Prepare Accounting Information Systems Flowchart

Narrative:

Music Source, Inc., has sales departments with seven full-time employees and several part-time sales clerks at each of its sales offices disbursed throughout the nation. Sales order processing starts in this department when a hardcopy customer order come in from new and past customers. Upon receipt of a new customer order, the sales clerk first checks to see if the customer already has a customer record. If a customer record is not available, then the sale clerk uses the information on the customer order to add a new customer record to the customer master list, and then proceeds to enter the customer order into the sales order transactions database, which is located in the computer department. If a customer record is available, then the customer order is directly entered into the sales order transactions database. As soon as the sales order has been entered, electronic copies of the sales order are sent to the warehouse and shipping departments. Later, the sales department receives a shipping notice from the billing/AR department. This shipping notice is used by the sales department clerk to access the corresponding open sales order in the transactions database and reconciles the shipping notice to this information. After reconciling the two pieces of information, the transaction is moved to the sales order archive file, which is also a database located in the computer department.

Using the sales order information, the warehouse prints out two hard copy picking tickets that are used to pick inventory and note quantity removed. After picking has been completed the supervisor verifies that the picked goods match the picking ticket and then signs the picking tickets. The two signed picking tickets are then sent along with the finished goods to the shipping department. However, before sending off the goods, the supervisor updates the inventory database that is located in the computer department. Periodically, the clerk uses the information in the inventory database to create an inventory summary that is sent to the general ledger department.

When the shipping department receives the two picking tickets from the warehouse, they are verified with the electronic sales order information from the sales department. After verification, one picking ticket release form is used as the packing slip and is sent with the goods to the carrier. The other copy of the picking ticket has shipping charges and other relevant information added on to it that the billing department needs. This additional information is pulled from the shipping information records. After updating the picking ticket it now becomes a shipping notice that is sent on to the billing/AR department as proof that the order has been sent. This process also creates two bill of lading copies. One copy of the bill of lading is sent with the packing slip and the goods to the carrier and the other is filed in the shipping department.

Once the shipping notice arrives in the billing/AR department, the customer can be billed. The billing clerk prepares a sales invoice from the information on the shipping notice that is sent to the customer as an official bill, while the shipping notice is sent back to the sales department to close the sales order. Before the sales invoice is sent to the customer, the information from the sales invoice is used to update the invoice database that is located in the billing/AR department. The billing/AR clerk then uses the information stored in the invoice database to update the sales journal and the AR subsidiary ledger. Periodically, the clerk uses the information in the sales journal and the AR subsidiary ledger to create an AR summary and a sales journal voucher. These two documents are then sent to the G/L department.

Once the general ledger department has received the inventory summary, the AR summary and the sales journal voucher, the three documents are reconciled and the G/L master is updated. The three documents are then stored in a numerically ordered file.