Investment in an Accounting - B Bakery Limited - Case Study Example

HA2042 ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Executive summary 3 Business processes 3 Introduction 4 Business requirements 4 Systems requirements 6 Reliable 7 Security 8 Scalability 8 Interoperability 8 Selection of software 9 Entry level solutions 9 Small to medium scale business solutions 9 Enterprise accounting software 10 Vendor selection 10 SAGE 100 ERP 10 Microsoft dynamics 11 SAP business by design 12 Recommendation 12 Conclusion 16 Bibliography 17 Executive summary The report will focus on the analysis of B bakery limited with regards to the need for new accounting information system and entity relationship model in order to improve the efficiency of business operation in terms of cutting on cost, providing updated information from the database as well as providing reliable information for decision making. Form our analysis, it was evident that B bakery is a small medium size company that is family owned hence, the recommended accounting information system is the sue of SAGE 100 ERRP since, this suits the business class of B bakery hence, the accounting information system will be compatible with other software’s in the business. Business processes B bakery is an enterprise in the business of producing and distributing confectionery too many suppliers including the supermarket and nearby pub chain B Bakery is a bakery company that sells products to supermarkets and different pub chains. They have mixed customer base with some prominent businesses as their customer. They produces bakery products and supplies those to another businesses, shops etc. It is evident that B bakery requires some manufacturing divisions, supply chain control, sales, marketing, accountings, finance as well as the human resource management. The supply chain process will focus on purchase of raw materials from other suppliers such as the poultry farming, fruit shops, the flour supplier and many more. Afterwards, the production will manufacture bakery products and then the inventory (Albright, 2016). The logistic control will require providing storage to the products as well as supplying the orders to diverse shops, supermarkets and pubs. The accounts will control the accounting functions, imbursement will control the hire, payroll and many more cost of the personnel Safety. The revenue will cater for the order as well as sales the produces by exploring the potential market. Advertisement and product promotion will ensure that the product awareness reaches the wide population within the shortest time and at low cost. Evert business process is dependent on every one. Where a processes if impacted, it will depict an impact on the entire procedure. For instance, where there is problem in the supply chain, it will depict negative impact on the revenue and eventual in the accounts. Similarly, where the business loss some acoc8tn, hence the business will have less sales, the human resource management will as well as be negatively Affected. In this regards, for managing the B bakery business process, there is need to ensure that the business assumes a same procedure as the other triumphant bakery businesses. Introduction Business requirements Every procedure of bakery business as explained in the above part is significant As well as indispensible. Nevertheless, the main business procedure is, supply chain management, the human resource management as well as the accounting functions. But the accounting functions is the very vital for whichever business since, it act as backbone for the business processes in entirety. The business of B bakery therefore depicts an important expansion in the past years, nevertheless, at present, the company experience some hard times with regards to accounting functions. The company have committed accountant with accounting experience who performs the bookkeeping process and many other accounting functions. But the accounts cannot provide support in a competitive verdict making and hence, the business lost some of its significant pricing Accounts due to failure of the company in offering products at competitive. The company hence realized that it requires more information for managing the business effectively in the future. The information is probably to be coming from the business procedure as well as the market study. On the basis of this information, the business will be in as option of making planned verdicts as well as it will aid the company in bringing it operations efficiency to a higher level of triumphant (Damodaran, 2010). The company is need of an accounting information system for improved verdict making and business operations. The company need to entire in some existing accounting software’s for these reasons. In this regards, the company needs are explained below; Improved the accounting system Venturing in some existing accounting software’s as well as customize it as per the business procedure Implementing the entity relationship model and Accounting information system for the business. The entity relationship model will ensure that there is an integration of the business processes as well as provision of improved platform for accounting information system. The Bakery industry requires much important output from its main business procedure to attain improved performance of their business in the industry. The initial requirement for the business is the information. Every transactional as well as operational information is needed for the processing as well as verdict making processes. The accounting is a procedure in a business that is linked to entire business process. Getting information from the account procedure will require information from entire business procedure that existing in the business. It will take the information such as payment to suppliers, inventory existing, the volume of sales, likely margin, cost, wages and many more. All these are vital in setting the competitive pricing for the company’s product. Other information is required from the business procedures are the payroll of the personnel of the company and