The Current Organisational Structure
This is a literature review on an accounting firm in Australia. The firm is Bentley accountants which offers accounting services in Australia. Bentley company uses accounting software packages to accomplish most of their tasks. The review focusses on the current operations as well as the efficiency brought about by the software packages. The problems that are faced by the company caused by the operation strategies and how these operational problems are solved by the accounting software. Bentley is a large accounting firm in Australia and offers services in most parts of the country. The major quality of Bentley is that they offer quality accounting services.
Organisation structure refers to the way activities in a firm are coordinated (bolman, 2013). The activities in the company are organised in a way that all the employees are responsible for their activities, that is an employee does their work from the beginning to the end. The management of the company is based on minimal supervision whereby the employees are free to make decisions on their own and be creative in solving problems in their tasks. The supervision also involves a large span of control where many employees are responsible to one manager. The company has a proper system of information flow from the management to the workers. There is also communication among workers thus allowing both formal and informal groups within the organisation. Informal groups are encouraged and are the focal point of motivating the workers and ensuring that there is team work in the organisation. The firm has a culture if rewarding the best employees for their hard work or for their contribution towards the innovations of the firm. Most of the work is done manually by the employees despite the availability of accounting software within the company. This is because of the management does not insist that the work be done using the software packages as well as the employee fear of using the new technology and ignorance on how to use the software. (chalmers brother, 2015)
The company is faced by many operation problems that are as a result of poor operational strategies put in the company (champlain, n.d.). There is inefficiency in the company operations caused by minimal supervision of the employees at work. Minimal supervision results to inefficiency when the workers become relaxed in their activities and lazy. Moreover, inefficiency has also been further fuelled by workers being left to do their activities alone without having peer review when doing the work. Error result because work done by one employee is not revised to identify errors that the worker could have made without notice. The failure of the employees to fully embrace the accounting software is also another problem because manual work results to many errors. The accounting software have the ability to identify the errors in the accounting entries and flag them as well as correcting the errors. Through failure to embrace the accounting software, they are faced by a lot of errors in their work which are carried on throughout the financial statements because they are not corrected early. Increased operational costs is also another issue brought about by the large number of employees that are employed within the company which could have been reduced if the company embraced the accounting software. (ferrell, 2017)
Operation Problems in the Organisation
The best method of acquiring the system is through having a customised software. This refers to a software that is made specifically to suit the needs of a certain organisation (james michael stewart, 2015). The system is made by the company information technology experts or through outsourcing services of experts who make a system according to the requirements of the company. This method is advantageous to the rest because; it ensures that the system covers all the needs of the company fully and the problems of the system is well identified early before the system adoption. This way, the custom software ensures that the employees are well involved in the development of the system. With this they are able to embrace it within the company and use it in the operations. This in other words is reducing the resistance of employees to use the system. Resistance of employees to use a system results to losses in the company because it renders the whole investment useless. Therefore, custom made software is the best acquisition method because of allowing the employees be involved in its development as well as being tailor-made to take care of the specific needs of the organisation. (kothari, 2004)
The sale procedures of the company involve thee important steps;
Product availing involves the company having the product in their inventory as well as going further to inform the customers of the availability of the product. This is done through marketing campaigns such as advertisements. The marketing informs the customers of the availability of the product and where the store is located. This is very important to the company as it is the channel through which they reach buyers of their products. (kotler, 1988)
Payment for product by the customer is the next step of the sale procedure. This step involves enquiry of the product by the customer. The customer specifies the quality and quantity of the product they want to buy. When the enquiry is received by the company they check the product availability in the inventory. If the product is available, then the customer collects the product but if it is not available the company communicates to their suppliers to supply the stated products. Once the product is available for the customer, they pay for the product either on cash basis or credit terms. Payment for sales to foreign countries involve the conversion of currencies to Australian currency. (kotler, 1988)
Delivery and after sale services is the final step. This involves taking the product to the customer premises or any other convenient point of receipt that the customer specifies. This stage involves further activities such as after sale services to ensure that the customer has been shown how to use the product and clarifications made to issues raised by the customer. (kotler, 1988)
Method of Acquiring the System
The major frauds that are faced by the system are sales and purchases frauds. These two frauds are committed on the inventory held by the company.it occurs when the employees steal from the items held in the inventory and then manipulate the records to indicate that the products are still in the inventory. (larry E rittenberg, n.d.)
