Accounting information system Example

Essays on Accounting information system Admission/Application Essay ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM Number: 3 Revenue cycle The revenue cycle for the Boat retail company entails the process of order processing, billing, and shipping. The customer makes a request in form of an inquiry to the sales department. The sales clerk then responds with the confirmation of availability of products. The client then makes a purchase for the specific items. The sales clerk processes the order and issues an invoice to the client. The client makes payment based on the invoice and the items are shipped to him. The accounts clerk does the billing and issues the client with a bill of the items. He also processes the payments and issues a receipt. The receipt of payment is used by the sales clerk to prepare the delivery statement that is used to ship the items purchased by the customer. These processes and the various actors are depicted in the following diagrams figure 1) context diagram and figure 2) Level 0 data flow diagram. Additionally the flow of the documents through the revenue cycle is illustrated in the document flowchart in figure 3. Figure 1:Context diagram Figure 2: Level 0 Data Flow Diagram Document Flowchart. As described above, the customer makes an inquiry to the sales department. The sales person then responds to the inquiry. This allows the customer to make a purchase order for the items that they need. The sales person proceses the order and issues a an invoice; the invoice is forwarded to the customer by the billing department. After that the customer makes payment for the products and the products are shipped to them together with the payment receipt and the delivery note. The documents that are created in this cycle include; request statement, invoice, delivery note and the payment receipt. The diagram below depicts this flow. 4.0 Database and file structure The database created has four tables including Customer, purchase Orders, Invoices and Inventory. These tables are used to store the records that are needed for the revenue cycle to be complete. The screenshots for the database that is designed in Microsoft Access are shown below. Customer table Customer Id is the primary key that uniquely identifies the customer. The other fields include name, address; contact number, email address and the credit card number; Purchase order; Details entered by the sales person when the customer makes a purchase order. The Order_Id is the primary key for this table; Inventory table Shows the items that are in the inventory. The Item_code acts as the primary key uniquely identifying the products in the inventory. Invoice table Stores all the invoices of orders made by the customer; Invoice No is the primary key; 5.0 Screens and Reports Screens and reports are necessary since they provide an interface through which the users of the database can easily input and view records and data stored in the database. the use of screens and reports enhances efficiency and accuracy in the access to the database, data entry and output of information from the database. Additionally, the use of reports provides summarized data that is easy to interpret hence necessary for provision of summarised data for decision making. The essential screens and reports are shown below: Customer entry screen: Purchase order entry screen Customer Invoice Reports Inventory report Customer purchase order Report Invoice reports Reference Hall, James. 2011. Information Technology Auditing. Mason, OH: South- Western Cengage Learning. Hilty, Lorenz, Eberhard K. Geifert, and Rene Treibert. 2005. Information System for Sustainable Development. London, U.K.: Idea Group Inc. Roger, Chiang, Siau Keng, and Hardgrave Bill. Systems Analysis and Design: Techniques, Methodologies, Approaches, and Architectures. M.E. Sharpe, 2009. Shtub, Avraham, and Reuven Karni. 2010. ERP: The Dynamics of Supply Chain and Process Management. New York, NY: Springer Science. Accounting Information System Example Essays on Accounting Information System Essay ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM Accounting Information Systems Question a. What is SAP what is its significance in Australia? SAP is a business management software. As a matter of fact it is the leader in terms of market as well as technology, among all existing business management software. SAP provides very comprehensive business software via the SAP services, applications and support. b. Provide a brief history of SAP and its relation to ERP and AIS. SAP AG Company was founded in June of the year 1972. It is a German company with regional offices worldwide. The founders were former engineers at IBM in Mannheim. It was later to change to â€Å"Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing†. SAP launched its first application, the SAP R/1 solution. Then in the year 1979; six years after launching SAP R/1, SAP R/2 was launched. Several improvements of the solution were soon to follow then in the 1990s, SAP launched SAP R/3 which also underwent several improvements and changes between 1992 through to the year 1995. Question 2: Referring to the VDO case study on the Canada Post, please answer the following questions a. Provide a summary of the company background The company is called Canada Post; it is Canada’s postal service company. It is a group of companies which includes Pure Later Carrier Company, Progistics, IntelCon, and Noble Post. The company represents about 6 billion dollars in revenue. The company has about 66000 employees (Turner Weickgenannt, 2009). b. Identify and discuss the 5 strategic objectives of the company To be a world leader in providing innovative, physical and electronic delivery solutions creating value for all of its customers, employees and all Canadians. To defend its current business – this is in order to deal with the competitive threats, among them, the electronic mailing services, new delivery companies coming in, and so on. To achieve operational excellence through its business. To make employees, a competitive advantage. Presently they are not a competitive advantage. To enhance its corporate equity. Canada Post has very strong brand presence in Canada. The strategic objectives include: To have a customer driven vision and capability To have timely response to the customers Cost reduction in all of the administrative areas To leverage its distribution network To get its network expanded to the united states and the rest of the world To mobilize the post to occupy a larger share of the distribution market c. Identify and discuss 5 challenges that the company is experiencing and 5 opportunities that can be achieved by using SAP Challenges i. Shareholders are asking for more profits ii. The expense to make the changes to other legacy systems was not working iii. Fuel prices were rocketing iv. Deregulation which is happening in other posts around the world v. Employees are asking for more; the work culture is changing Opportunities i. Technology is changing ii. Globalization iii. What their customers are asking for iv. The need to have a relationship with more of the one million customers it is in contact with than the mere 100000 of them