10.10 homework

陈婉婷

1.        How do you reconcile the supplier statement?
I will open accounts payable ledger to compare it with the statement, credit note, invoice or other source documents. Firstly, I will make sure the opening balance between the supplier statement and my supplier ledger equal. Then, I will mark a tick to each matched items to eliminate them from the reconciliation process. After that, I collect credit notes and allocate them to invoices or refunds received as required. Finally, I will analyse the remaining items that has not been eliminated, which may indicate timing difference between our accounts payable recording and suppliers’ statements, or possible errors , or omissions.
2.        How do you do the coding? Asset, expense and prepayment
In Myob, I open accounts list at accounts model, and then hit “new” to open a window to create account of asset, expense or prepayment. Prepayment is one type of asset, and assets’ code begins with “1”. Expense’s codes begin with 6. I will give the new asset or expense account  the code that is close to its similar account.
3.        How do you correct a supplier invoice incorrectly entered?
If the supplier invoice hasn’t been paid out, then I will immediately correct it before it has been paid. If the supplier invoice has been paid, then I record another supplier invoice when the payment is more than its correct amount instead of asking refund from the supplier so as to maintain good relationship with the supplier. However, when I paid less than the correct bill, then I create a second record of additional amount of the invoice, and pay the extra money to the supplier.  
If the error is that I incorrectly recorded a invoice to a wrong supplier, then I will hit “enter purchase” and create a debit note with a blank amount for the supplier. After that, I locate and open this transaction and hit “edit” at the top and hit “reverse the transaction”, which records the money received from this supplier who I had sent the payment wrongly. At this moment, I can record the invoice to the correct supplier and the payment to the correct supplier as normal.

4.        How do you handle credit note from supplier?
When I receive credit note from supplier, which means the money owed by me is reduced, I will record the credit note at “enter purchase” of purchase module.  Then, I enter the credit note number, date and description in the newly opened window, and debit account “credit from suppliers”, which is an expense account, and then I put in a negative number to this account. After that, I hit “pay bills” and enter this supplier, and in the window newly opened, I will apply this credit note to debit purchased from this supplier or open register to receive refund from the supplier.

5.        What are the policies and guidelines on AP in your current company?
In my current company, the AP policies and guidelines are:
First, quotation and purchase order are created by sales department, when getting the manager’s approval, AP created a purchase bill and record it into the accounting software. After the products has been received and matched via the delivery note by the department accepting the products, AP received a sales invoice. AP will enter the invoice into the system and checked the discount policy and decide which day to pay the amount to take the maximum discount. On the date determined before, AP will record “pay bill” in MYOB and pays the bill to AR of supplier.
6.        How do you handle the situation when supplier chasing payments?
Firstly, I will make sure every invoice received from the supplier will be paid in time and their discount policy set in the invoice has been utilised by my organization. Secondly, if the supplier chases payments, I will friendly have a chat with them, and tell them our organization values credit reputation to assure their concerns about our payment on time. Under the most undesirable circumstance when my organization doesn’t have enough cash to pay bills, I will prioritize payments that are due and urgent, or related to electricity and water such necessary daily expense, or from governments’ bill.

7.        What is your company/s collection process?
In my company, before setting a customer to be able to pay later than the service or product provided,  the customer’s credit class will be checked. The Credit  Application Form will be filled by the potential customer, and AR will check reference for the credit history by the customer. Once getting the manager’s approval, the confirmed letter will be sent to the customer and the sales to set up the customer credit account.

After the customer buys our service or product, I record his purchase. Then on the first day of each week, I will send an email to remind him friendlily that he needs to pay us. One day before the due date, I will send a message to his phone to remind him friendly and inform that if the payment is after the due date, an interest rate will apply. After the due date, I will call his number and ask whether he faces any financial difficulties and whether I can offer help. During the phone call, I should still remain friendly but firm attitude. If he doesn’t receive my phone call, I will look for his address to talk to him face to face. If he really has money issues so he cannot pay, or he answers that “if my client pays me then I will pay you”, I will suggest payments divided into a few periods so he can accept it. If the customer goes bankrupt, then I will ask my manager and after the manager’s approval, I will debit bad debt expense and credit allowance for doubtful debt. I will search legal help to get payment from the customer as the last resort. Eventually if I still can’t get paid, I will debit allowance for doubtful debt and credit the account receivable after my manager’s approval.
  
8.        How do you follow up payments on overdue invoices?
The same as the last question:
After the due date, I will call his number and ask whether he faces any financial difficulties and whether I can offer help. During the phone call, I should still remain friendly but firm attitude. If he doesn’t receive my phone call, I will look for his address to talk to him face to face. If he really has money issues so he cannot pay, or he answers that “if my client pays me then I will pay you”, I will suggest payments divided into a few periods so he can accept it. If the customer goes bankrupt, then I will ask my manager and after the manager’s approval, I will debit bad debt expense and credit allowance for doubtful debt. I will search legal help to get payment from the customer as the last resort. Eventually if I still can’t get paid, I will debit allowance for doubtful debt and credit the account receivable after my manager’s approval.


Behaviour questions

1.        Which one you will feel more comfortable, in a team or work alone?
I feel more comfortable when I work alone, but I am also a good team player. In my previous job, when there are a large volumn of invoice to record, in order to be efficient, I tend to work alone, and working alone enables me to be focused on checking any possible discrepancies between invoice and order or between statement and invoice. However, I take pride in my team work capability. Working in a group ignite new ideas and helps each individuals to consider more comprehensively.  I believe that if we want to walk quickly, we need to walk alone; but if we want to walk further, we need to walk together. Thus, I know the significance of working in a team, and in my job my colleagues and I appreciate each other’s team spirit, without which the team goal can never be achieved.
(example?)
2.        Can you work independently when required?
Yes. I can work independently when required. In my previous job during reconciliation stage, working alone focused on calculating totals and checking any possible discrepancies is a routine duty for me. When I face challenges, I firstly will seek help from my past notes or do research online, trying my best to figure out the way to solve the problem. My previous manager didn’t need to worry about supervising me as his additional work. He is a result-oriented person and the outcome I fulfilled has said it all to him that I am capable to work alone to do the task allocated to me, such as processing AP, AR and payroll, together with reconciling bank account.

3.        What management style you are most comfortable with?
I am most comfortable with a result-oriented and fair management style. Ideally, the management set a strategy, direction and the expected outcome for the team to achieved, then the management allocate the work fairly and set a timeline regarding the different stages of the project. I will set smaller timeline related to my own work, and I know that my part of work may affect others’ part of work so I will strictly follow my schedule and never lag behind the set time line.

4.        The successful candidate must possess the ability to meet working deadlines. How do you rate yourself in meeting deadlines?
I am good at time management and working under pressure. When I received a task, I set a detailed timeline of various stages to help achieve the work.  I will have a daily “to do list” and weekly schedule for what has to be done. Because of this, I rate myself 8 out of 10 to meet the deadline. I never miss deadline in any project and if necessary, I am much willing to work overtime to get the job done.

5.        How do you prioritise your job?
I prioritise team job over my individual job. Because my part of work may be more likely to affect others’ processing of their work in a team project, so I always finish my task of a team project first before I go about my individual task.
Besides, I will set a schedule about urgent and important tasks, urgent but not important tasks, important but not urgent tasks and not important and not urgent tasks, and follow the importance and urgency degrees of my duties to do my job.