Tuesday, May 15, 2012

MASA DEPAN DITENTUKAN DARI PILIHAN YANG KITA PILIH MASA KINI

“Perlindungan Jiwa dan Kesehatan adalah Investasi”

Berapa banyak dari kita yang bertanya-tanya akan kepastian masa yang akan datang. Kepastian akan kehidupan yang layak, aman dan sejahtera menjadi inti dari setiap pertanyaan yang muncul. Adalah sifat dasar manusia untuk terus berjuang mempertahankan kehidupan, sekaligus memenuhi tujuan hidupnya. Di era globalisasi yang menuntut kerasnya persaingan saat ini, dibutuhkan sebuah perencanaan yang matang dan terbaik untuk pencapaian masa depan yang sesuai dengan diharapkan. Sebuah rencana yang matang akan secara langsung memfasilitasi setiap orang, termasuk saya untuk menentukan pilihan dari setiap opsi yang ada, dimana pilihan tersebut akan membawa kita mewujudkan rencana yang telah dibuat.

Saat ini, saya baru memulai karir di sebuah Kantor Akuntan Publik di usia saya yang masih 20 tahun. Tentunya saya memiliki begitu banyak perencanaan di masa yang akan datang, salah satunya adalah kehidupan berkeluarga dengan semua fasilitas yang ada (rumah/apartemen, kendaraan, dsb). Dalam mewujudkan rencana ini, saya harus menentukan pilihan dari setiap opsi yang ada, dimana pilihan tersebut mendukung perencanaan yang telah saya buat. Satu pilihan penting yang telah saya buat adalah memilih Layanan Perbankan sekitar 3 tahun yang lalu, saat saya mahasiswa baru. Sebuah Bank yang sehat dan berkomitmen tinggi untuk kesejahteraan nasabah menjadi poin utama saat pilihan saya jatuh kepada Bank BCA untuk menjadi Bank pertama saya untuk menabung. Hal penting yang saya pertimbangkan adalah dengan besarnya jaringan Bank BCA, berarti kemudahan transaksi bagi setiap nasabah. Bank BCA menawarkan solusi perbankan yang dinamis bagi mereka yang dinamis dan membuka beragam kesempatan untuk nasabah dalam mewujudkan berbagai keinginan lewat program yang ditawarkan, seperti Agunan Kendaraan dan Rumah Hunian. Bahkan Bank BCA menawarkan sebuah produk yang menyediakan perlindungan maksimal akan kesehatan dan perlindungan jiwa, yaitu Medisave, Optishield, ProvisaMax dan Provisa Syariah

Di usia saya yang masih muda ini, saya percaya bahwa investasi terbesar adalah kesehatan yang prima dan ketenangan kondisi batin. Dengan adanya kedua hal ini, setiap perencanaan besar di masa yang akan datang, saya yakin dapat menggapainya. Hal ini termasuk kebebasan finansial di masa yang akan datang. Bank BCA menawarkan sebuah solusi perbankan untuk mengkombinasikan proteksi maksimal atas kesehatan dengan investasi, dimana hal ini dapat menjadi instrumen yang sangat berguna di masa depan. Keunggulan yang saya pelajari dari produk ini adalah di saat saya mendapatkan proteksi maksimal atas kesehatan pribadi, saya juga sementara berinvestasi untuk kehidupan pribadi dan keluarga saya 10 bahkan 25 tahun lagi (meskipun saya belum menikah saat ini). Produk perbankan ini secara langsung memperlihatkan keseriusan Bank BCA akan peningkatan taraf hidup nasabah.

Bagi saya, perencanaan yang matang akan diuji dengan kesiapan kita untuk menentukan pilihan, dan bagi saya Bank BCA adalah salah satu pilihan terbaik yang saya buat untuk Investasi + Perlindungan Jiwa dan Kesehatan.

Monday, May 14, 2012

When I say "Mission Accomplished"!