others. For purchase of these information from the business procure as well as the system employed for the business procedure. Improved integration will ensure that there is improved compatibility as well s fast system and business processing. In the end, it will aid in earning more income. The accounting information system that is implemented over entirety relationship model will ensure that layout of the business exist which provides business to gather, process, control, store as well as retrieve financial data by business experts, managers, accountant, practitioners etc. the entity relationship model will ensure an integration of duties as well s process for the business (Hacioglu, 2013). The integration of entity relationship model as well s the accounting information system, will create an important information from the business information. The accounting information system will ensure that the business anticipate information by examining the past information. Systems requirements The company will require entity relationship model and accounting information system. Both system requirement and their implementation are important in attaining the business aims of the company. The entirety relationship model software will ensure an integration of every database as well s there will be assured as well central database for entire business procedures. The main database will as well exist to the accounting information system. In this regards, the accounting information system software will have an access to information from the whole business procedure as well s process that will lead to improved as well as correct results. Any accounting information system precedes three main functions of the business procedure. Where as follows 1. An effecting data processing with the sue of data acquired from diverse dealings by the company. For that duty, it will require to capture entre transactions source, recordings e.t.c. ensure transaction must be documented typo journals which is a chronological documentation of every transactional events linked to the business. Afterwards, it will require transfer of data from journal to ledger. In the ledger accounting, the data will be sorted on the basis of diverse accounts. 2. The accounting information system will aid the management in verdict making by provision the vital information from the database and assessment. There are chiefly two class of information to be shared with the management which the financial and managerial reports. 3. The Accounting information system provides all need internal control to ensure that there is dependability of the information that is generated by the software as well as guaranteeing effectiveness of the business activities as well as per the aims of the administration of the business. There are many sub system of accounting information system such as the financial cycle, expenditure cycle, human resource cylices, sales cycle, manufacturing cycle as well s the general ledger and report cycle. The follow are some of the key factors that the company need with regards to software system and feature of a good accounting information system. Reliable The information must be free of errors. Accounting system must be reliable in proving accordance and timely information system for decision making. This will comprise of making sure that the set up is correct and the entries made into the system is correct, the system may work with the information that is fed into it. Security The business place reliance on the accounting software for its existence. Where the financial data is lost or tampered with, the business will loss time, money and secret information for the business success. Any vendor must be in a position to tell the system built in features and also the manner to which the accounting software will mesh with the company’s on-site security. As result, a good accounting information must ensure that security of the stored information is guaranteed at all time with provision of back in incase of errors of system crash (Hacioglu, 2013). Scalability Since it is anticipated that business will grow in the future, there is need to ensure that the installed accounting information system will keep up with the pace. In this regards, the company must consider the information system that will integrate the or may be upgrade to integrated a bigger number of users as well as the growing amount of financial data and the financial transaction. Interoperability Te dare that is entered into the accounting information system might be effectively employed by much business division such as the human resource, shipping g as well other business divisions. In this regards, there is need to ensure that the accounting information system to be installed in the business depict the capacity to interoperate with other software prior to concluding on whether to buy the software or not since, where there is need to program an accounting system to draw information in from other software’s within the business, the accounting information system capacity of interoperating with other company’s software will be deem important (Hall, 2012). Selection of software Since B bakery made sales of 13.6 million in the previous year, with 70 workers or more, the company might be classified as a medium to large scale business and thus, the company requires some appropriate situation for the business. On the basis of industry study, there are three main category of accounting information system software for company on the basis of the company size which is as follows; Entry level solutions The entry level accounting system is appropriate for small enterprise as well as family based business with utmost five member’s accommodation by the system. The software from this category is able to deliver primary financial accounting functionality, appraisal, reporting and other simple accounting task. The accou8tnign information system such as the QuickBooks, myob and accounting right are some examples of accounting information system software’s from this category (Jerry, 2009). Small to medium scale business solutions This category