Ljb Company Essay

Introduction LJB Company has asked the accounting firm to evaluate their system of internal controls because of the plan to go public in the near future. The president wants to be aware of any new regulations required of his company if they go public. The current system of internal controls was explained to the accounting firm. Under SOX Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, all public traded U.S. corporations are required to maintain a sufficient system of internal controls. In order for this to be implemented all Corporate Executives and board of directors have to ensure that the controls are reliable and effective. With LJB Company incorporating the information from SOX act this will allow them reduce corporate fraud by making sure that all of the procedures for financial reporting is following in accordance to all guidelines. Internal Control Requirements In order for LJB Company to become a public trade, under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires a registered U.S. publicly traded company to have an independent audit committee as a part of its Board of Directors. My accounting firm recommends that since LJB is a small sized company in terms of its employees should reevaluate their costs versus the benefits of being a public traded company. If LJB decides to go public in the near future there will be some new internal control requirements. One of the factors of the internal control system is to ensure that the management is in control of its environment. Top management needs to make it clear and concise on what can and won’t be tolerated especially when it comes to the organizations values, mission statement and unethical behavior. The second factor of the internal control system is the company leading its control activities. The control activities are considered as the post that holds the company’s effort to address all risks that they may possibly face going public. One thing that the company may face is fraud and in order to reduce fraud, management has to create and build policies to address those specific risks. Strengths and Recommendations Since LJB Company is relatively small, they have an advantage over their competitors who are large companies. Being a small company due to its size of employees, one of the things they are doing right is being able to set expectations and implement those within the organization. As a smaller company, the accountant’s decision to switch to pre-numbered invoices and the purchase of an indelible ink machine was a good idea and investment. The pre-numbered invoices will prevent transactions from being recorded multiple times. With the internal control system this will require that the employees forward their source documents for the accounting entries. The indelible ink machine will help organize all of the accounting duties. We recommended that LJB Company purchase an indelible ink machine to print all employees and cut checks. With the indelible ink machine this will make it difficult for unauthorized users to endorse checks and be approved. This will cut down on fraud and theft within the company. Violations LJB Company is very susceptible to fraud due the weaknesses and threats presented in the day to day operations. The type of threats include: no human resource control, lack of cash control, and no duties defined for each individual. LJB Company is lacking in the separation of duties because the Treasurer and Controller functions is being done by the same person. Although these two duties are being performed by one person and stream lining the process this causes LJB to be susceptible to fraud and out of compliance with the SOX act requirements. Each of these duties should be performed two different individuals. LJB Company has lack of cash controls. The lack of cash control has to be watched because within LJB each employee has access to petty cash and that shouldn’t be the case. Access to petty cash should be restricted to authorized personnel only. Any time there is a disbursement from the petty cash there should be an original receipt and signature that received the reimbursement. LJB Company human resource controls are very limited. Within this company both the Accountant and President have to review and approve all of the new hires which is the process. If LJB had a proper human resource control there would be a function set in place for new hires by hiring someone with HR experience that has risk training. Having a more defined HR control resource this would allow the company to clearly define the different roles and responsibilities for each employee. Also with the HR resource all employees would go through background check, each employee be given their own username and password and be tracked with the activity report. Conclusion We believe that this assessment of the current controls of LJB Company and the recommendations provided will meet your expectations and allow your company to be a fully traded public company. To reinstate this problem; in order for LJB Company to become a public trade, under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires a registered U.S. publicly traded company to have an independent audit committee as a part of its Board of Directors. My accounting firm recommends that since LJB is a small sized company in terms of its employees should reevaluate their costs versus the benefits of being a public traded company. Works Cited Kimmel, Paul D.. Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making, 7th Edition. John Wiley & Sons, 02/2013. .