Seruan "Mission Accomplished" memiliki arti yang sangat dalam, dimana seseorang berhasil menyelesaikan sebuah misi. Terlepas dari rangkaian waktu yang diperlukan untuk menyelesaikan misi tersebut, setiap orang pasti setuju bahwa proses adalah hal yang paling penting dalam misi tersebut. Dan artinya, sebuah

Friday, May 11, 2012

Accounting Information System Individual Assignment


Accounting Information System Individual Assignment

Lecturer: Mr. Andrey H. Pulungan

Marlon Novie Akay


Problem I _ Internal Control (pg. 206)

Analyze the internal control weaknesses in the system. Model your response according to business control goals

The study case is about the revenue cycle of a grocery store owned by Robert Smith. The store is a full range farmers’ market with a strong local customer base. The problem of this company is a declining in profits and sale; meanwhile the purchases of the products for resale have continued to rise. The company has commissioned an accounting firm to assess the company’s sales procedures and sales. Then, the revenue cycle of the company can be seen from the data flow diagram and flowchart. This type of store is using point of sale system (POS) that there is no account receivable and the customer paid the goods by using cash, credit card or check.

The way to analyze the company’s internal control weaknesses is according to business process control goals. There are two kinds of control goals: control goals of operations and control goals of information processes. Control goals of the Operation Processes are useful to ensure effectiveness of operations, the efficient employment of resources and the security of resources. Then, the control goals of information process is using for business event inputs (ensure input validity, completeness and accuracy) and for master data (update completeness and accuracy)

These are some weaknesses of the internal control system of Smith’s store with Control goals as the model.

Control goals of operating Process

      1. Effectiveness of operation

      The treasury clerk is the one who counts the cash and credit card sales, meanwhile he also prepares the deposit slip and deliver the cash, credit card and check to the bank. There might be a fraud that the cash receipts are not deposited on the day received.

        1. Efficient employment of resources.

        The problem has occurred when there is no assignment of clerks to specific register. The four register are not dedicated to specific sales clerks because the clerks play many roles in day –to-day operation.

        Security of resources
        The treasury clerks should reconcile the amount of cash with the register tape; otherwise he just counted the cash and credit card sales after the shift supervisor gave the register drawers to him.

        Control goals of Information process

            1. Input validity

            The information of the actual sales input could be not supported by customer payment, because the clerk in treasury department did not ensure the amount of the cash drawers with the amount recorded in register tape.

            Input completeness
            There might be an error of capturing the customer payments and entered into the system by the sales clerk because there is no specific register clerk or the error by treasury clerk.

            Input accuracy
            The sales clerk play many roles in the day operation, like checking out customers, stock shelves, unload delivery trucks or even process the sale. There might be an error of the accuracy of the goods sold by the sales clerk while processing the sale.

            Update completeness and accuracy
            Since the problem of the sales clerk and treasury clerk exists, the input cash receipts might be incorrectly recorded to the system.

            There are several problems in this store related to its revenue cycle as shown above. The store has four register, but there are no specific sales clerk to take care the sale register (cashier). Then, there is no involvement like control the process of sale by the shift supervisor. At last, the problem occurred I treasury department, because the treasury clerk is only count the cash and credit card sales without reconcile them with the register tape and then, the clerk is also the one who prepare the deposit slip and save it to the banks. However, these problems caused several opportunities that error and also fraud might happen. There will be some errors on the registering

            the sale by the sales clerk and since there is no sales’ reconciliation or even prepare the cash reconciliation form, the shift supervisor or the treasury clerk can corrupt the money and check.

            After knowing the weaknesses, there are several suggestions to fix these problems.

                1. The store manager has to find out the suspect of this problem of why the profit has declined while the order of the products has increase. It could be the sales clerk or shift supervisor or treasury clerk or maybe all of them.

                Then, after knowing the suspects, the store may do the punishment and create a better revenue cycle by considering the following:

                    1. The store must have the specific sales clerk that taking cares the sales register.
                    2. The shift supervisor should control the process of payment of the customers by the specific sales clerks.
                    3. The treasury clerk must reconcile the cash and credit card sales with the amount on the register tape and after that prepare a cash reconciliation form and give one copy to the sales clerk as a receipt for cash remitted.

