Requirement of Accounting Information System for B Bakery
B Bakery is a small enterprise consisting of 70 employees. The revenue of the company increased up to $ 13.5 million. The organization focuses on delivery of breads and confectionaries item to the supermarkets and other retailers. The company is facing problem in handling accounts information. The owner of the company is looking forward to deploy new accounting system which helps in improving the systematic review of the financial statement. The accurate information about the finance helps in opening the new door of improvement for the company. As a project manager and consultant of the company, I suggest implementing AIS/ERP system in the current working platform of the enterprise so as to get an accurate accounting system for the enterprise. In this paper, we are looking forward to focus on the requirement of the business and appropriate selection process of the software.
a. B Bakery is the small organization which focuses on delivery of breads and confectionaries item to the supermarkets and other retailers. The organization is working on its business process to improve the quality of the bread, pastries, cakes, biscuits, and other confectionaries products for increasing the sale of the product in the local market. The organization is working from the last 50 years in supplying confectionaries products to the super markets, pubs, local retailers, and others. The strong grip on the local market has been built by the firm because of its good behaviour, accurate management of accounts, minimum cost of the product, and good quality of the product. The company believes in managing consistency in the policy of selling product with good quality and at best price. The price of the product is fixed after analysing the cost and price set by the competitors on the similar product. It helps in gaining competitive advantage (Lammi, 2014). The feedback about the product and business processes have been collected from the customers and business partners periodically so as to analyse the gaps and quality of the product satisfies the customers or not. The analysis of the positive and negative feedback helps in overcoming the flaws in the business process and results in maintaining the good and strong relationship with partners and customers. The increased in the revenue earned had been seen through the transformation of the business operations with the project life cycle plans which includes planning, requirement gathering, designing and development, testing, quality evaluation process, delivery of the product, and monitoring and control. The goal and objective of the enterprise is to satisfies the requirement of the customers and delivered the good quality confectionaries at lowest price. The following table shows the clear understanding of the business processes laid down by the bakery shop:
|
Business processes |
Description |
|
Planning |
The planning process focuses on analysing the requirement placed by the customers and business partners for improving the quality of the existing product and development of the new confectionaries products. |
|
Designing |
The designing of the new product is developed for increasing the level of satisfaction in the customers. They should be provided with the product according to their requirements and need (Witcher, 2015) |
|
Quality Testing |
The testing of the product quality which is going to be delivered in the market should be done so that the prosperity of the organization increases by adding more and more customers. |
|
Delivery of the product |
The product should be delivered to the local market, super markets, and others. It helps in managing the supply and demand of the products (Wang, Syaiful, and Nurul, 2017). The availability of the product in the market increases the revenue of the enterprise. |
|
Accounting system |
The company believes in managing consistency in the policy of selling product with good quality and at best price. The price of the product is fixed after analysing the cost and price set by the competitors on the similar product. It helps in gaining competitive advantage. The yearly financial statements of the company are prepared which helps in analysing the profit gained by the organization during an year. |
|
Marketing campaign |
The marketing campaigns are organised by the company for increasing the product sale of the enterprise (Yang, 2009) |
Selection of Suitable Accounting Software Vendor for B Bakery
b. There are two business processes which are indispensable for the company that are accounting processes and marketing processes. The new business information system should be adopted for accounting information system because it helps in reducing the risks associated with the loss of data and information from the accounting system of the organization. The decision making capabilities of the project owner can be improved by having accurate financial statement of the enterprise. It helps in improving the efficiency of the business processes by carrying out accuracy in the business transaction. The formulation of marketing campaign for the product developed by the B Bakery organization helps in increasing the sale of the product. The accounting information system / Enterprise resource planning helps in bringing automation in the business processes and transaction (Anand, Wamba, and Gnanzou, 2013). The effective decision can be taken for managing the supply and demand of the confectionaries product in the market. The tracking of the financial data helps in keeping good and healthy relationship with the business partners because it helps in eliminating the problems of chaos and conflicts related to the financial data. The inclusion of ERP system helps in identifying and recording systematic information of the financial data which helps in improving the decision making capabilities of the project owner for the expansion of their business units. The recovery of the problems faced in the loss of accounting data can be effectively resolved by the inclusion of accounting information system/ Enterprise resource planning architecture in the current working platform of the organization.
c. The objectives of the B Bakery organization is to overcome the accounting problem which the organization faced in the past few years such as loss of information and data, setting of price of the product, and others. The effective accounting information system helps in keeping the systematic records of information. The objectives of the transformation in the business processes of the enterprise are such that the new accounting information system should be capable of formulating the accurate financial statement of the enterprise, managing and storing required information, deployment of security policies and frameworks for protecting the data from leakages and unauthorised access of the information, information disclosure related to the product details and customer relationship program, accuracy in the financial statement, and others. The financial data of different business partners are collected, stored and filtered according to their sale and purchase done with the B Bakery enterprise. The on-time availability of the financial statement helps in improving the decision making capabilities of the enterprise. The marketing of the products helps in improving sell and purchase of the confectionaries items.
