How do you verify accounts receivable?

To keep your small business profitable, you must audit your cash receipts and accounts receivables periodically. If you follow a money trail for your cash and deposits, as well as your customer orders that are paid on credit, you will uncover any mistakes or fraudulent transactions. Examine the types of controls a business should have for cash and accounts receivable, and you will have a plan for auditing transactions.

Cash and Check Totals

  1. Compare deposits to your register and invoice totals. These totals should exactly match for the period being audited. If your deposits are less than your register and invoice totals, you have a cash-handling problem in your operation.

  2. Examine deposit slips to find cash and check totals. If the grand total matches your sales figures, but the cash total does not match what you showed was taken in as cash, you may be a victim of lapping. Lapping is where an employee removes a check from the register before it gets recorded. The day’s sales are reported without the check. The next day the employee places the check in the register and removes an identical amount of cash. Your sales totals match your deposit totals, but you lost money. When cash totals and check totals do not match your records, this is an indication that someone is removing money from the register.

  3. Compare inventory figures to sales figures. Your employees should only be taking items out of inventory when there is a sale. If you find your employees have removed more inventory than you sold, this may indicate some orders were never recorded and that the cash was pocketed.

  4. Complete your cash audit by noting any discrepancies in the amount of inventory removed from stock, cash totals, check totals and deposit totals. Completing your cash audit in this way will reveal exactly where the problem is occurring in your cash handling.

Accounts Receivable

  1. Examine customer orders. Your accounts receivable represent customer purchases that were made on credit. In other words, you agreed to invoice your customers and let them pay at a later date. Examine the orders you wrote up and compare them to the invoices you sent out. You should find identical numbers on the invoices and the order forms.

  2. Compare invoices to checks and receipts. You should have a check for each invoice you issued, and the amounts should match exactly. If you have an invoice and no check, you must examine your deposit records to see if you deposited a check, and you should contact the customer to ask if she paid the invoice. If your research shows you that the invoice was paid, but the check did not make it to the bank, you may have a problem with your controls for accounts receivable income. At that point, look to see if you issued a receipt. If a receipt confirms the invoice was paid, the problem lies in how the check was handled -- or mishandled.

  3. Examine your bills of lading from the shipping department. This is a document included in shipments to tell the customer exactly what was shipped. Your shipping department should send copies of these bills of lading to the billing department. If you discover that an invoice was not sent that matches a bill of lading, you know you failed to bill a customer.

Total Cash and Receivables

  1. Total your outstanding accounts receivable. Any invoices that customers have not paid count as outstanding accounts receivable. Add your outstanding accounts receivable, your total cash deposits and your check deposits. You may also add in any figures for invoices that were paid by credit cards. This figure represents your total revenues for the period.

  2. Your total revenues should equal your gross sales figure for the period you are auditing. If the figures do not match, examine your system for handling sales transactions to find where the problem is occurring.

  3. File a copy of all of your internal audits and review them periodically. In particular, you should note any outstanding accounts receivable that show up on several auditing reports. This may indicate you have a collection problem.

