Ha2042 : Accounting Information Systems Assessment Answers
Question:
a) Background
Provide a description of your client and its business activities.
b) Business requirements
What outcomes are required from these processes to achieve business objectives?
c) Systems requirements
What are some of the possible software features or functionalities that the firm should consider to achieve their IT investment objective?
d) Software selection
Visit the web sites of accounting software package vendors (e.g. SAP, MYOB, Xero etc.). You need to visit at least three (3) software vendors’ websites.
Which category of accounting software (low, medium or high-end) suitable for the firm? Give your justifications in detail.
e) Vendor selection
Compare and contrast the features/functionalities of two accounting software packages offered by accounting software package vendors within your selected category in e).
Which one would be the most suitable vendor and accounting software package for your client and why?
Answer:
Introduction:
Accounting software are those type of software that would help the companies in analysing and managing their data and process it accordingly in less time and less errors. It includes functions for various modules of the company that includes accounts payables, accounts receivables, human resource, sales, marketing etc. Different companies have different operations and needs, so they can get this accounting software customized as per the needs of their company. It is important that companies take help from experts who can guide them in selecting which software would be the best for them (Andiola, et al., 2018). In case of multinational companies and those that are listed organizations, they have large volume of data to manage and take care of and thus need of such kind of software increases more in their case. There are different range of software that can suffice the needs of companies of all kinds, there are small, medium and large sized companies and thus they have such software options in the market too. Mostly multinational companies go for QuickBooks as they provide them with an end to end solution which small sized software cannot (Romney, 2012). Medium and small sized companies go for software like XERO, SAP, MYOB. There is software that are meant for some specific purpose like just management for inventory, or for sale, or for marketing etc. Thus, we see that this software is also beneficial for the companies in some way or the other. In this assignment the business operations and other related concepts of the company Laundromap, has been analysed and based on that a correct software has been suggested for the company that can fulfil their needs altogether (Appelbaum, et al., 2018).
a. Background
The company that we have chosen for this assignment is Laundromap, the company is a start-up that was initiated in New Zealand and then the business came to Australia. The company indulges in operations related to self-service laundry, coin laundry, and coin wash. The company does operations without taking too much help from the professionals and most of the services are automated by the company. It is a Laundry delivery start-up that seeks to provide such services to people who cannot do it on their own and want some help in this regard. The company provides over the week services and collect and clean and deliver the order for the company. The company is affordable and many working professionals needs it as that can satisfy their needs of good laundry. The company wanted to become a standard online dry-cleaning company (Axelsen, et al., 2017). The start-up allows the customer to outsource their dry-cleaning for home and office pickups and delivers them back over a period of seven days to these companies. The company also have an app, that customers can download that and use for their convenience. In case of dry cleaning industry, there is not much employment of technology and lot of manual work is involved in that, but Laundromap wanted to change it and bring more technology into this. It wanted to make the delivery service as one of the best in the 21st century. There have been many pick up related services that were offered in the past, but technology can act as a big enabler in that regards. Just like food delivery services, the market of which has boomed over the years, there is a big market for delivery services also. Being an application based business, it is easy to find customers, as people can only download the app and can send their laundry as and when they want. The company has adopted an independent model approach just that is available in case of Uber laundry. It is important that in case of handling peoples prized dresses, a lot of patience needs to be ascertained. Thus, the company needs to have proper technology and people combination who will help the business in running properly (Bailey, et al., 2017). There are many such start-ups that are operating in the market in this regard and thus it is important Laundromap should do something different so that more and more customer gets attracted for the company. The company is a start-up and thus it is important that they can get good funding that can help them in operating their business. The company also needs a good accounting software that can help them in managing their overall operations and delivering to the best of their ability and there are less errors and less manual involvement as the company aims too (Bumgarner & Vasarhelyi, 2018).
b) Business Requirements.
Laundromap is a start-up and it is an application based start-up and thus technology plays an important role for the company. The company aims to provide services to the customer that do not much of human interference and thus their aim was all over to support the people. Thus, the overall business requirement of the company can be stated as that-
- It should help in managing the data of the customers of the company who are availing the services of the company with respect to their residental address and their personal details.
- It should also help in managing the inventory that the company is having in terms of the clothes of the customers and their overall laundry.
- It should help in managing the logistic needs of the company being a service delivery start-ups.
The main outcomes that are required from such business operations are that the overall cost should reduce of hiring manual labour. It should help in reducing the overall errors that the companies can cause while managing large volume of data. It should also help in providing more advanced services to the customers and keep a track on the overall inventory that the company has. Customer clothes and the laundry for the company and hence managing that effectively is very important and keeping a track is also important (Bumgarner & Vasarhelyi, 2018). Accounting software like XERO that are specially made for inventory management can be very helpful to the management and suffice to a lot of their needs. The accounting software should be such that it should be useful for a start-up in the best ways possible and satisfy all their long term and short-term needs.
c) System Requirements
There are a lot of accounting software that are available for the company. It is important that companies should properly analyze the market and based on that they should select such software which are able to satisfy their long term and short-term needs (Fukukawa & Mock, 2011). The overall business requirement of the company is to involve more tech, less manual labor, better and advanced services for the people and for this it is important that they should be able to manage their accounting data to the best of their ability. As it is help them in managing data in a better way and making sure that there is less error.