Characteristics, Features, and Benefits of Proposed Accounting Software
The software required for managing the complexity of the enterprise should be capable of managing the financial and the non-financial data. The accounting information system developed for the organization should have following characteristics in the table below
|
Software Requirement and Characteristics |
|
Completeness: The proposed software should be capable of managing the financial and the non-financial data of the enterprise. It helps in the alignment of the business activities. The strategic approach helps in defining the functionality of the system. |
|
Accuracy: The accuracy of the information related to the accounts helps in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the business process in generating financial statement. It helps in identifying the profit of the enterprise. |
|
Security: The confidential information of the organization should not be leaked to the third party. The software should have special security features for preserving the integrity and accuracy of the information |
|
Clarity: The functional modules of the software should be easy to use and handle. The user can easily navigate from one function to other. |
|
On-time: The information should be available to the user as demanded. The response to the request placed should be instantaneously achieved. |
|
Reliable: The reliability depends on the accuracy of the information. The upgrade information should be provided to the user which represents the current value of the enterprise. |
|
Comparability: The variation in the values can be easily determined by the development of the graphs |
|
Verification: The data stored in the database of the accounting information software should be verified and validated |
|
Cost Effective: The development of the accounting information system is cost effective because it helps in managing the workload of the participants. |
|
Alignment: The alignment of the business process should be according to the organization goal and objectives |
|
Communication: The communication should be easily manageable between the functional modules of the software through the navigation process. The flow of information and data helps in increasing the efficiency of the software (Von, 2012). |
The three software vendors which are taken into consideration are SAP, MYOB, and XERO. The learning objectives by visiting the site of the three vendors is summarised in the table below:
|
MYOB |
SAP |
XERO |
|
The MYOB software helps in providing: Easy navigation Assistance through the help system New profile of the company Manipulation in the accounting information system (NetSuites, 2013) Managing historical balances of the customers and business partners Inventory control Records of customers transaction Inventory management system Instant response to the query generated Tracking of GST |
The SAP ERP software helps in providing: Easy navigation Assistance through the help system New profile of the company Manipulation in the accounting information system Managing historical balances of the customers and business partners Effective inventory management human resource management system stock management system accounting information system admin management system payroll management sales management Generation of Credit Memos Management of customers and Supplier invoices (Ma, 2015) |
The XERO software helps in providing: Easy navigation Assistance through the help system New profile of the company Manipulation in the accounting information system Managing historical balances of the customers and business partners Development of XERO payroll sheet Bank Reconciliation statement (XERO, 2013) Allowed payment through cheques Generate accurate financial statement |
b) High End ERP is the suitable category of the vendor because it helps in providing easy navigation from one functional module to another which in turn increases the productivity of the enterprise. The decision making capabilities of the project owner can be improved by having accurate financial statement of the enterprise. It helps in improving the efficiency of the business processes by carrying out accuracy in the business transaction. The inclusion of ERP system helps in identifying and recording systematic information of the financial data which helps in improving the decision making capabilities of the project owner for the expansion of their business units. The performance of the enterprise can be effectively improved with the management of cash inflow and outflow. The sales cycle time of the organization can be effectively improved. The integration of the functional module of the enterprise can be improved between inventory management system, human resource management system, accounting information system, and others. The effective accounting information system helps in keeping the systematic records of information.