                    Public Private Partnership in Indonesia

                    One of the elements in the development of the economy is where the government and private sector jointly work together to achieve public prosperity. Initiatives to join as a team between government and private sector can be defined as Public Private Partnerships (PPP). In other words, A PPP infrastructure project involves both the public and private sector. Government of Indonesia (GOI) targeted growth of 7% for the economy field, and PPPs is expected can be an important tool to achieve the goal, specifically in the improvement of the Indonesia’s Infrastructure which in some areas is considered sorely lacking. The further improvement of infrastructure may contributed significantly to the economic growth of the country and resulted to greater economic success in the future as it will creates more job opportunities and increase the domestic consumption.
                    Recently, the government has set the development plan which includes time frame and investment rate of the infrastructure projects in Indonesia for the year 2010 – 2014. The infrastructure investment is aimed to meet the basic needs and improve the competitiveness of Indonesian products. Government encourages the participation of the private sector to inject greater efficiency in the projects and related services. Under the Public Private Partnerships Infrastructure Project Plans 2010 – 2014, Indonesia Infrastructure financing requirement is Rp. 1,429 trillion (about USD 140 billion). Meanwhile, government funding capacity is only about one-third of that amount. Therefore, the remaining 69% or Rp. 978 trillion is expected to be covered by the private sector through PPP.
                    Realizing the importance to cover the financing gap, Central Government through Presidential Regulation No. 67 of 2005 which further revised by the New Presidential Regulation No. 13 of 2010 to regulate the Infrastructure Development process through PPP. Aside from the President Regulation, Government has also established several element of legal foundation for its PPP projects to promote investment in infrastructure, including laws for specific business sectors (Railway, Shipping, Waste Management, Aviation, Mineral and Coal Mining, Land Transportation and Electricity); establishment of the Indonesia Infrastructure Financing Facility (IIFF) and the Indonesian Infrastructure Guarantee Fund (PT Penjaminan Infrastruktur Indonesia (Persero) or “IIGF”), the IIGF is established and mandated by Ministry of Finance to provide guarantees for PPP infrastructure projects; the establishment of Project Development Facility under supervision of Bappenas; and also the issuance of a PPP Book for the period 2010 – 2014 that contains highlight of PPP preparation and also to attract prospective investors.
                    Despite the Government has decorated PPP with a captivating insurance, in various cases of infrastructure projects, there are some uncertainties remain in the evolving regulatory framework for the projects. According to Minister of Finance, Agus Martowardjojo, the infrastructure projects under the PPP scheme have not run well as expected. One example of the project with a good progress is Central Java Power Plant, but the other developments have been very slow. In the PPP Infrastructure Projects Plan in Indonesia, there are 33 Project that were in PPP Book 2010 – 2014 eliminated due to lack of progress made by the Contracting Agency. After 2005, there are eleven projects under PPP scheme that mostly in status of delay. There are only five PPP Projects which has been offered in 2011, which are Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal Bali, Medan to Kualanamu Toll Road North Sumatra, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Railway Jakarta, Umbulan Spring Water East Java. There are some arguments that considered as the reasons of the projects’ delay such as insufficient policy framework, negotiation process that takes more than two year long lasting period of time, but land acquisition issue remains a fundamental problem of the projects under PPP scheme.
                    The process of acquiring land for the sake of infrastructure projects is, however, not an easy process. The lack of clear regulation set in regard of acquiring land for public use and the provision of land compensation to the owner caused the projects’ delay from its being realized. There are numerous government bodies that needed to be consulted with and also a long history for acquiring an informal land ownership that gives rise to any number of individuals to claim the rights of the land. The coordination between ministries also cause the delay of the project, i.e., the “land in question” requires the approval from Ministry of Religious Affairs to make sure that the land is not been used as religious purposes, however Ministry of Forest also regulate that the land should it contravene laws on protected forest. The coordination of various ministries, local and central government and also public resistance has delayed various cases of infrastructure projects for more than 5 years. This condition addressed the need to resolve the problem arose within land acquisition. The long bureaucracy of acquiring public land for infrastructure is actually has been cut through Presidential Delivery Unit in 2009.  Despite this regulation, another problem that related to land compensation may rise. The land owner is trying to hold on their land as long as possible to appreciate the value of the land while the project progresses. And, this led to the unexpected land cost escalation. These conditions addressed the needs to eliminate all constraints in development of infrastructure, particularly the unfriendly regulations.

                    Tuesday, May 1, 2012

                    My First English Essay in President University

                    Practicing English

                    We are now living in a global society, where everything that happens in Adelaide, Australia will be known at the same time in Cikarang, Indonesia. There is a statement, “The Earth is not round anymore, but it is flat.” Hence, this globalization era can also be said as Competition Era. Nowadays, the young generation needs to have some specific skills. And then, the basic skill to compete in this era is mastery in International language –English–. In fact, it is hard to compete with others in term of job opportunities, if we cannot use English either passive or active.