  • Collection of Accounts Receivable At the Closing, the Seller will turn over to the Buyers, for collection only, the accounts receivable of the Station owing to the Seller as of the close of business on the Closing Date. A schedule of such accounts receivable will be delivered by the Seller to the Buyers on the Closing Date or as soon thereafter as possible. The Buyers agree to use commercially reasonable efforts in the ordinary course of business (but without responsibility to institute legal or collection proceedings) to collect such accounts receivable during the 120-day period following the Closing Date, and will remit all payments received on such accounts during each calendar month during this 120-day period on the one hundred twentieth (120th) day together with an accounting of all payments received within such period. The Buyers shall have the sole right to collect such accounts receivable during such one hundred twenty (120) day period. In the event the Buyers receive monies during the 120-day period following the Closing Date from an advertiser who, after the Closing Date, is advertising over any of the Station, and that advertiser was included among the accounts receivable as of the Closing Date, the Buyer shall apply said monies to the oldest outstanding balance due on the particular account, except in the case of a "disputed" account receivable. For purposes of this Section 6(d), a "disputed" account receivable means one which the account debtor refuses to pay because he asserts that the money is not owed or the amount is incorrect. In the case of such a disputed account, the Buyers shall immediately return the account to the Seller prior to expiration of the 120-day period following the Closing Date. If the Buyers return a disputed account to the Seller, the Buyers shall have no further responsibility for its collection and may accept payment from the account debtor for advertising carried on any of the Station after the Closing Date. At the end of the 120-day period following the Closing Date, the Buyers will turn back to the Seller all of the accounts receivable of the Station as of the Closing Date owing to the Seller which have not yet been collected, and the Buyers will thereafter have no further responsibility with respect to the collection of such receivables. During the 120-day period following the Closing Date, the Buyers shall afford the Seller reasonable access to the accounts receivable "aging list." The Seller acknowledges and agrees that the Buyers are acting as its collection agent hereunder for the sole benefit of the Seller and that Buyers have accepted such responsibility for the accommodation of the Seller. The Buyer shall not have any duty to inquire as to the form, manner of execution or validity of any item, document, instrument or notice deposited, received or delivered in connection with such collection efforts, nor shall the Buyers have any duty to inquire as to the identity, authority or rights of the persons who executed the same. The Seller shall indemnify Buyers and hold them harmless from and against any judgments, expenses (including attorney's fees) costs or liabilities which the Buyers may incur or sustain as a result of or by reason of such collection efforts.

  • Verification of Accounts Secured Party shall have the right, at any time or times hereafter, in its name or in the name of a nominee of Secured Party, to verify the validity, amount or any other matter relating to any Accounts, by mail, telephone, telegraph or otherwise.

  • Accounts Receivable All Accounts Receivable of the Company and the Company Subsidiary that are reflected on the Balance Sheet or on the accounting records of the Company as of the Closing Date represent or will represent valid obligations arising from sales actually made or services actually performed in the ordinary course of business of the Company. Unless paid prior to the Closing Date, such Accounts Receivable are or will be as of the Closing Date collectible net of an appropriate reserve shown on the Balance Sheet or on the accounting records of the Company as of the Closing Date (which reserves are adequate and calculated consistent with past practice). Each of such Accounts Receivable either has been or will be collected in full, without any set-off, within one hundred twenty (120) days after the day on which it first becomes due and payable. There is no contest, claim, or right of set-off under any Contract with any obligor of any Accounts Receivable relating to the amount or validity of such Accounts Receivable. Disclosure Schedule 3.27 contains a complete and accurate list of all Accounts Receivable as of the date of the hereof, which list sets forth the aging of such Accounts Receivable.

  • Collection of Accounts Borrower shall have the right to collect all Accounts, unless and until an Event of Default has occurred and is continuing. Bank shall require that all proceeds of Accounts from Account Debtors which have their principal place of business in the United States be deposited by Borrower into a lockbox account, or such other “blocked account” as specified by Bank, pursuant to a blocked account agreement in such form as Bank may specify in its good faith business judgment. Whether or not an Event of Default has occurred and is continuing, Borrower shall immediately deliver all payments on and proceeds of such Accounts to an account maintained with Bank to be applied (i) prior to an Event of Default, pursuant to the terms of Section 2.8(b) hereof, and (ii) after the occurrence and during the continuance of an Event of Default, pursuant to the terms of Section 9.4 hereof. At all times when Borrower is Streamline Eligible, provided no Event of Default has occurred and is continuing, funds in the blocked account will be remitted to Borrower’s Designated Deposit Account, but at all other times, such collections shall be applied to reduce the Obligations on a daily basis, prior to being deposited into Borrower’s Designated Deposit Account.

  • Collection of Accounts; Payments (a) The Borrower shall establish a lock-box service for collections of Accounts at a bank acceptable to the Agent and pursuant to documentation satisfactory to the Agent. The Borrower shall instruct all Account Debtors to make all payments directly to the address established for such service. If, notwithstanding such instructions, the Borrower receives any proceeds of Accounts, it shall receive such payments as the Agent's trustee, and shall immediately deliver such payments to the Agent in their original form duly endorsed in blank or deposit them into a Payment Account, as the Agent may direct. All collections received in any such lock-box or Payment Account or directly by the Borrower or the Agent, and all funds in any Payment Account or other account to which such collections are deposited shall be subject to the Agent's sole control. The Agent or the Agent's designee may, at any time after the occurrence and during the continuance of an Event of Default, notify Account Debtors that the Accounts have been assigned to the Agent and of the Agent's security interest therein, and may collect them directly and charge the collection costs and expenses to the Borrower's Loan Account as a Revolving Loan. So long as an Event of Default has occurred and is continuing, the Borrower, at the Agent's request, shall execute and deliver to the Agent such documents as the Agent shall require to grant the Agent access to any post office box in which collections of Accounts are received.