presently. v. Competition d. Identify the SAP solutions and services that the company uses Sales Application Procurement management system and supply chain manager Finance management system Customer and employee facing interfacing has been changed The company has put around HR and Procurement under the SAP R/3 implementation. There are automated shipping tools on the front end so that customers can give data electronically e. Explain 4 motivations in implementing SAP There is an executive steering committee that oversees the change management processes. The company is continually working on improvement. The need to manage people and processes well Changing of the organization from a functional based organization to a process based organization. Most of the teams in the change process were working with 98% of the Canada Post employees to manage the change process. f. Describe 5 benefits of SAP to the company An internally trained work force Reengineering of about 700 processes Procurement processes have been automated and are now electronic in nature. Innovative business processes have been put in place The company has a very business oriented web site that is well integrated with all the other applications of SAP that the company uses. References Gelinas, U., 2011. Accounting Information Systems. New York: Cengage Learning. Investopedia, 2012. Accounting Information System. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accounting-information-system-AIS.asp" \l "axzz1tntMBBlt" http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accounting-information-system-AIS.asp#axzz1tntMBBlt [Accessed 3 May 2012]. Marshall, R. Paul, J., 2009. Accounting Information Systems. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. Turner, L. Weickgenannt, A., 2009. Accounting Information Systems: Controls and Processes. New York: Wiley. Accounting information system Example Essays on Accounting information system Assignment FRAUD AND FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES By of the of the School Fraud and fraudulent Activities One of the articles on fraud and fraudulent activities was published on ABC news website in which the ex-CEO of Healthsouth Corporation which is based in Birmingham Alabama was ordered by the state court judge to pay the firm’s shareholders a sum of $3Billion U.S dollars. Mr. Richard Scrushy was sued by the shareholders for accounting fraud which had been committed during his term in office. The judge, Mr. Allwin Horn argued that the fraud committed by the former CEO almost sent the company into bankruptcy despite being acquitted earlier in a federal criminal case o the same nature in which he pleaded not guilty. Mr. Scrushy was accused of unethical dealings by the Alabama suit which he committed at the time when the firm was undergoing broke and complicity in $2.6 billion in fraudulent dealings. The shareholders wanted him to pay for the amount including that which he had taken for his personal gain. Mr. Scrushy denied any involvement in the act and that he had not sought to have the accounting books manipulated in his favour. Five former finance officers of the company testified against thus implicating him further over the scheme that was aimed at defrauding the company. In his defense, he blamed the former finance chiefs of having personal weaknesses as well as grudge against him (REZAEE, Z., RILEY, R. 2011). The events at the Healthsouth took place in the year 2002 in which the company’s CEO allegedly instructed the company’s accountants to inflate the earnings by $1.4 Billion so as to create a good impression of the company in a bid to win over the confidence of the shareholders and other stakeholders. This constituted an accounting fraud which arises when accounting books of records have been manipulated in favour of some parties in the company. Such kind of fraud can be prevented by adopting a strong system of internal controls such as developing checks and balances that will ensure that no single individual has control over all forms of financial transactions (ALBRECHT, W. S. 2012). Preparation of fiscal policies and procedures involving purchasing guidelines, petty cash management, use of firms’ assets and managing conflict of interest will greatly help handling such frauds. Proper implementation of an Accounting Information System can greatly help in controllin g such fraud since it automate and streamline the entire system thus ensuring timely reporting (HALL, J. A. 2013). The second case of fraud and fraudulent activity was published in 26th May 2010 on the examiner.com website about Humboldt Creamery in which the former CEO pleaded guilty of committing financial-statement fraud. The former CEO Richard Ghilarducci admitted that in the years 2007 and 2008 he had provided false financial information with an intention of availing a favourable financial picture of the company so that the firm will receive an extension of an existing loan from its key financiers such as the CoBank and the Agricultural credit bank. In his defense, he said that his intention was not bent on benefiting him as an individual, a claim that was proved to be true, but he intended to save the current credit position of the company. Several farmers who had filed the suit argued that the events that had transpired under the watch of the CEO had impacted negatively on the image of the creamery making many resulting in many people loosing trust in the firm. One of the most notable farmers was Mr. Dennis Leonardi who claimed that the Mr. Ghilarducci’s actions had forced him to take up a seven year loan so as to keep his own farm solvent. The actions of the former CEO however violated the Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1014, which prohibited false financial statements directed to the Agricultural Credit Banks. He therefore faces a sentence of not more than thirty years imprisonment and a fine of about $1 million. The financial statement fraud committed by the former CEO led to wrong representation of the financial position of the company in-terms of its asset thus portraying a false positive image of the firm (HALL, J. A., HALL, J. A. 2011). One of the means of mitigating such kind of fraud is to ensure proper auditing of the firm’s financial records from time to time basis by external auditors as well developing stronger internal control systems that will allow order in the company’s operations (ZACK, G. M. 2013). Bibliography ZACK, G. M. (2013). Financial statement fraud: strategies for detection and investigation. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley Sons. REZAEE, Z., RILEY, R. (2011). Financial Statement Fraud Defined. Hoboken, John Wiley Sons, Inc. http://www.SLQ.eblib.com.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=456006. HALL, J. A. (2013). Accounting information systems. Mason, OH, South-Western Cengage Learning. ALBRECHT, W. S. (2012). Fraud examination. Mason, OH, South Western, Cengage Learning. HALL, J. A., HALL, J. A. (2011). Information technology auditing and assurance. Mason, Ohio, Thomson/South-Western. http://www.examiner.com/article/humboldt-creamery-s-ex-ceo-pleads-guilty-to-financial-statement-fraud http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=7876580