Introduction | Information Systems and Business Processes | Accounting Systems | Work in Process Inventory | Assignment

Your final exam for the course is to complete the following Mathra Tool, Inc. case (Information Systems Controls and Auditing: Mathra Tool, Inc., Ingrid B. Splettstoesser, Issues in Accounting Education, May 1999). You should read the case to gain familiarity with the company and its systems and then complete the required assignments.

I will be e-mailing you an EXCEL data file to use in your testing. There are two worksheets: 1) the results of the physical inventory of work-in-process inventory and 2) the data taken from the work-in-process inventory system. You will need both set of data to complete the case. Let me know if you do not receive the files in usable condition.

One other piece of infomation you will need is the general ledger balance for work-in-process on 10/31/97 (the fiscal year end) of $751,668.72.

Your audit is for the fisdcal year ended 10/31/97. You can use any non-breathing sources you wish. You may wish to review this article about auditing WIP.

Introduction

Mark Green, a senior accountant with Dalen & Jay, CPAs, has recently been assigned as in-charge auditor of Mathra Tool, Inc. (MTI), a long-time audit client of his firm. MTI is owned by George Mathra, an experienced machinist. George established the business over 20 years ago, and it has grown into a $10-million-a-year business, with an excellent reputation for high-quality machined parts. MTI has clients in the automobile sector and the health-care sector and has recently begun producing parts for environmentally friendly products, such as recycling containers, due to the business's versatility in dealing with a variety of metals as well as plastics.

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Information Systems and Business Processes

The following description is based upon Mark's review of prior working paper files and planning discussions with personnel of MTI.

MTI has a broad range of equipment, ranging from grinders, stampers, cutters and small presses to numerically controlled machining and turning centers, some that individually cost over $250,000. This latter group of equipment is tied into the company's computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) system, used by the four senior tool and die personnel.

Machining and turning center suppliers have helped MTI develop efficient operations, by furnishing sample numerical control programs for standard machine operations and by providing training to employees. One of the suppliers unfortunately sent sample programs that had been infected with a virus. George's daughter, Tiffany, had to cleanse the servers and each of the machines, using her copy of an anti-virus software. When contacted, the supplier did not know that this software was infected and apologized profusely.

The four CAD/CAM terminals and printers are connected to the company's local area network (LAN), which is maintained by Tony Lee, the owner of a computer shop conveniently located three blocks away. All computer equipment, software and supplies are purchased from Mr. Lee, who is responsible for attaching and maintaining equipment, upgrading software and maintaining user security profiles on the network. There is one user identification and password for accounting (shared by Tiffany, George and the accounting clerk). Each of the plant supervisors has his own password, and a common password is used to initiate the timekeeping system. The two word processing staff members have their own password and use the common accounting password when they need to do data entry.

A standard routine has been set up to back up the accounting systems. One of the accounting staff inserts one of seven tape cartridges into the system at the end of the day (they are labeled with the day of the week), so that the company has a full set of backups for the week. Tiffany keeps these in her office. These are particularly important, since during the last office move, two years ago, the original disks for the accounting system were misplaced.

Tiffany Mathra, George's youngest daughter, has been working in the business for 15 years. She started as a machine operator and has finished several college diplomas in numeric control and in accounting over the years. She is being groomed to take over the business in two years and is proving herself competent both on the shop floor and in administration. She works along with the tool and die machinists and the shop supervisors, discussing design problems, quality control methods and costing of quotes for potential orders. Wednesday morning 7:00am meetings are held by Tiffany and George to maintain a good working relationship with the supervisors (one purchasing, three production, one design, one quality control) and to review any problems that need to be addressed in the coming week. This includes any potential scheduling changes required due to "rush" jobs that have been accepted or are being quoted.

This good working relationship is extremely important for satisfying some of the company's larger customers. MTI has paid for computer equipment for each of the supervisors, so that they have fully functioning microcomputers at home. If a rush job requires weekend work, then these senior personnel can work at home to get the necessary quoting or design work completed. Since the "at-home" systems are identical with the office systems (Mr. Lee simply copied the image from the MTI systems to the home computer hard drives), diskettes can easily be taken home and then brought back to the office. It is understood that when work slows down, a day off can be taken to compensate for this weekend work.