  • Notification of Account Debtors MLBFS may notify any Account Debtor that its Account or Chattel Paper has been assigned to MLBFS and direct such Account Debtor to make payment directly to MLBFS of all amounts due or becoming due with respect to such Account or Chattel Paper; and MLBFS may enforce payment and collect, by legal proceedings or otherwise, such Account or Chattel Paper.

  • Accounts Receivables Each existing Account constitutes, and each hereafter arising Account will, when such Account arises, constitute, the legally valid and binding obligation of the Account Debtor, except where the failure to do so could not reasonably be expected, individually or in the aggregate, to materially adversely affect the value or collectability of the Accounts included in the Collateral, taken as a whole. No Account Debtor has any defense, set-off, claim or counterclaim against any Grantor that can be asserted against the Administrative Agent, whether in any proceeding to enforce the Administrative Agent’s rights in the Accounts included in the Collateral, or otherwise, except for defenses, setoffs, claims or counterclaims that could not reasonably be expected, individually or in the aggregate, to materially adversely affect the value or collectability of the Accounts included in the Collateral, taken as a whole. None of the Grantors’ accounts receivables are, nor will any hereafter arising account receivable be, evidenced by a promissory note or other Instrument (other than a check) that has not been pledged to the Administrative Agent in accordance with the terms hereof.

  • Accounts Receivable; Accounts Payable (a) All of the accounts receivable of the Company and its Subsidiaries are reflected on the Company’s balance sheet (the “Balance Sheet”) at December 31, 2007 (the “Balance Sheet Date”) in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and represent bona fide completed sales made in the ordinary course of business, are valid claims and, to the Company’s best knowledge, are not subject to any set offs or counterclaims and are fully collectible in the normal course of business after deducting the reserve set forth in the Company’s Balance Sheet. Since the Balance Sheet Date, the Company and its Subsidiaries have collected their respective accounts receivable in the ordinary course and in a manner that is consistent with their prior practices. Neither the Company nor any of its Subsidiaries has any accounts receivable or loans receivable from any Person that is an Affiliate of the Company or any of its Subsidiaries or from any director, officer or employee of the Company or any of its Subsidiaries or any Affiliate thereof.

  • Notes and Accounts Receivable All notes and accounts receivable of Target are reflected properly on the Most Recent Balance Sheet in accordance with GAAP, are valid receivables subject to no setoffs or counterclaims, are current and collectible, and, will be collected in accordance with their terms at their recorded amounts, subject only to the reserve for bad debts set forth on the face of the Most Recent Balance Sheet (rather than in any notes thereto) as adjusted for the passage of time through the Closing Date in accordance with the past custom and practice of Target.

  • Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable All of the accounts receivable of the Company are actual and bona fide accounts receivable representing obligations for the total dollar amount thereof showing on the books of the Company, and the accounts receivable are not and will not be subject to any recoupments, set-offs or counter-claims, except to the extent provided for in the Adjusted December 31, 1998 Balance Sheet. Exhibit 5.35 sets forth a true and correct aged (30-60-90 days) list of all accounts receivable and accounts payable of the Company as of the end of the calendar month preceding the date hereof.

  • What do auditors look for in accounts receivable?

    The objectives of an AR audit During an audit, the auditor will try to determine whether: Your balance sheet reflects your accounts receivable accurately. Refund records for returned items are accurate. Proper measures are taken to prevent misappropriation of non-electronic payments in the form of cash and checks.

    What type of audit evidence is accounts receivable?

    Confirmations are one type of audit evidence an auditor will use to find out if the data being audited is recorded properly. Customers confirm accounts receivable, just as vendors confirm accounts payable data.

    What is the main reason for confirming accounts receivable?

    In many situations, both confirmation of accounts receivable and other substantive tests of details are necessary to reduce audit risk to an acceptably low level for the applicable financial statement assertions.