of accounting information system is appropriate for small to medium size enterprise with 4 to 100 members/users. The software is in a position of supporting more functionality unlike the past category. There will be high needing traditional aid for the reporting and decision making. The software is very scalable as well as the linked database will be vigorous. Example is the SAGE 100 ERP, QuickBooks enterprise SAP, CYMA e.t.c. (Jerry, 2009). Enterprise accounting software This category of accounting information software is appropriate for business that has more than 100 members/users of the system. The system depicts a vigorous capabilities as well as extended facility. An example of ORACLE, SAP, SAGE ERP and many more. On the basis of business needs and the business details of B bakery, the recommended accounting information among the above category is the section of small medium business solution. Vendor selection Amongst the small medium business accounting system solution providers, the famous vendor are the SAGE 100ERP, Microsoft dynamics, SAP by design etc. this is explained in detailed as follows; SAGE 100 ERP SAGE 100 ERP depict effective variations on accounting information system from small medium business. These are the SAGE 100 improved ERP, SAGE 100 standard ERP and many more. It might aid more than 50 members/users at a time for many assortment of accounting as well as financial activities, business intelligence, human resource, web services, productions as well as supply, CRM services. The solution is much customized on the basis of diverse business experience. The software is very modernized, steady and supple. It aids for documenting many past budget, creations of many financial reports from existing templates, development of bill of materials. It requires Microsoft windows as well as Microsoft SQL on the basis of back-end database. It might be executed on the basis of client server or online platform. It depicts some wizards on the basis of support for setting up as well s using the software. There is endless integration amongst the module of the software. It is simple to use as well as simple to comprehend. There are vigorous capabilities that will aid to capitalize on the return on income for the business (Mancini, 2013). The software provides simple to build reports as well as presentation. The business intelligence modules will aid in making a dependable verdict. Users might add other users and business policies. Nevertheless, customizing the software is costly as well as many at times requires an upgrade. Modernization of workflow on the basis of diverse users is also likely with this solution. Microsoft dynamics Microsoft Dynamics also has variations of AIS software available for SMBs like B. Bakery. The variations are Microsoft Dynamics NAV, GP, and SL etc. Among these Variations Microsoft Dynamics GP is a general accounting software that offers functionalities for controlling resources, finance, decision making, HR etc. The ERP based AIS software is easy to deploy and use. The interface is similar to Microsoft Office. There are special support for tax and regulatory, online training etc. The Microsoft Dynamics structured language of another variation of Microsoft dynamics as well as this is accounting information system software that is appropriate for medium scale business. The area of expertise of this software is that, it is appropriate for project centered accounting. Construction Company, government contracting etc are appropriate for this. Microsoft dynamics NAV is a general purpose accounting information system software for any sort of medium sized business, it creates total control over the main business procedure such as supply chain, human resource, financial control, reporting etc (Secchi, 2010). SAP business by design The SAP Business by design is a general accounting solution for small medium scale business. This is mainly applicable for small medium business that recommends the SAAS based cloud accounting solution. It provides vigorous sets of expert services tighter with the integrated process for finance. The business that belongs in light processing industry is also appropriate for implementation of this kind of a system. The benefit of the software is that; It is very scalable since, adding new members as well as increasing the amount of transaction is likely. There is help for global accounts as well as financial support Multi-currency as well as Multilanguage help \the expense of ownership is minimized. The management of the assets in the company is managed and effective. Cloud based solution as well as doesn’t need any hardware infrastructure to be implemented There is build-in disaster recovery system Improved support for security. Recommendation B bakery need an accounting information system to venture in. the company need a software to work on an integrated platform that connect entre of the business processes, capacity of assessing more business operation and transduction data to the verdict making procedure. The recommendation proved is that the company must use the SAGE 100 ERP accounting software for their operations. There are many benefits of making use of SAGE 100ERP accounting software. The justification behind the use of recommend accounting software are explained below A connected as well as integrated platform for diverse parts of the business will exist in the software. Suppliers, clients as well as in-house users may link to similar system through BYOD device with the use of phones as well as web connectivity. Controlling the CRM, revenues etc might be executed from the integrated platform effortless. Changes of raw business data into substantial information will add benefit to the business processes. There are unique sort of dashboard in the software that enables simple access of the business intelligence functioning. The information from the business intelligence assessment will aid in discovering the significant client, product, the need of the product in the market etc. the information will hence aids in creating competitive edge. The past data, inventory data