PROCEDURES FOR MAKING PAYMENT

Content:

Meaning i.e. cash, bank transfer, cheque, bank draft, e-payment.
Wages and Salaries Office.

Methods of Paying Wages.

Store Records-Delivery Note, Gate Pass.

There are various means of settling a bill in business transactions. They include:

payment by cash
Payment by cheque: This is done by instructing the bank to pay our supplier from the money in our bank accounts.
Payment by bank draft: A bank draft is a means of payment which the bank is guaranteeing on behalf of this customer. While a customer’s cheque can bounce, the bank draft cannot. The cheque and bank draft means of payment enables us to pay a large sum of money without the risk of carrying physical cash

WAGES AND SALARIES OFFICE:

The wages and salaries office is a section in an accounts department which is responsible for preparation and payment of wages or salaries of employees in the organization. This office keeps good accounting records of all the wages and salaries earned by the staff in the organization.

THE ROLES OF WAGES AND SALARIES OFFICE

Preparation of Vouchers: A voucher can be defined simply as a document representing evidence of payment
Preparation of Payrolls: They prepare payrolls i.e. tabulated statement of salaries and wages entitlement
Issuance of pay Advice:- They issue pay advice. The pay advice is a document issued to staff members of a business organization indicating the net amount of salary payable to a staff after deductions.
Calculation of Wages: The term wages usually refers to payment given to non-permanent worked staff or labour in the factory and one-of engagement. Such amount can be curried out using hours worked multiplied by rate of pay per hour. Alternatively, it can be calculated using the units of production. This method is calculated using number of units produced multiplied by the rate of pay per unit.

A given amount of bonus can also be added to any of the above methods as required by management.

METHODS OF PAYING WAGES

Time rate: This is a system of paying wages to workers based on time spent on the job which can be hourly or on a day’s work
Piece rate: The amount earned as wages is related to the work done. This method can acts as an incentive to increase output.
Profit-sharing method: This is a method of paying wages under which a worker gets a standard wage and also gets an agreed part of the profit.
Commission basis: Usually this system applies to salesmen who are paid a certain percentage of their total sales. While in some organizations salesmen are paid only a commission, in other organizations salesmen have a fixed wages and they are paid a certain percentage of their total sales.
Premium bonus system: This is a system where a worker is offered a bonus for time saved. Here wages are paid based on a standard time for a given job. For instance, where two hours are given as a standard time to complete a job and a worker is able to satisfactorily complete the job in one hour, then such worker receives a bonus for one hour saved for the organization.

STOCK RECORDS

Stock refers to goods which are offered for sales or material which are to be used for production. In businesses, raw materials for producing goods and equipment needed for making other goods can be kept in a store. Hence, a store is a place where materials or goods are kept for future use.

In order to avoid theft, pilfering, shortage or loss, proper stock records are compulsory in business organization. The store records as used in organization include the following:

Stock Requisition Form

This document is used to collect stocks from the store. It stipulates the quantity of stocks required and the reason for the request. This document helps to ensure orderliness in the movement of stocks in and out of the store. It helps also to detect theft of stocks from the store.

Stock Card

This is a document prepared for each item of material to show how stock is being issued from the store, the date on which the item is being issued, the department that made the request and the balance in the store.

Purchase Requisition Form

This is the document completed by the purchase department whenever the stock falls to a reorder level and stock needs to be replenished.

Delivery Note/Gate Pass: This is a document that serves as an evidence or proof that a certain quantity of goods has been authorized to be carried from the store. The storekeeper must sign this and it must be prepared in four copies: a copy for the store, one as agate pass, the original for the person collecting the goods from the store and the last copy is retained in the book.

STOCK – TAKING

This is the physical count of stocks in the store periodically. It could be quarterly, monthly, annually or bi-annually.

Advantages or importance of stock – taking:

It helps to prevent theft of stocks
It enables the stock keeper to know the minimum and maximum re-order levels
It helps to reveal slow-moving stocks
It helps to prevent pilfering of stock
It enables the accounts department to ascertain the end –of-the year figure for stock for final accounts preparation.

Types of Stock Taking

Annual stock taking
Periodic stock taking

Perpetual stock taking