- Affordability- It should be affordable, as the company is a start-up and thus the company does not have that high funding that can support the investment of very high-end accounting software and thus they aim for such software that are affordable.
- Accessibility – It is important for this startup that they have such software that are accessible from anywhere, as they can have professionals and freelancers who are working for the company from different parts of a country and hence having an accessible software that can be addressed anywhere to update the transactions and other data for the company.
- Updating- It is important that the software that the company uses should be updated as and now then as there are technological update happening again and again. Thus, it is important to have such software which can be easily updated as per the needs of the company. The company is at an expanding stage and they are growing their business at this stage they can go for small software but as their business expands they need to opt for better options. Hence the software should be easily updatable for the company(Garon, 2018).
- Reporting and Analysis – Information and data about the customer and their products are the major assets of the company and thus it is important that proper analysis should be done. It is important that users must get proper insight into the business and operations and hence there should be proper reporting and analysis if data.
- Interoperability – In today’s world we can see that there is different software available in the market for different functions. But as part of the company that is a startup they need such software that can be used by all the departments as they overall cost of getting different software is very high. So, the need arises that software that Laundromap will select should be such that they can use it all the departments and it can fulfill all their needs accordingly.
- Security – It is important that whatever software the company selects, it should help in keeping the data safe. Security is an important attribute that is required, there are high chances that the information can get hacked and then the important details of the customer, their residence, office can all be tracked(Heminway, 2017). Thus, we see based on all these factors it is important to select such a software that can help in keeping the information safe.
d) Selection of the Software.
There are different categories of software that are available in the market, they all have different features and attributes, they all suffice different needs for different companies. Based on all these companies can analyse and select a software for their operations. Based on the overall research, out of all the software three software has been selected for further discussion-
SAP – It is an enterprise resource programming software that provides an end to end support to the customers. It is one of the largest software that are used by companies all over the world. Most of the multinational organization chooses SAP as it provides them an overall function based needs for their company. It can be used for a variety of functions that includes accounting, financing, logistics, marketing, distribution, sales etc. So thus, we see that it is one in all software for the companies (Kachelmeier, et al., 2018). It is very expensive and thus small organizations are not able to afford the same for their operations. All the various kind of modules are integrated in one module and is highly feasible and useable. There are timely updates which does not let the software to become obsolete and not suitable.
QuickBooks – It is an accounting software package that is provided by a company called Intuit. The software is mainly used by small and medium sized companies and provides cloud based services related to accounting and development. It provides on premise accounting based services and customizable packages that can perform various operations like sales management, wages payroll system, marketing management etc (Lessambo, 2018). There are various versions of this software that are available in the market. The software can also be used based on monthly subscription basis from the cloud for the company. There are various updates that occur throughout the year and is stated in the website for the company. Thus, there are many functions that this software can perform.
XERO – Xero is an accounting software that is mostly used by companies for management of their inventories. There are not many functions that companies can perform based on the limited options that this software is providing. However, many small and medium companies often prefer this software for limited usage. It helps in easy management of the numbers and it is very easy to use and provides seamless support to the organizations (Sirois, et al., 2018). It is offered by a New Zealand based company, however it cannot be used for a large variety of functions, thus not companies prefer it for their operations. It is very cheap and highly cost effective and can also be used on monthly subscription basis, so to start with many small companies prefer to use this.
Based on the overall analysis and discussion, it can be said that the company should choose such a software that provides all the services at a very affordable price. They should not opt for software that offer very limited services, they need such software that provides over all support to the operations of the company (Segal, 2017). In case of the given company, Laundromap, they should go for medium ranged accounting software. It would help in supporting the needs of the company overall.
The best kind of software should be such that it covers all their departments, provides interoperability, accessibility and management of data of the company. It also helps in proper reporting and analysis of the data of the company. The company is a startup and it cannot afford to invest in very expensive software for the company and thus they need to choose such software that is priced accordingly (Rimmer, 2017). The company will not be able to afford large sized accounting software as now the company is now on expansion stage and they need to take care of this. They will need to change the software again and again as the business will grow and more and more customer will join in, and then the company will need to manage their inventories to the best of their ability and protect the data of the customers.
