3.2 System Documentation - Revenue cycle manual and computer processes (14)
The following describes the revenue cycle procedures for a hypothetical company.
The sales department clerk receives hard-copy customer orders and manually prepares a
six-part hard-company sales order. Companies of the sales order are distributed to various
department as follows: Copies 1, 2, and 3 go to the shipping department, and Copies 4, 5, and 6
are sent to the billing department where they are temporarily filed by the billing clerk.
Upon receipt of the sales order companies, the shipping clerk picks the goods from the
warehouse shelves and ships them to the customer. The clerk sends Copy 1 of the sales order
along with the goods to the customer. Copy 2 is sent to the billing department, and Copy 3 is
filed in the shipping department.
When the billing clerk receives Copy 2 from the warehouse, she pulls the other copies
from the temporary file and completes the documents by adding prices, taxes, and freight
charges. Then, using the department PC, the billing clerk records the sale in the digital Sales
Journal, sends Copy 4 (customer bill) to the customer, and sends Copies 5 and 6 to the AR and
inventory control departments, respectively.
Upon receipt of the documents from the billing clerk, the accounts receivable and
inventory control clerks post the transactions to the AR Subsidiary and Inventory Subsidiary
ledgers, respectively, using their department PCs. Each clerk then files the respective sales order
copies in the department.
On the payment due date, the customer sends a check for the full amount and a copy of
the bill (the remittance advice) to the company. These documents are received by the mailroom
clerk who distributes them as follow:
1. The check goes to the cash receipts clerk, who manually records it in the hard-copy
cash receipts journal and prepares two deposit slips. One deposit slip and the check
are sent to the bank; the other deposit slip is filed in the cash receipts department.
2. The remittance advice is sent to the AR clerk, who posts to the digital subsidiary
accounts and then files the document.