NEW YORK—A 10-foot chocolate
bunny greets you as you enter the store—that should be warning enough! This
elite designer candy store, christened Dylan’s Candy Bar (DylansCandyBar.com),
is the brainchild of co-founder Dylan Lauren. Explains Dylan, “I got a business
plan together and set out to make candy my livelihood.”

This sweet-lovers’ heaven
offers more than 5,000 different choices of sweets from all over the world. It
has become a hip hangout for locals and tourists—and it has made candy cool.
Says Dylan, “Park Avenue women come in, and the first thing they ask for is
Gummi bears. They love that it’s very childhood, nostalgic.”

Although marketing is an
important part of its success, Dylan’s management of internal controls and cash
is equally impressive. Several control procedures monitor its business
activities and safeguard its assets. An example is the biometric time and
attendance control system using fingerprint characteristics. Says Dylan,
“There’s no fooling the system! It is going to help us remotely manage our
employees while eliminating human error and dishonesty. [It] is a
cost-effective and important business management tool.” Similar controls are applied
throughout the store. Dylan explains that such controls raise productivity and
cut expenses.

The store’s cash management
practices are equally impressive, including controls over cash receipts,
disbursements, and petty cash. The use of bank reconciliations further helps
with the store’s control and management of cash. Dylan explains that she takes
advantage of available banking services to enhance controls over cash.

Internal controls are crucial
when on a busy day its stores bring in thousands of customers, and their cash.
They have already expanded to three stores in New York, and one each in Houston
and Orlando. Through it all, Dylan says it is “totally fun.”

[Sources: Dylan’s Candy Bar
Website, January 2011; Entrepreneur, June 2005; NYC Official City
Guide, July 2009; The New York Times, June & March 2009; Dolce
Vita Magazine, June 2009; Luxury Insider, March 2009.]

Required

Using
Microsoft Word prepare a memo to Dylan. List the seven principles of internal
control and explain how Dylan could implement each of them in her retail
stores. Discuss the need to add controls as her business expands? Explain.