e) Vendor Selection
|
Particulars |
SAP |
QuickBooks |
XERO |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Suitability |
SAP is a high-end accounting software that provides end to end support to the companies and their operations. There are various departments in the company and SAP cannot support the needs of all the departments of the company. Thus, it is very highly carters the needs of large sized companies and multinational organizations. |
QuickBooks is an accounting software that works on cloud basis and provides online services and customizable services to the companies. It is a cloud based platform that can be used by multiple organization at the same time. The companies that can best use this software are small and medium sized for the companies. QuickBooks are highly adaptable (Mubako & O'Donnell, 2018). |
Xero is an accounting software that can be used for only one specific purpose that is mostly management of inventories for the company. Thus we see that they can be used by all kinds of companies and proper updates also occur timely in that. |
|
Affordability |
In case of SAP, the software is not highly affordable for many companies as there is a lot of investment involved in the company. The software can be customized as per the needs of the company and for all the investment the company has to pay a lot of money. The overall cost involved is very high but not suited for small and medium companies. Timely updating the software is done by the company and that makes it very better for large organizations also, as initially they are investing a lot. |
In case of QuickBooks, it can be said that the software can be used for small and medium companies that need such cloud based affordable services for their operations. QuickBooks are affordable for individuals and companies both as they operate on monthly basis for the companies (Mock, et al., 2018). |
In case of XERO, the software is highly affordable as the companies do not need to make a large amount of investment in case of XERO, and they can be used by all kinds of companies. |
|
Scalability |
SAP helps in satisfying the needs of the customer and their end to end needs. It makes the software very scalable. It can be used by all the departments of any organization and thus that thus is interoperable also. |
QuickBooks are cloud based software and very scalable as they can be technologically updated directly on the website and there are very less efforts that the user has to put in for the company. |
In case of XERO, the software is not very scalable as it cannot satisfy the needs of all the departments of any company and it can be used for satisfying only few functions for the company and thus not scalable enough. |
Conclusion:
Based on the overall analysis it can be said that technological updates and use of accounting information software have made the task of the companies very easy and has helped them in many ways. In today’s time every small company is switching to such kind of software for their overall needs and reduce the time that it takes to manage the data manually. So it can be said that every company should properly analyse what kind of software do they want, what are the areas for which they need invest accordingly and how can it help them in satisfying the needs of the customers who are the biggest asset of the company. It is important that they should choose such software which they can use for a long time as it is not possible to switch from one software to another every now and then. So, what is the thing that companies should take utmost care of is to see that there should not be any mistake in selecting their accounting information system. Accounting Information System should help the company and make their overall work easy and hence that is what matters the most.
References:
Andiola, L., Lambert, T. & Lynch, E., 2018. Sprandel, Inc.: Electronic Workpapers, Audit Documentation, and Closing Review Notes in the Audit of Accounts Receivable. Issues in Accounting Education, 33(2), pp. 43-55.
Appelbaum, D., Kogan, A. & Vasarhelyi, M., 2018. Analytical procedures in external auditing: A comprehensive literature survey and framework for external audit analytics.. Journal of Accounting Literature, 40(1), pp. 83-101.
Axelsen, M., Green, P. & Ridley, G., 2017. Explaining the information systems auditor role in the public sector financial audit. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 24(1), pp. 15-31.
Bailey, C., Collins, D. & Abbott, L., 2017. The Impact of Enterprise Risk Management on the Audit Process: Evidence from Audit Fees and Audit Delay. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 37(3), pp. 25-46.
Bumgarner, N. & Vasarhelyi, M., 2018. Continuous auditing—a new view.. Continuous Auditing: Theory and Application, 20(1), pp. 7-51.
Fukukawa, H. & Mock, T., 2011. Audit risk assessments using belief versus probability. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 30(1), pp. 75-99.
Garon, J., 2018. Ownership of University Intellectual Property. Cardozo Arts & Ent. LJ, 36(1), p. 635.
Heminway, J., 2017. Shareholder Wealth Maximization as a Function of Statutes, Decisional Law, and Organic Documents. SSRN, pp. 1-35.
Kachelmeier, S., Schmidt, J. & Valentine, K., 2018. The disclaimer effect of disclosing critical audit matters in the auditor’s report. SSRN, 2(1), pp. 1-39.
Kangarluie, S. & Aalizadeh, A., 2017. 'The expectation gap in auditing. Accounting, 3(1), pp. 19-22.
Knechel, W. & Salterio, S., 2016. Auditing:Assurance and Risk. fourth ed. New York: Routledge.
Lessambo, F., 2018. Audit Risks: Identification and Procedures. Auditing, Assurance Services, and Forensics, 3(1), pp. 183-202.
Mock, T. J., Ragothaman, S. C. & Srivastava, R. P., 2018. Using Evidential Reasoning Technology to Enhance the Audit Quality Assurance Inspection Process. Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting, 15(1), pp. 29-43.
Mubako, G. & O'Donnell, E., 2018. Effect of fraud risk assessments on auditor skepticism: Unintended consequences on evidence evaluation. International Journal of Auditing, 22(1), pp. 55-64.
Rimmer, M., 2017. The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Intellectual property, public health, and access to essential medicines.. Intellectual Property Journal, 29(2), p. 277.
Romney, M., 2012. Accounting Information Systems Australasian. 12 ed. Australia: Pearson Australia.
Segal, M., 2017. ISA 701: Key Audit Matters-An exploration of the rationale and possible unintended consequences in a South African. Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences, 10(2), pp. 376-391.
Sirois, L., Bédard, J. & Bera, P., 2018. The informational value of key audit matters in the auditor's report: evidence from an Eye-tracking study.. Accounting Horizons., 32(2), pp. 141-162.
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