Summary Paper

Herff Jones

4501 W 62nd Street

Indianapolis, IN 46268

317.297.3741

Section 1: Description

Company History

Herff Jones is one of the largest employee-owned companies in the United States.

Employee ownership at Herff Jones is working with 4,000 committed and dedicated employee

owners. Herff Jones has been a very stable employer for many employees over the years.

Herff Jones was founded on January 6, 1920, by Harry Herff and Randall Jones, who

were both working in the ring business for another ring employer in Ohio. As operations grew,

fine papers, yearbooks, photography, maps and globes, jewelry, and caps and gowns were added

to the company’s operating units. In 1989, an Employee Stock Ownership Program was

organized and provided the initial opportunity for all employees to begin individual ownership of

the Company. Since 1995, Herff Jones has been a 100% employee-owned company.

Goods/Services

Herff Jones provides several products to many of their customers; these products

including: class rings and jewelry, yearbooks, photography, educational publishing, motivation

and recognition, robes and apparel, maps and globes, sports awards, and most famously caps and

gown. They sell these products to:

Schools and Universities

Religious Organizations

Retailers

Judiciary

Sports Organizations

Frats and Sororities

General Rules/Policies

See Attached Pages

Employee Benefits

Employee benefits for salaried employees include:

Dental DPO

Employee Stock Ownership

A Flexible Spending Account

Healthcare, Basic Life, Accidental Death and Dismemberment

Long Term Disability Care

Optional Supplemental Life Insurance

Paid Vacations

Personal Accident Insurance

Profit Sharing

Salaried Long Term Disability

Vision Summary Plan

Voluntary Term Life Insurance

Organization Chart

The attached charts are the organization of the Tax and Credit Departments that I

work for:

My Supervisor

My supervisor’s name is Amy Harvey. She is the Corporate Credit Manager in the

Administration building at Herff Jones. She graduated from the University of

Indianapolis with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration/Accounting. From

there, she worked for Bank One in their Mortgage Industries department for 15 years. She

was then offered a job at Herff Jones and has been working there for the past 10 years.

My Position and Duties

My official position at Herff Jones is a Summer Intern in both the Credit and Tax

Departments. During the five day week, three days are spent in the credit department and

the other two in the tax department. The primary reason for this is because the credit

department has a wide variety of tasks for me to do. They include:

Refunds-giving people money back for a duplicate payment, overpayment, or

merchandise return

Yearbook transfers-transferring credits a customer has on account to their payment of the

next year’s yearbook

Write-offs-getting rid a balance on a customer’s account because it is a small balance, it

is uncollectible, they were issued a tax credit, or they are a prepaid account.

Match Credits and Debits-cleaning up an account that has multiple credits and debits to

give them one invoice with a single balance

Credit Card Payments and Receipts-filling out paperwork to issue a credit card payment

for a customer and sending them the receipt via e-mail, mail, or fax.

Looking up checks and their backup- I do this to see if a customer should be issued a

refund or if they still owe more money

And other various tasks such as: pulling invoices from our file system, W-9 requests,

looking up deposits, and finding vendor numbers.

The tasks that the tax department gives me include:

Entering journal entries into an Excel spreadsheet for both withholding information and

unemployment insurance.

Doing the reconciliation for the withholding journal entries.

Filing away various tax papers such as mail certifies, withholding and U/I papers, check

requests, and HJ Inc and Subs.

Tax certificates- take faxes and mail that contain tax exempt certificates, write the

customer name and number at the top, highlight and sort into piles.

Checks- take a stack of invoices and a stack of checks, sort the invoice and put it with the

corresponding check, make sure the amounts are the same, and mail check and invoice in

envelope.

Skills Learned

I have not only learned a wide variety of skills, but also expanded on the

knowledge of my current skills. Both my people skills (soft) and financial abilities (hard)

have improved greatly over the last four months of me working there. Some of these

skills include:

Networking-building connections with coworkers so they can help you with something I

may not know how to do

Communication-being able to communicate well in person and via email in a professional

manner that enhances the rate at which work is completed

Professionalism- Not only does this include me dressing properly for work; it also

includes my ability to successfully conduct business with coworkers.

