The Case of Discount Department Stores and Fenwick Essay

The Case of Discount Department Stores and Fenwick - Essay Example In the field of accounts and finance, internal control systems are essential to ensure accountability and transparency. Through the use of internal control system, it is easy to detect and prevent fraud, and errors. From the case study, it can be noted that at Grapevine stores things used to be operated the way anyone felt could suit him. The following are the missing internal controls; control environment, control activities, monitoring activities, and risk management. According to, (Hightower, 2009), internal controls reinforce the flow of activities in accounting and ensure accountability and responsiveness is achieved. Mr. Fenwick will conduct an assessment on the internal control mechanism adopted by the Grapevine Store and offer recommendations to make it robust. The missing internal controls have been expounded in the discussion below. According to Steinhoff, (2001), a controlled environment builds a culture among the employees for them to operate within. Assessing Grapevine Stores this is not the case. It can be identified that the employees at that store used to perform financial and accounting processes based on their thought. It is in the interest of the Discount Department Stores to have uniformity in the reporting of financial status from individual stores. Grapevine conducted their processes differently from what is recommended. Mr. Fenwick noticed that three-quarters of money expected to go in their bank account was from credit cards and a quarter from currency and cheques. The act was contrary to the policies of Discount Department Stores which states that half of the money going to the bank account should be from currency and cheques, and the other half from credit cards. This can be the reason the store was closed. The store offered excess credit services to its client, who maybe defaulted the terms and failed to pay, resulting the store to record losses. The

Promotion Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Promotion Strategies - Essay Example The new technological trends affected a lot the way companies performed the advertising of their products. There has been a major shift from offline advertising to online advertising alternatives. This paper analyzes the global changes in advertising by performing research on the subject and through the case study of Estee Lauder. Selling products online which is referred to as e-commerce has become a huge force in the retailing business. In 2006 the overall e-commerce retail sales in the United States accounted for $104 billion dollars and this segment has a great growth potential considering the online community is rapidly expanding and currently has nearly 1.1 billion users worldwide (Plunckett Research, 2007). The widespread use of the internet and the birth of the convergence age are shifting advertising dollars from traditional written press to the internet since many people are no longer using the traditional press as their primary medium for obtaining information about current affairs. The internet has replaced traditional media due to its convenience, variety of selection, and the speed of the information travels. â€Å"Printing subscription have suffered with people finding they can get news from a variety of free online sources, including new, online only publication, professional blogs and news a ggregation sites† (Holahan, 2007). Online advertising is a booming business and companies are finding that it is cheap effective way to reach mass amounts of potential customers. Estimates performed by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (AIB) determined that in the US $13 billion was spent on online advertising in 2006 and this figure is projected to grow by 87% in 2008 (Plunckett Research, 2007). Online advertising has also allowed further globalization of products worldwide. Companies in Europe are utilizing this advertising medium to target