You are assessing internal control in the audit of the payroll and personnel cycle for Rogers Products Company, a manufacturing company specializing in assembling computer parts. Rogers employs approximately 200 hourly and 30 salaried
employees in three locations. Each location has one foreman who is responsible for overseeing operations. The owner of the company lives in Naples, Florida, and is not actively involved in the business. The two key executives are the vice president of sales and the controller, and both have been employed by the company for more than 15 years.
New hourly employees are hired by the foremen at each location on an as-needed
basis. Each foreman recommends the wage rate for each new employee as well as wage rate increases. The effectiveness of employees varies considerably, and their wages are adjusted accordingly. All wage rates are approved by the controller.
Since each hourly employee works independently, Rogers has a highly flexible work
schedule policy, as long as they start after 7:00 a.m. and are finished by 6:00 p.m. Each foreman has a supply of prenumbered time cards that he or she distributes to employees onMonday morning. Because some employees do not start until later in the day, several time cards are kept in a box by the time clock for their use. Hourly employees use time clocks to record when they start and stop working. Each Friday, after the employees complete their work for the week, the foremen account for the time cards they distributed, approve them, and send them by an overnight courier to the main office in Cincinnati.
The payroll clerk receives the time cards on Saturday and enters the information using
payroll software that prepares the checks or direct deposit authorizations and the related payroll records. The checks are ready for the controller to sign Monday morning. She compares each check to the payroll transactions list sent by the payroll department and returns the checks using the same courier to each location. The foremen pick up the checks and distribute each check to the appropriate employee. If an employee is not present at the end of the day, the foreman mails it to the employee’s address.
Except for the foremen, all salaried employees work in the Cincinnati office. The vice
president of sales or the controller hires all salaried employees, depending on their respon sibilities, and determines their salaries and salary adjustments. The owner determines the salary of the vice president of sales and the controller. The payroll clerk also processes the payroll transactions for salaried employees using the same payroll software that is used for hourly employees, but all salaried employees use direct deposit so no check is prepared.
The payroll software has access controls that are set by the controller. She is the only
person who has access to the salary and wage rate module of the software. She updates the software for new wage rates and salaries and changes of existing ones. The accounting clerk has access to all other payroll modules. The controller’s assistant has been taught to reconcile bank accounts and does the reconciliation monthly.
a. Identify the internal control deficiencies in the Rogers’ payroll system.
b. For each deficiency, state the type of misstatement that is likely to result. Be as specificas possible in describing the nature of the misstatement. If the potential misstatement involves fraud, identify who is most likely to perpetuate the fraud