control, security inventory management etc are as well likely. As the assessment aids in comprehending substantial clients, clients needs hence, clients associating control will be simpler and improved. There is an integrated CRM model with SAGE 100 ERP. This work like CRM revenue tracking. It aids in enhancing the stability of the product, usage, maintenance, integration and reporting. Collaborating with social media aids in providing delivery of improved CRM experience. The CRM integration module provides facilities such as exchange of expertise amongst users. The functionality will not merely aid in delivering improved clients association services, instead it will also aids in building improved labor force, more teamwork among the users as well as personnel in the business. Organization culture will be enhanced together performance of the business processes. The billing as well as payment module of the software will support involve processing, faster payment. The cost for invoicing is minimized, the days sales outstanding will be minimized and time needed for involving is less. The tedious work of billing the system and invoicing will be automatic as well as take less time. In this regards, the time managed and cost reduction will be experienced with the new software. Which will accelerate the performance as well As expansion of the business? The module commerce is turning to be tending very fast. It is probably going to grow in the future. Business is concerned as well shifting towards it. There is committed mobile revenue module in the SAGE 100ERP software that aids the executive in processing of orders, debtors collections etc. The company will be in a position of earning more income as well as taking advantage of utilizing the strength of the accounting software. Retrieving orders as well as exploring more clients will aid in growth of the customer base in the company. Growth of customer base implies that there is more business as well s scope for realizing more income. There are many value addition services existing in the software. The business might just add it to their accounting implementation as well as commencing receiving benefits of those. In general, the business processes will be integrated made simple, vigorous, effective as well as scalable with the use of SAGE 100 ERP. This evident since, the company realized that it requires more information for managing the business effectively in the future and thus the information is probably to be coming from the business procedure as well as the market study. On the basis of this information, the business will be in as option of making planned verdicts as well as it will aid the company in bringing it operations efficiency to a higher level of triumphant .The company is need of an accounting information system for improved verdict making and business operations. The importance of integrating the best accounting software such as the SAGE 100ERP with other system in the company is that, the company will experience an effective business administration, faster decision making due to available, reliable information as well as the data security will be guaranteed with regards to implementation of the new system which in turn will lead improved business operations and continuity in the future. The biggest challenge that the company might face with installation of new accounting information system is that finance or compatibility issues might hinder the installation, in this regards, there is need undertake the feasibility study of the current operating system in the business and match with the best SAGE ERP system in order to save time and cost as well as with regards to finance, the company need to plan in advance of the need for new accounting information so as to ensure that, there is allotted funds for the purchase, installation and management of new accounting information in order to guarantee effective running of the new system in terms of compatibility, data security as well as efficiency in its operations. Conclusion Change is inevitable and the company cannot shy away from installing the new accounting information system that best suits the company operations since, it is anticipated that business will grow in the future, there is need to ensure that the installed accounting information system will keep up with the pace. In this regards, the company must consider the information system that will integrate the or may be upgrade to integrated a bigger number of users as well as the growing amount of financial data and the financial transaction. Improved integration will ensure that there is improved compatibility as well s fast system and business processing. In the end, it will aid in earning more income. The accounting information system that is implemented over entirety relationship model will ensure that layout of the business exist which provides business to gather, process, control, store as well as retrieve financial data by business experts, managers, accountant, practitioners etc. the entity relationship model will ensure an integration of duties as well s process for the business Bibliography Albright, C. (2016) Business Analytics: Data Analysis & Decision Making - Page 230, London : Cignage Learning. Damodaran, A. (2010) Applied Corporate Finance - Page 552, New York: Cingage Learning. Ehrhardt, M. (2008) Corporate Finance: A Focused Approach - Page 554, london: Cingage Learning. Hacioglu, Ü. (2013) Managerial Issues in Finance and Banking: A Strategic Approach, London: Cingage Learning. Hall, J. (2012) Accounting Information Systems, New York: Springer. Hwang, C.-L. (2012) Group Decision Making under Multiple Criteria: Methods and Applications, Sydney: Springer. Jerry, W. (2009) Managerial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making, London: Jonh Wiley. Mancini, D. (2013) Accounting Information Systems for Decision Making, London: Cingage learning. Secchi, D. (2010) Extendable Rationality: Understanding Decision Making in Organizations, New York. Turner, L. (2015) Accounting Information Systems: Controls and Processes, New York: John Wileys. Read More