المحاسب الإداري المعتمد الجزء 1 E. Internal Controls

Payroll access and review at a project studio

Pelora Translation Studio

Questions: 7 Answered:

Opens full screen, like the exam.

Question of 7 Payroll access and review at a project studio

Payroll access and review at a project studio Case-based question

The case

Pelora Translation Studio pays its language specialists monthly using approved project time records. Its payroll administrator can add employees, change pay rates and bank details, calculate payroll, and release the bank payment file. No second person approves master-data changes or payment release. Most specialists are paid by bank transfer; a few specialists without local bank accounts receive printed checks from a prenumbered check stock.

Project supervisors approve hours in a separate time system. During import, the payroll application rejects unknown employee identifiers and negative hours. During calculation, it checks that every accepted time record is processed exactly once. After the run, the administrator receives an employee payment register and a payment-file total. These application checks help with data accuracy, but the administrator's work is not independently reconciled to the approved personnel roster or the bank's confirmed payment report.

The controller is considering an independent reviewer who would approve master-data changes and review payroll exceptions. The company wants to distinguish preventive controls, independent review, processing checks, and controls over payroll outputs.

Assumptions

There are 12 monthly payroll periods in a year.
Any fraud probability and effectiveness estimates given in a question are explicit scenario assumptions, not guarantees of control performance.
Ignore payroll taxes, benefits, discounting, and implementation costs unless a question supplies them.
Classify application controls by the stage they protect: entry into payroll, calculation and record processing, or completed payroll outputs.

Which fraud scenario is most directly enabled by the payroll administrator's current access at Pelora?

Answer Approving overstated project hours for a specialist in the separate time system. Importing a time record for an employee identifier that is not in the master file. Creating an unauthorized employee or changing a pay rate, then releasing the resulting payment without independent approval. Processing the same accepted time record twice during payroll calculation.

Select THREE changes that create a meaningful independent check on Pelora's payroll administrator.

Select 3 answers. Selected 0 / 3

Answer Require the administrator to repeat the same review under a second username. Require an authorized HR reviewer to approve additions and changes to employee master data before payroll uses them. Have the administrator sign a statement that every payment in the administrator's own file is valid. Have an independent accountant reconcile the payment register to approved personnel data and the bank's payment confirmation. Require a separate treasury approver to inspect the approved payroll summary before releasing the bank payment file.

For a one-year decision, assume there is a 25% probability that one fictitious worker would otherwise be paid for all 12 months at 120 hours per month and $30 per hour. Assume the proposed reviewer reduces the expected loss from this specific scheme by 80%, with no other benefits. The reviewer costs 10 hours per month at $40 per hour. What is the expected annual net monetary benefit of the reviewer? Subtract the annual reviewer cost from expected fraud loss avoided. Enter whole USD; use a negative number if cost exceeds expected benefit.

Answer USD USD

A whole number. A negative amount may be written with a minus sign or in brackets.

A Pelora payroll run uses check numbers 7605 through 7632, inclusive. Three checks in that sequence were marked void before release and are retained separately. Every other number corresponds to one valid printed check, with no gaps or duplicates. How many valid checks should be available for distribution? Enter a whole number of checks.

Answer checks checks

A whole number.

Classify each proposed application control by the stage it protects. Reject a negative hours value before accepting an imported record: Negative hours rejected at import . During payroll calculation, verify that every accepted time record is processed once and only once: Accepted records processed exactly once . After the run, compare the completed payment register with the approved disbursement total: Completed payment register reviewed . Deliver each completed payslip only to its intended employee through the secure portal: Completed payslips distributed securely . Reject an imported time record whose employee identifier is not in the approved master file: Employee identifier validated at import . Reconcile valid printed checks and retained voids to the completed check register before distribution: Printed check output reconciled .

Pelora adds a rule that rejects imported time records with missing employee identifiers. What is the primary purpose of this input control?

Answer Improve the completeness and validity of the data accepted for payroll processing. Prove that each worker actually performed all recorded hours. Authorize the final bank payment file. Ensure that each completed payslip is delivered to the right employee.

Select TWO controls that most directly restrict who can enter Pelora's payroll application and what those users may do.

Select two answers. Selected 0 / 2

Answer Have the controller review a monthly report of master-data changes after payroll is paid. Assign individual user identities, require multifactor authentication, and disable accounts promptly when access is no longer authorized. Apply role-based permissions so only authorized roles can change master data or release payments. Give all payroll staff a shared administrator password that is easy to remember. Review the total wages expense after year-end without changing any access rights.

The marks, the correct answers and the explanations appear as soon as the answers are submitted. Unanswered questions earn no marks.

Checking…