POL00178583 - Post Office LTD - Horizon Electronic - Cash Account Review

Evidence on official site

POL00178583

POL00178583
ROYAL MAIL CONFIDENTIAL
Audit Rating: Substantial Assurance
POST OFFICE LTD
HORIZON ELECTRONIC
CASH ACCOUNT REVIEW
MARCH 2005
REPORT DISTRIBUTION
To: Antony Smyth Ernst & Young, External Auditors
For Information: David Mills Chief Executive, Post Office Ltd
Peter Corbett Finance Director, Post Office Ltd
Dave Miller Chief Operating Officer, Post Office Ltd
Vicky Noble Head of Client Accounting & Cash Management, Post
Office Ltd
Ric Francis Executive Director Operations, Post Officer Ltd
Sue Lowther Head of Information Security, Post Office Ltd
Rod Ismay Head of Risk and Control, Post Office Ltd
Derek Foster Internal Audit & Risk Management Director
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Internal Audit & Risk Management (IA&RM)
Telephone:

REPORT REF: AR3204 PAGE I OF 2
POL00178583
POLO00178583

[AL MAIL CONFIDENTIAL

Post Office counter transactions are recorded in an automated cash account within the Horizon system. The
transaction information is transferred electronically to the Counter Business Database (CBDB) for further

processing into the Post Office Ltd financial ledger.

IA&RM undertake an annual review of the Horizon system electronic cash account and the system
interfaces to CBDB in accordance with an approach agreed with Ernst & Young. The review is used to
support Ernst & Young in their review of Post Office Ltd’s financial statements. The objective of the
review is to provide assurance on the effectiveness of the controls over the Horizon electronic cash account
and the integrity of the data held on the Horizon and CBDB systems. The following is a summary of the

work completed:

¢ At the completion of week 36 cash account period a visit was made to Mosley post office. A copy
of the cash account was obtained and a reconciliation performed with the supporting documentation
on hand, e.g. weekly summaries, reports from Horizon and dockets on hand (pension and allowance

dockets, green giros etc). No discrepancies or issues were identified.

e The week 36 cash account for Mosley post office was reconstructed by cash account line-by-line
from data held in the CBDB system using the Audit Command Language (ACL). No issues were

identified over the accuracy and completeness of data held on CBDB.

¢ Fujitsu, who provide the Horizon system, supplied a data extract from their audit server that backs.
up all the transactions performed across the post office network. ACL was used to summarise the
transaction data for the week and reconciled on a line-by-line basis. Again, no discrepancies were

identified in completing the reconciliation.

As no discrepancies or issues were found during testing, [A&RM can provide substantial assurance on the
effectiveness of the controls over the Horizon electronic cash account and the integrity of the data held on

the Horizon and CBDB systems.

REPORT REF: AR3204 PAGE 2 OF 2