a. Comparison between the MYOB and SAP system are shown in the table below:
|
Particulars |
Supplier A: MYOB |
Supplier B: SAP |
|
Definition |
The inclusion of the MYOB accounting system helps in increasing the financial handling of the enterprise. The alignment of the business process should be effectively done by the functional processes of the MYOB software.. |
SAP system helps in providing automation to the business processes. The accounting information can be accurate handled by the software. It is effective in managing the sale and purchase of the inventory. The general ledgers are prepared for getting accurate information of the finance |
|
Features |
It consists of powerful financial features like accessibility of the software to the multiple users, effective fault tolerance capabilities, efficient management of cash inflow and outflow, payroll management system, and others. |
SAP system is effective in working with the multi-language support features. It can handle the financial statement with multi-currencies. The acceleration in the financial activity schedule in the business process. The performance of the enterprise can be effectively improved with the management of cash inflow and outflow. The sales cycle time of the organization can be effectively improved (Gargeya, and Brady, 2015). The integration of the functional module of the enterprise such as inventory management system, human resource management system, accounting information system, and others. |
|
Benefit |
The development of the MYOB accounting system helps in the accurate management of required inventory for the enterprise to manage supply and demand of the confectionaries items. It is time effective software. The processing time of generating financial statement can be reduced to a high extent which helps in increasing the performance of the company. It is simple to use and provides accurate information about the financial condition of the enterprise |
The SAP ERP helps in providing the general ledger of the company which depicts the clear information of the financial statement of the organization. The supply chain of the product can be measured by the account receivables. The efficiency of the inventory management can be effectively improved by it. The SAP ERP system is compatible with most of the hardware and software resources of the information. It helps in reducing the cost of the installation of the new system. The resources of the enterprise can be effectively utilized. |
|
System Requirements |
1 GHz Processor 1 GB RAM Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 Broadband Connectivity |
1 GHz Processor 1 GB RAM Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 Broadband Connectivity |
|
Price |
$ 2000 |
$ 6000 to $ 7000 |
b. The Supplier B SAP ERP system is the most appropriate choice for managing the automation in the different functional modules of the B Bakery enterprise. The accounting information system based on SAP ERP helps in improving the business processes by integrating the required process with the centralization system of the enterprise which is capable of providing the information related to inventory management system, human resource management system, stock management system, accounting information system, admin management system, payroll management, sales management, and others. The SAAS cloud model is used for the implementation of the SAP ERP system in the B Bakery enterprise. It requires negligible amount of infrastructural changes. It is compatible with the available hardware and software resources. It is a cost effective technique which helps in improving the business operational plan. It helps in reducing the cost associated with the management of extra employees for the development of the financial statement of the enterprise (Lech, 2016). The proper documentation and general ledger is prepared which helps in analysing the financial condition of the organization. The availability of the information can be improved by keep tracking of the changes done in the enterprise. The cost of the software can be a problem but looking to its advantages in managing the different processes of the enterprise than it will be manageable.
System Requirements for Proposed Accounting Software
The following diagram shows the functionality of the SAP ERP system implemented in the business organization for managing the sales and purchase of the confectionaries items.
Figure 1: Functional Diagram of the SAP ERP system
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the SAP ERP is the best suitable software for improving the accounting information system of the enterprise because This system is compatible with most of the hardware and software resources of the information. It helps in reducing the cost of the installation of the new system. The resources of the enterprise can be effectively utilized.
References
Gargeya, V., and Brady, C. (2015). Success and failure factors for adopting SAP in ERP system. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241711633_Success_and_Failure_Factors_of_Adopting_SAP_in_ERP_System_Installation [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
Lech, P. (2016). Implementation of an ERP system. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://zif.wzr.pl/pim/2016_1_3.pdf [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
Wang, G., Syaiful, B., Nurul, F. (2017). Assessing the ERP SAP implementation strategy from cultural perspectives. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/237/1/012020/pdf [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
Yang, X. (2009). Applying SAP ERP System in business processes. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/8477/Yang.Xi.pdf [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
NetSuites. (2013). 5 Signs your business has reached the limits of MYOB. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://www.netsuite.com/portal/pdf/wp-myob-1.pdf [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
Ma, X. (2015). The adoption of cloud computing for small and medium accounting firms. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/11349/ACCT694ThesisforLibraryDepositFinal.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
XERO. (2013). Small business Rank XERO best accounting system. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://www.xero.com/content/dam/xero/pdf/media-release/small-businesses-rank-xero-best-accounting-software-for-third-year%20running.pdf [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
Von, V. (2012). Research in business process management. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.472.581&rep=rep1&type=pdf [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
Anand, A., Wamba, S., and Gnanzou, D. (2013). A literature review on business process management. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c3f1/26f8ea7a89a80f1af8e2066b6c2fcb64d402.pdf [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
Lammi, H. (2014). Supplier Evaluation and Selection process. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/105758/Lammi_Hannele.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
Witcher, R. (2015). Gartner Decision tools for vendor selection. 1st ed. [ebook] Online. Available at: https://www.bus.umich.edu/KresgePublic/Journals/Gartner/research/118500/118544/118544.pdf [Accessed 28 May, 2018].
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