Journal Entry Four

This was one of the first activities we had to do: THINK about the following? If you owned a business or were the manager, would you expect your employees to: 1.Work to achieve the business goals and objectives you establish? 2.Use business assets (such as machinery or automobiles) only for legitimate business purposes and avoid wasting business resources? 3.Record accurate data regarding business transactions so you could accurately judge how well your business is doing? 4.Refrain from stealing your cash or inventory? READ the following article at http://www.fraud-magazine.com/article.aspx?id=479 to understand the importance of internal controls. I would most defiantly want my employees to work to achieve my business goals, and record accurate data, and of course refrain from stealing anything from my business. In Learning Plan 4 I learned a lot about internal controls and how they work and what they do. http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Internal-Control.topicArticleId-21081,articleId-21006.html This link helped me learn a bit more information than the book. I learned about bank reconciliation statements and how they are an internal control. They help by determining if the employee is accurately putting in the right information and if they aren't they are most likely stealing money. We did some practice with a bank reconciliation which helped me understand the importance of one. By doing so I learned that what the bank stated and what the company states has to be the same. http://www.accountingtools.com/bank-reconciliation-procedure I did struggle with the assessment we had to do with determining how much money an employee stole through doing a bank reconciliation. I also mostly finished up my Goals Assessment, just waiting for feedback on it and then changing anything about it from there. I learned that I have to start working to achieve my goals and making sure I succeed in doing so. Going to college and getting a degree has been one of my biggest goals in life, I think this is so, because I will be the first to go to college and actually finish, and graduate. My family is very supportive and excited about this, and so am I. Doing the Goals Assessment helped me learn more about the goals I want to achieve and helped me eliminate questions or time frames. http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html This website was very helpful as I was continuing to finish this assessment. Although there was no specific talk of internal controls or bank reconciliations. One thing I think the Movies Door to Door book relates to this learning plan is about internal controls, specifically, control procedures. Not about fraud, but about rotating duties and making sure everyone is getting their share of personal time. On page 57, Courtney talks about talking to John about getting some personal time, this will help with internal controls because some time off can help an employee clear their mind and help them work better when they come back from some time off. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19079419/ns/business-careers/t/take-vacation-it-could-help-your-career/#.UKGz-IfAeSo This article talks about how vacations can help your career. With the new concepts from this learning plan, when I get my job if I ever have to make a bank reconciliation statement I will know how to, that's a plus. Also if I am ever having some troubles with a job, such as internal controls and what not, I will know about them and can talk with a manager to clear things up.