The control problems that are faced by the system are such as inaccuracy and poor accounting. Inaccuracy results during the entering of the records where the records are entered in the wrong amounts. This involves failing to record the actual amount of sales or purchases done and entering an amount different from the actual one. This causes problems in the preparation of the financial statements because they end up not reflecting the fair and true state of the organisation. Accounting controls are also a problem to the system because of the need to ensure that the record are well entered in the financial records. The need to enter sales into the sale journal and purchases into the purchases journal is a problem because most employees do not fulfil this responsibility fully and thus end up having items that are unaccounted for in the financial records.
The accounting software development is through the collaboration of the company’s information technology department with the whole team of employees of the company. This will also involve outsourcing of experts to help in coming up with a proper system and give development insight to the team that will be involved in making the software. The employees are important in the development so that they can give their input on the best things to be incorporated into the system (marone, 2013).
The adoption process will rely much on training the employees on how to use the software and how to accept the changes that are brought by the system, additionally it will involve the employment of new employees that are experts in the use of the systems that they can increase the usability of the system. This is achieved through motivating the existing employees to use the system through first-hand experience of the system efficiency when being used by the new expert employees (mizrahi, 2010).
The market size being served by Bentley accounting firm is large with many companies needing accounting services. The market is made up of many individuals who want accounting services such as audits on the financial statements, tax return consultancy as well as other financial and accounting legal issues. Bentley accounting thus has a large customer base from the large market size and thus strives to make the customers happy so as to get many customers. (marone, 2013)
System Flowchart For Sales Procedures
The market leaders and what gives them competitive advantage
Bentley accounting firm is the leader in the market. Bentley offers services to many large corporations in Australia both private and government parastatals. They also offer services to many individuals, it is also the most popular firm in the accounting services market. They have many branches in the country and are able to offer services country wide. The reason for their competitive advantage is the ability to offer high quality services that are given by their high qualified employees. The ability to diversify their services and offer value added services is also a factor that gives them additional advantage in competing with other firms in the market. (chalmers brother, 2015)
The challenges faced by users of the system are such as lack of proper knowledge to use the system. This results from ignorance on the part of the user and the lack of training on how to run the software. This is a major challenge that is faced by many organisation employees. This problem results to financial losses on the part of the company because of the costly errors that are made by the company workers in the system resulting to losses. additionally, it also the resulting to underutilisation of the software which is a big problem because it means that the investment on the system which is usually very high is not yielding any meaningful returns to the company. (nigel slack, 2007)
Moreover, there is the fear of losing one’s job once the software is introduced into the company. This is caused by the assumption that the software performs all the activities and thus the company at some point will not need employees. This results to underutilisation of the accounting software. (noe, 2014)
The best way to solve the problem of inability to use the system is through training. The employees should be properly trained to ensure that they are well familiar to the system and are able to use it well without encountering challenges. Training equips the employees with the confidence of using the system and they are opened up to realise the efficiency that the system has and thus will use it more. (robert j. anderson, 2015)
The problem of fear of loss of job can be solved through assurance that the employees are still an integral part of the company operations. Moreover, they should be motivated and made to feel that they are much needed in the company and that the software is just a way that the company wants to make their work easier and more fulfilling. (nigel slack, 2007)
References
Bolman, l. A. D., 2013. Reframing organisations:artistry,choice and leadership. S.l.:s.n.
Chalmers brother, v. K., 2015. Leadership excellence. S.l.:new possibilities press.
Champlain, j. J., n.d. Auditing information systems. Carlifornia: wiley.
Ferrell, o. ,. H., 2017. Markrting strategy ,7th edition. In: markrting strategy ,7th edition. Texas: south western cengage learning, pp. 298-697.
James michael stewart, m. C. G., 2015. Certified information systems security professional. S.l.:sybex.
Kothari, p. S., 2004. Corporate accounting. Massachusetts: sloan management.
Kotler, p., 1988. Marketing management:analysis planning and control 6th edition. Englewood cliffs: nj:prentice hall.
Larry e rittenberg, b. J., n.d. Auditing:concepts for a changing environmen. California: south western college.
Marone, f., 2013. Fault lines in global jihad:organisational,strategic and ideological. S.l.:s.n.
Mizrahi, j., 2010. Fundamentals of writing for marketing and public relation. In: fundamentals of writing for marketing and public relation. New york: business expert press, pp. 389-789.
Nicolas bacon, t. R. S., 2010. The human resource management. S.l.:sage.
Nigel slack, s. C. J., 2007. Operations management. In: operations management. Madrid ,spain: pearson, pp. 536-577.
Noe, h., 2014. Human resource management. S.l.:mcgraw hill education.
Robert j. Anderson, w. A. A., 2015. Mastering leadership. Newyork: wiley.
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