Almost ten years ago Tiffany arranged for the implementation of the network, and the purchase of a standard integrated accounting package (general ledger, order entry/accounts receivable, purchases/payable, payroll), and for the purchase of the job-costing and timekeeping system. The job-costing package is used to prepare and print quotes. For automotive customers, the quote is entered into the stand-alone EDI system for transmission. Customer purchase orders received via EDI are simply printed and filed. Once a quote has been accepted, the job is given a unique job number. The job control sheets include a list of the machining center, labor and quality control tasks, each with a unique optical scanning label used by the employees to "sign in" and "sign out" of particular tasks by machine type and by operation. Standard control sheets are also used for overhead tasks, such as cleaning or machine setup. Employees have plastic cards with their employee number coded. They use a laser pen to scan their employee number, the job number and the operation label for each activity, as it is commenced or completed. To sign out, they simply scan their employee card again.

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Accounting Systems

A variety of reports are printed daily, weekly, or monthly from the costing system; these are used for monitoring employee hours, the status of jobs, the costs accumulated for particular jobs and the work-in-progress inventory. The weekly report of hours from the costing system is approved by the production supervisors and is used as a data entry input source into the payroll system for hours worked. The accounting clerk enters the hours into the accounting system, so that weekly payroll checks and reports can be produced. When volume is high, one or both of the administrative staff assist. The administrative staff also do filing or document matching, as necessary.

Tiffany is really pleased with her accounting clerk, Isabel, who has been with the company for three years. She insists that fate had a hand in getting Isabel for MTI. Isabel was "pounding the pavement," having recently immigrated, and had no local business experience. Her accounting skills were rudimentary, but she quickly learned the accounting software and has reorganized the filing system. Tiffany considers her indispensable. When Isabel goes on vacation, many things simply don't get done. Tiffany can do the payroll in a pinch, but Isabel always does accounts payable and cash disbursements. If she's away, suppliers are simply told to wait, or Tiffany issues a manual check, which is recorded later. Isabel is very good at responding to queries from suppliers and ensuring that new suppliers are set up properly. The purchasing supervisor and his staff rely on Isabel, for she checks the account allocation of purchases and makes any necessary corrections. Isabel also ensures that necessary EDI acknowledgments are sent and reports are printed.

Tiffany and George are signing offices, although Tiffany realizes that she checks supporting materials more thoroughly than George, who usually just queries Isabel verbally about larger purchases. George normally handles the bank deposits, while Tiffany does the monthly bank reconciliation. Every three months, an accountant from Dalen & Jay reviews the regulatory returns for reasonableness, as well as journal entries made in the last three months. He updates the recurring journal entries and advises Tiffany of any changes in procedures or modifications to monthly journal entries that are required to help ensure accuracy and completeness of transaction processing. Tiffany runs the standard financial statements every month from the accounting package, but normally some additional adjustments are required when the accountant comes in.

These are adjustments to depreciation expenses, changes to prepaid expenses and some account reallocation (e.g., repairs and maintenance to capital accounts) based on discussions with Tiffany. The regular technician assigned to MTI is Louis Jaborwock, who has just completed the most recent month-end entries.

Louis informed Mark that MTI had a problem with one of their systems on Friday. Apparently, one of the servers might have "crashed." Luckily, this was the server with the accounting systems and was fully backed up on tape. A new server was to be installed the next day, and Mr. Lee was reconfiguring the network so that the remaining systems could function from the single server.

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Work-in-Progress Inventory

The engagement partner from Dalen & Jay believes that MTI's growth may have expanded the company sufficiently to warrant increased levels of controls reliance during the audit. She is particularly interested in work-in-progress (WIP) inventory, the largest item on the balance sheet, typically close to three months' sales. She has requested an updated controls analysis and that computer-assisted audit techniques using the firm's generalized audit software be considered. To this end, Mark has updated the narrative description associated with WIP inventory.

To calculate the WIP inventory for any particular month, one of the purchasing staff transfers data from a report in the job-costing system into the spreadsheet (exhibit1). Since the job costing system does not have sales information, progress billings are added manually, and the spreadsheet total is used for the monthly financial statement's work-in-progress figure.