Encrypted CDs- I know how to work with encrypted CDs and how to access the available

information on them; in my case, the information I’m gathering is checks.

PeopleSoft- The main directory Herff Jones uses to conduct all business; I have mastered

navigating this system to easily complete the tasks given to me. This includes both

Finance Production and our Human Resources Service; HRS consists of time card entry

and payroll information.

Microsoft Outlook- Since I am accustomed to checking my email online with yahoo at

home, the workplace allowed me to understand how to use Microsoft Outlook and the

correct way of sending emails to both coworkers and customers.

How Math, Language Arts, and Technology Are Used

In the world we live in today, almost all jobs require some form of math, language

arts, and technology. It is essential to know how these things are used in your specific

job. Listed below are the ways I use these academic skills with my job:

Math:

Obviously, I need to know the basic knowledge of addition and subtraction. Ex:

adding up the balance of credits on an account to be able to issue one refund

instead of multiple refunds.

General knowledge of debits and credits. Ex: When writing off a small balance, I

need to know whether the account needs to be debited or credit in the

memorandum I fill out.

Language Arts:

Writing in a professional way. Ex: when issuing refunds, I must provide a

descriptive reason for why the customer is receiving the refund.

Being clear and descriptive when documenting PeopleSoft. Ex: When transferring

a balance from one account to another, I must be specific for both accounts as to

what error occurred and why the balance is being moved from account to another.

Technology:

I use a computer every day to process almost all of the tasks given to me. On the

computer, there are several filing systems to access invoices and memos. There is

a program that allows us to access all customer information. And finally,

PeopleSoft is the software we use to process all transactions and view balances.

Other technology that I use is a calculator, printer/copier/scanner/fax machine,

and the key card system to gain access to the building.

Special Projects

In the short time that I have been working at Herff Jones, I have been given a

variety of projects or special tasks that they have asked me to complete. For both

departments, these projects include:

Sending customer files to Commercial Collections Corporation

Yearbook Payments-Checking customer balance to see if they still owe for the 2011

yearbook so that way Herff Jones doesn’t send out their yearbook until they have paid

Posting email into customer accounts-copy & paste emails into several account

conversations so that way if any person who accesses their account, knows that their

representative is liable for their balance owed.

Federal Tax Returns-Make copies of returns and put together a package of information to

send out to the states.

Create spreadsheet and letter to tell customers that they should send their checks to a

different Herff Jones location.

List of Equipment/Software/Tools

Since I work in the administration building, there are several things that I have

access to. To begin with, we have several systems and software that I use on the

computer. These include:

Alva-software to access Scholastic invoices (jewelry, rings, medals)

New CAPS-software to access Cap and Gown invoices

IOLA and FP Oracle-software to access Fine Paper invoices

YBS-software to access Yearbook invoices

PeopleSoft-program used to accomplish almost any daily tasks assigned

Corp Customer Master- Program used to access any and all customer information

Interaction Client- Program used for all phones. Allows employees to transfer customer

calls to the person they are trying to contact.

Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel

Tools:

Computer, calculator, printer, copier, scanner, fax machine, files cabinets, and key card

access system.

Vocabulary Words

These are a few of the financial terms that I need to know to complete my tasks:

Invoice- a letter that has customer name and number on it, what the customer

bought, the quantity of what they bought, how much each item cost, and the total

amount owed.

Deposits-money we receive from customers

Write-off- the act of getting rid a customer’s balance on an invoice

Refund-Issuing customer money for a credit that they have on their account

Withholding- A certain amount of money a business must withhold to pay to the

federal government

Unemployment Insurance- temporary income for eligible workers who become

unemployed through no fault of their own

Credits/Debits- describes the amount of an invoice. If the invoice has a debit

balance, the customer owes money to the vendor. If the invoice has a credit

balance, the vendor owes money to the customer.

Customer- Any person or company that buys goods or services from another

person or company

Vendor- Any person or company that sells goods or services to another person or

company

Memorandum-a form on which a brief message is written describing the

transaction

Credit Card receipt-the receipt that is given to the customer after they buy a

good/service on account with a credit card.