To meet the requirements in Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, management must have documentation that describes the design of controls over relevant financial statement assertions.  In many cases, management is creating flowcharts of its financial reporting systems to provide that design documentation.

Requirements

  1. You have been asked to prepare a flowchart depicting the sales to cash collection and reporting processes for Crazy Jay’s Restaurant Chain. If your last name begins with M-S, you will prepare PART A. If your last name begins with T-Z, you will prepare PART B. Note: You will want to read both parts to gain a full understanding of the process.
  2. To produce a professional looking flowchart, you will prepare your flowchart using Microsoft Visio flowcharting software. This software is used by most of the accounting firms and you’ll want some first-hand experience with using it.  This software is loaded on all the MAC lab machines and Nelson Hall labs in the basement.  You can also use it at home via the NCSU VCL (virtual computing lab). You cannot use PowerPoint or Word to do this.  Please use Visio.
  3. As you prepare your flowchart, you want to make sure that the reader is able to follow your flowchart step-by-step (see “Overview of Business Processes and Visio” video posted on Moodle). You don’t want any “dead ends” that fail to describe where the reader must go to next.   Remember to depict each process clearly and in sufficient detail without overloading any symbols with text that exceeds the symbol size. Also include annotated risks and controls throughout the process where appropriate (see “KMPG Flowcharting Implementation Guide” posted on Moodle).
  4. The video from class contain the detailed instructions on how to use Visio. Once you are in Visio, you will find pull-down menu options to select the flowcharting stencils (the symbols that you can drag and drop). When you are finished, save your VISIO file and then ALSO export your file to create a PDF version. Submit your files to Moodle. Note you should have 2 files (.vsdx and .pdf)