Job number: a unique job number is assigned by one of the production supervisors. There is a manual log in the production area, and the supervisors write down the customer, purchase order number and the job numbers used. Where a purchase order lists multiple parts, a different job number must be used for each part produced.

Customer code: Each customer has a unique customer code. Tiffany assigns these codes, so that the same code can be used in the accounting system and in the job-costing system.

Customer Purchase Order Number: These match the purchase orders received from customers.

Due Date and Scheduled Completion Date: The customer purchase order will indicate the date that an order is due. The production supervisors will schedule the job so that it is completed prior to the due date.

Customer Part Number and Part Description: MTI always uses the part numbers of its customers and the customer description when describing parts being produced. These must match customer purchase orders.

Quantity Ordered: The quantity ordered on the purchase order is entered into the job-costing system.

Quantity on Hand: The quantity on hand is based upon the figures in the job-costing system. This is initiated with the first operation. For example, if component parts are purchased and then additional work is done on a component part, then the quantity on hand is based upon the parts purchased. If raw material is purchased and cut on the premises, then the person who completes the first operation notes the quantity cut, for subsequent entry by the production supervisor. Any damaged parts that cannot be passed on to the next operation are reported to the quality control staff, who enter the part into the system as damaged, thereby reducing the quantity on hand. All data entry is accomplished using the common job-costing password. Such entries will show on a damaged-parts report, which is discussed every Wednesday at the supervisors' meeting.

Percentage Complete: Each operation on the job control sheet is assigned a percentage of the job. The system tracks which operations have been completed and reports the percentage complete based upon the last operation that has been fully completed for all the parts.

Quoted Costs (labor center, materials, total): These costs are all listed in a rate-per-individual-unit part. Labor center rates are based upon standard rates that have been developed by George and Tiffany. They include the labor rate of the employee multiplied by a factor, depending upon the machine used. The factor incorporates both plant overhead charges plus machine charges. The lowest factor is 2.5, the highest 23. Thus, an employee earning $10 per hour would result in a labor center cost at the lowest factor of $25 per hour and $230 per hour at the highest factor. Material cost is based upon quotes from suppliers, plus a markup. Some customers have a fixed arrangement with the markup as low as 5 percent, while others are marked up as much as 150 percent. During the last year, the company has changed its costing and overhead allocation methods to absorption costing, based upon the accounting firm's advice. MTI reduced its labor center factors by 10 percent and added a flat materials handling charge ($50) and ordering charge ($25) to each of its quotes.

Actual Cost-to-Date: As work is completed and supplier invoices are received, these costs are entered into the job-costing system. Actual hours worked on an operation may be higher or lower than quoted. The hours worked are automatically posted using the timekeeping system. The production supervisors review each daily printout of hours worked, to ensure that employees have properly clocked out. Production supervisors must approve any job-cost system adjustments, which are entered by one of the purchasing staff. As supplier invoices are received, they are recorded into the job-costing system by the purchasing staff and then forwarded to Isabel for entry into the accounts payable system.

Sales Price: This is the price that the customer has agreed to pay, according to the purchase order.

Progress Billings: Normally, MTI does not request advance payments or progress billings. However, if a customer is new or a part requires a substantial material purchase, an advance payment is requested to cover the cost of the material. MTI then considers this material as already owned by the customer and deducts this progress billing from the cost of its WIP.

Work-in-Progress Inventory Value: Isabel updated the spreadsheet template this year, applying a formula to calculate inventory as follows: ([quantity on hand] X [percentage complete/100] X [actual cost to date]) - progress billings. She reviews the inventory list prepared by purchasing for one of two necessary adjustments. First, if a job has not been started it will show as zero percentage complete. Sometimes, parts have been ordered on a subcontract basis and been placed into production. Then, the WIP value must be increased from zero to the value of these parts. Second, if a job has an overrun and the actual costs exceed the sales price, then the value of the inventory must be reduced so that it does not exceed the sales price. Isabel makes these changes by manually scanning the inventory listing and changing the inventory value for these items.

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