[Marc]

Hello everyone,

In an auditor’s fancy world, where employees in the accounting departments are, and segregation of duties are implemented, A request for a new vendor is made:

Now who should approve this request before it is input into the accounting system?

The question is, could the requester also be the approver – obviously I wouldn’t be asking the question if I think that this is fine, but then again, depending on the company size etc. …

I thought I’d hear what you guys have to say,

Thanks so much in advance,

Passed And got my license too ..

[FIFOisbetterthanLIFO]

Generally, a finance manager or someone in upper management should do a thorough background check to make sure that the new vendor is legit. Should be totally separate from the requester or anyone related to the procurement department.

FAR - Passed (82)
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Licensed CPA

[rbrown15]

At my organization (a small governmental body), the requestor is always a department outside of accounting. Depending on the size of the vendor, it may be approved only by the department or by the entire council before it even gets sent to accounting. The vendor then goes through a verification process in accounts payable to make sure it is legit, and the finance director and the AP manager both sign off on it before the Director of Accounts puts it into the system.

At my last job, a small nonprofit, each department (and to some extent each employee), selected their own vendors, ordered their own stuff, and then sent the bills to accounting, who just put it into the system and paid them. There were no internal controls at all. (OT slightly, but a real auditor would have a field day with those books. The one we had was friends with the director. He'd show up one day, look at the books for an hour to make sure the accounts balanced, then spend the rest of the day chatting and enjoying the free lunch. I'm so glad I wasn't in the accounting department there!)

So yes, it completely depends on the size of the firm.

[Author]

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