Principles of Internal Control in Accounting

Hello Classmates, While I used to drag my feet completing these discussion posts a bit due to not understanding financial accounting concepts very well, at the end of last week it finally felt like things clicked for me. I started the week of unit 2 scrambling as I had the unit before but by the end of the Main Lab assignment, I suddenly felt more capable than I previously had. I now find myself sitting down earlier in the week than I have in a long time eager to complete this week's discussion. Alternatively, perhaps I just want to get my work done so I can enjoy Super Bowl Sunday more. For this week's discussion, I chose the option that it seems many others did not, but I enjoyed the exercise regardless, so let us get into it. For this week's discussion, I focused on the questions titled Decision Making Across the Organization. I have included the questions from the text as well as my answers below for your convenience. 1.Identify the principles of internal control violated by Alternative Distributor Corp. To answer this question, I need to review all 6 of the internal controls utilized in accounting. After a brief analysis, I can identify areas in which Alternative Distributor Corporation has violated all 6 of these core elements in some fashion by various degrees. The first error pointed out in the official audit is that the company is not segregating duties, which could be occurring due to the established responsibilities of the company not being properly fleshed out. Another facet utilized to gauge the success of Alternative Distributor Corporations is whether they are functioning promptly or not. In this care, they are violating a core principle of internal control by not moving quickly enough with their deposits. Another area the business is suffering is in its ability to onboard qualified staff for the positions being filled. Ineffective staffing can impact principles of internal control negatively. This would also be identified as a Human Resource issue. As our professor pointed out in the seminar this week, even if we are not becoming accountants, it is important, we understand the roles and routines of an accountant so if we go into HR, we can properly fill the open positions with qualified candidates. Another issue with Alternative Distributor Corporation is that their accounting department (in the form of bookkeeping practices) is not organized which can lead to documentation procedure failure and negatively impact many other departments as bookkeeping can also impact employee pay. Ultimately, if I were responsible for improving the state of this company and its accounting practices I would start with a complete overhaul of current procedures as many of them are improper. I would also start from scratch and do some retraining on best practices so that I can strengthen the team I already have as hiring new personnel can be costly and time-consuming (unless the current employees are simply unwilling to improve then I would hire more qualified people). 2.Explain why managers of various functional areas in the company should be concerned about internal controls. In all honesty, wanting to answer this question is the entire reason I chose this prompt this week. While I am not a manager yet, I am a department supervisor and am