This lack of individual accountability will prevent most attempts to track suspicious employee activities on company computers and databases. This instance violates the Internal Control Principle of Physical Control. I recommend assigning employees individual accounts and passwords, as well as creating a form of digital control to prevent future unauthorized activities, such as viewing pornography on company computers. Lastly, because LGB unknowingly hired a convicted felon, it can be deduced that LGB’s Human Resource Department may be lacking, due to the fact that a background check should have caught his criminal history. This may violate the Human Resource Control Principle of the Internal Control Principles. I recommend that the Human Resource Department reevaluate their policies and staffing procedures to prevent future incidents from happening. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and please consider my recommendations before going public with the LGB Company.

Do You Have the Power? :: Creative Writing Essays

Do You Have the Power?      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It all started in the interesting city of New York.   The smog ridden streets were filled with people.   On a quiet little street corner, there was a small shop owned by Harvey Goldstein.   Mr. Goldstein   was a well-to-do merchant. He traded in all sorts of imports, and was generally a moral man.   He did not buy goods from sweatshops nor did he ever cheat a customer.  Ã‚   At 1:31 P.M. on May 15, 1996, he stepped out of his shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to meet a man who dealt in Asian silk screens downtown.   He had been listening to traffic radio AM 530 and, deciding that traffic was too heavy, planned to take the subway.   Goldstein was a smart man, very smart, who had built his store and his fortune out of   blood, toil, tears, and sweat. Goldstein was also an upstanding member of the Jewish community whom everybody loved, but he never did anything extra, out of the ordinary, for anyone but himself.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the other side of town there was a new arrival to the city.   This man's name was Running Bear.   He was an American Indian who had gone to New York to seek his fortune; however, he soon fell upon hard times.   He had lived a life of monetary deprivation on the plains of Colorado, and had proceeded to New York by Amtrak with only a dollar and a dream.   Things did not go as planned, though; he could not find a job and had taken to panhandling and sleeping in the streets. His dreams, no doubt influenced by the fumes coming up from the sewer, were of money.   A good man who only wanted to work and make a decent living, he had gone to the welfare office a few blocks north of Goldstein's shop.   He was sent to the employment office downtown, and decided to take the subway.   No doubt, the welfare officials and social workers sent him away with a sad shrug and a sigh. They knew he was a simple man.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The two men saw each other waiting for the same train downtown. Interestingly enough, they were the only two waiting for the subway car, as a terrorist group had threatened to bomb a train and New Yorkers had generally taken the threat seriously.   They looked at each other briefly, sized one another up, and got on the train. While on the train, Running Bear began fiddling with a hatchet;   tossing it up in the air over and over again in

Allusion Report- the Burning Bush

Allusion Report The allusion of the â€Å"Burning Bush† is just as it sounds: it is a burning bush that continues to burn and is never engulfed by its flames. The Burning Bush was first introduced in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. Moses was grazing in the pastures just like any other day when he noticed something burning in the distance. He found it to be an ordinary desert bush, but the fire was far from ordinary. The fire consuming the bush was God presenting himself to Moses.When God spoke to Moses, he told him to unite his brothers (Israelites) and leave the land of oppression, Egypt. The allusion of the Burning Bush has been used in the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, three different times. â€Å"One cat’ takes and shoves ten families out. Cat’s all over hell now. Tear in and shove the croppers out. † (Chapter 2, page 13) Here, the truck driver is telling Tom how tractors are driving people out of the land. This alludes to the Burning Bush as being the harassment which families are fleeing from. Reverend Jim Casy- was a Burning Busher. † (Chapter 4, page 27) Casy is referred to as the burning busher because he motivates and inspires others around him. â€Å"We’d keep together on the road an’ it’d be good for ever’body. † (Chapter 13, page 202) In the Book of Exodus, God tells Moses to unite with his brother so that they will have a change of survival. Here, Tom is telling others that neither family would survive if they traveled alone, but if they travel together they will have a greater chance at surviving.The Burning Bush represents numerous symbols to Jews and Christians, such as God’s energy, sacred light, illumination, as well as the burning heart of purity, love and clarity. It is argued by many skeptical scholars that Moses was under the influence of a hallucinogenic when he says to have encountered the Burning Bush. Many entheogens have been found in south Israel and were use d regularly for religious purposes by the Israelites. Works Cited â€Å"Burning Bush – New World Encyclopedia. † Info:Main Page – New World Encyclopedia.Web. 03 Oct. 2011. . Ben, Jesse, and Phil. â€Å"The Burning Bush. † Allusions of Exodus in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. ;http://reufus59. tripod. com/id5. html;. Deffinbaugh, Bob. â€Å"The Burning Bush (Exodus 3:1-15) | Bible. org – Worlds Largest Bible Study Site. † Free NET Bible and Thousands of Bible Studies | Bible. org – Worlds Largest Bible Study Site. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. ;http://bible. org/seriespage/burning-bush-exodus-31-15;.

A Presentation of the Issues and Solution in Restoring...

According to the article â€Å"Restoring American Competitiveness† by Gary P. Pisano and Willy C. Shih, the United States industries have worn down competition through the damages from outsourcing manufacturing. There are several issues that have caused serious problems to the U.S. economy, which are the decline of trade due to shortage of innovation and competition, lack of funding for research and development by government and businesses, and poor financial decisions made by management for outsourcing. There are several recommendations that the government and business executives can do to rebuild U.S. industries. The U.S. industries have been outsourcing manufacturing for several decades now. U.S. companies thought they were reducing costs†¦show more content†¦As a result, neither government nor main corporations are providing for long-term research and development funding. For making outsourcing decisions, management increased short-term cost benefits, while cutting their spending in fundamental research. These executives where listening to business leader and Wall Street’s advice to â€Å"focus on your core competencies, off-load your low-value-added activities, and redeploy the savings to innovation, the true source of your competitive advantage† (2009). Their manager were saying that they could go back to their original plan if the quality or work did not meet their standards, if the expected cost savings were justified, if supply-chain risks were extreme, or if the work was too complicated. Management’s poor decisions did not foresee the damage that outsourcing had caused, since they were more interested on the payoffs they were getting. There are three recommendations for government officials to help U.S. industries to bring back innovation and manufacturing of high-tech products. The first recommendation is to go back to funding innovative activities, such as basic scientific research, applied research, and commercial research and development. These types of researches can aid scientist to comprehend genetic mechanisms, to find the knowledge to