There is nothing in this arrangement that would cause systematic undercharges. If the operators failed to enter a promotional price or failed to change the promotional price back to the regular price, a systematic overcharge or undercharge could occur. However, that would not be unique to the practice of using operators to change prices, as it could occur regardless of who was responsible for the job. Having operators enter price changes into the system would not give operators any advantage if they wanted to give competitors notice of the promotional prices. If an operator who makes sales has the authority to also change prices in the system, that operator could temporarily change a price without authorization and then make a prearranged sale of the item to a friend. This would be of concern with any inventory item, but it is even more of a concern when the product being sold is a high-priced consumer item. This is an example of the importance of segregation of duties. When orders are entered into a system, the price charged is whatever price is in effect at that time. Frequent price changes will not overload the order entry system.
|