Cash Receipts in a Bookstore

You were recently hired by a large retail bookstore chain. Your training involved spending a week at the largest and most profitable store in the district. The store manager assigned the head cashier to train you on the cash register and closing procedures required by the company's home office. In the process, the head cashier instructed you to keep an envelope for cash over and short that would include cash or IOUs equal to the net amount of overages or shortages in the cash drawer. ''It is impossible to balance exactly, so just put extra cash in this envelope and use the cash when you are short.'' You studied accounting for one semester in college and remembered your professor saying that ''all deposits should be made intact daily.''

Required

Draft a memo to the store manager detailing any problems you see with the current system. This memo should address the issue of the accuracy of the cash receipts number. It should also answer the following question: Does this method provide information to the company that would enable someone to detect whether theft has occurred during the particular day in question? Your memo should suggest an alternative method of internal control for cash receipts.