Reference no: EM132325012

Question

Robert Edmonds is the newly-hired controller for Set-Fast Drywall Company. Set-Fast is a privately-held company owned by the same family for two generations. The company supplies drywall to contractors throughout a four-county area. Jason Casey is the CEO. Robert is the controller and Judy Vincent is the treasurer. There is also a front office staff of four, an operations manager, and a sales force.

Set-Fast Company sells to contractors on credit. Judy supervises the credit approvals and approves bill payments, collections, and writes checks and makes deposits. Robert has responsibility for the bank reconciliations, accounts receivables, and the accounting records in general, including preparing and issuing the financial reports.

When Robert reviewed last month's bank statement, he found it was out of balance by $2,404.35. Soon after this discovery, Jason called Robert to say the Set-Fast bank account was overdrawn by $13,000. Soon Jason showed up in Robert's office asking for the bank statement.

Back in his office, Jason reviewed the current month's combined bank statement and began looking through canceled checks. One check for $5,700 paid to a Phil Rogers caught his attention. Jason knew all the company's vendors and Phil Rogers wasn't one of them.

The endorsement on the back of the Phil Rogers check showed that the check had been deposited into an Illinois bank account. Jason soon discovered several other checks paid to Phil Rogers. This was a red flag. No vendor was ever paid more than once a month.

Jason picked up the phone to ask Robert about Phil Rogers. Robert said they needed to talk to Judy because she pays the vendors.

Jason didn't want to talk to Judy immediately. He told Robert that they needed to handle a whole audit of Judy's office. He also wanted a hidden video camera set up to record everything that goes on in Judy's office.

Robert thought it was possible that someone in Judy's work group had stolen the checks. Jason felt that was unlikely because Judy keeps the checkbooks locked up at all times. Only Jason and Judy have access to them.

Evaluate how well Jason and Robert have handled the problem.

Evaluate Set-Fast Drywall's internal control processes as they apply to this case.