The Expenditure Cycle: I: Purchases and Cash Disbursements Procedures

Chapter 5
The Expenditure Cycle: I

Purchases and Cash
Disbursements Procedures
Introduction
The objective of the expenditure cycle is to convert the
organization’s cash into the physical materials and the human
resources it needs to conduct business. In this chapter we
concentrate on systems and procedures for acquiring raw
materials and finished goods from suppliers. We examine payroll
and fixed asset systems in the next chapter.
Most business entities operate on a credit basis and do not pay
for resources until after acquiring them. The time lag between
these events splits the procurement process into two phases:
(1) The physical phase, involving the acquisition of the resource.
(2) The financial phase, involving the disbursement of cash.
Cont..
This chapter examines the principal features of the two major
subsystems that create the expenditure cycle: (1) the purchases
processing subsystem and (2) the cash disbursements subsystem.
The chapter is organized into two main sections. The first section
provides an overview of the conceptual system, including the
logical tasks, the key entities, the sources and uses of information,
and the flow of key documents through an organization. The
second section deals with the physical system.
THE CONCEPTUAL SYSTEM
Overview of purchases and cash disbursements activities:

Using data flow diagrams (DFDs) as a guide, we will trace the
sequence of activities through two of the processes that constitute
the expenditure cycle for most retail, wholesale, and manufacturing
organizations. These are purchases processing and cash
disbursements procedures. Payroll and fixed asset systems, which also
support the expenditure cycle, are covered in Chapter 6.
Purchases Processing Procedures
Purchases procedures include the tasks involved in identifying
inventory needs, placing the order, receiving the inventory, and
recognizing the liability. The relationships between these tasks are
presented with the DFD in Figure 5-1. In general, these procedures
apply to both manufacturing and retailing firms. A major
difference between the two business types lies in the way
purchases are authorized. Manufacturing firms purchase raw
materials for production, and their purchasing decisions are
authorized by the production planning and control function.
Merchandising firms purchase finished goods for resale. The
inventory control function provides the purchase authorization for
this type of firm.
Figure 5-1; DFD for Purchase System
Cont..
The following are the Purchase Processing Procedures:
 Monitor inventory records.
 Prepare purchase order.
 Receive goods.
 Update inventory records.
 Set up accounts payable.
 Post to general ledger.
The cash disbursements systems
The cash disbursements system processes the payment of obligations

created in the purchases system. The principal objective of this system is to
ensure that only valid creditors receive payment and that amounts paid are
timely and correct. If the system makes payments early, the firm forgoes
interest income that it could have earned on the funds. If obligations are
paid late, however, the firm will lose purchase discounts or may damage its
credit standing. Figure 5-10 presents a DFD conceptually depicting the
information flows and key tasks of the cash disbursements system.
Cont..
Cont..
The following are the procedures to do when doing cash
disbursements:
 Identify liabilities due.
 Prepare cash disbursement.
 Update AP record.
 Post to general ledger.
EXPENDITURE CYCLE CONTROLS
MANUAL SYSTEM
The purpose of this section is to support the conceptual
treatment of systems presented in the previous section. This
should help you imagine the relationships between
organizational units, the segregation of duties, and the
information flows essential to operations and effective
internal control. In addition, we will highlight inefficiencies
intrinsic to manual systems, which gave rise to improved
technologies and techniques used by modern systems.
Purchases Processing Procedures
Under the manual systems, Purchases Processing Procedures flow the
following steps below:
 Inventory Control.
 Purchasing Department.
 Receiving.
 AP Department.
 General Ledger Department.
The cash disbursements systems
Under the manual systems, The cash disbursements systems flow the
following steps below:
 AP Department.
 Cash Disbursements Department.
 AP Department.
 General Ledger Department.
COMPUTER-BASED PURCHASES AND CASH
DISBURSEMENTS APPLICATIONS
In Chapter 4 we presented a technology range with
automation at the low end and reengineering at the high
end. Recall that automation involves using technology to
improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a task, while the
objective of reengineering is to eliminate nonvalue–added
tasks. Reengineering involves replacing traditional
procedures with innovative procedures that are often very
different from those previously in place. In this section we
see how both automation and reengineering techniques
apply in purchases and cash disbursement systems.
Automating purchases procedures using
batch processing technology
The automated batch system has some procedures similar to the many manual
procedures presented in in the previous sections. The principal difference is
that accounting (bookkeeping) tasks are now automated. The following section
describes the sequence of events as they occur in this system:
 Data Processing Department: 1st
 Purchasing Department.
 Data Processing Department: 2nd
 Receiving Department.
 Data Processing Department: 3rd
 Accounts Payable.
 Data Processing Department: 4th
Cash disbursements procedures
 Data Processing Department.
 Cash Disbursements Department.
 Accounts Payable Department.
Reengineering the purchases/cash disbursements
system
CONTROL IMPLICATIONS
In the following section we observe the issues specific to the
expenditure cycle by focusing on the differences between an
automated and a reengineered system.
The Automated System:
 Improved inventory control.
 Better cash management.
 Purchasing bottleneck.
 Excessive paper documents.
The Reengineered System:
 Segregation of duties.
 Accounting records and access controls.
End

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Chapter 5

The Expenditure Cycle: I

Overview of purchases and cash disbursements activities:

The cash disbursements system processes the payment of obligations

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