Accounting Information Systems and Implementation

Question: Discuss about the Accounting Information Systems and Implementation. Answer: Introduction According to Bezawada (2012), the Accounting Information System is a process, which facilitates the collection, processing and the storage of the accounts related information for a commercial organization. However, as argued by Leon (2014), the AIS is the methodology, followed to track the accounts related activities in the organization. As a result, the report strongly focuses on the analysis of the business operations of the selected company Bakery. Besides, the research also highlights the commercial requirements following the analysis of the business operations. Concentrating on the business operations, the study also explains the system requisites and brings justice to the most suitable AIS for Bakery by the analysis of three Accounting Software Package Vendors. Definition of Bakerys business process Bakery deals in the supply of bread and other confectionery edibles to some other business outlets for about 50 years. The manager states that the organization meets the bread and confectioner requirements for the chains of pubs and even the supermarkets. However, keeping the business perspective in mind, Bakery has undergone diversity in fate for the business span. At this moment, Bakery has an employee force of seventy people and the organization is succeeding in increasing its revenues consistently. But the rapid increase in the number of competitors in the business, Bakery has confronted vital challenges in their line of commerce (Shatat and Mohamed 2012). But getting some healthy edibles at a lower cost, some of Bakerys customers have chosen alternatives. The diagram below highlights Bakerys commercial operations specific to the confectionary industry. Figure 1: Bakerys business process (Source: As created by the author) Development of the business requisites The processes are essential and must be followed To restore the bygone accounts, the most vital business operations are: - Sales and marketing: - This may be the most important operation for the improvement of the business and the restoring of the bygone accounts. Nevertheless, for the marketing and sales specific operations, the most vital functionalities are the marketing of the confectionery products, the customer relationships, the product sales, the forecasting of the sales outcomes, customer management, proper advertisements, etc. Management of the supply chain: - Related to the management of supply chain process, the purchase of the raw materials and its administration is an essential operation. As a result, it is required to ensure a cordial relation with the suppliers of the required raw materials (Huang and Zhu 2013). For attaining a high-quality brand image in the industry, Bakery must implement the AIS for operations namely the scheduling of the products, the manufacturing of the products, the related logistical operations, the maintenance of the manufacturing plant and some others. Finance and accounting: - Every business highlights this as the most crucial element. The finance and accounting operations for Bakery should ensure the functions like managing the flow of cash, Price allocation, and administration, the counterfeits of the financial transactions, the budget allocation plans and others. Human resources management: - Besides training, Bakery also needs to ensure the proper alignment of operations like the payroll operations. Essential Outcomes Process to reach the business targets For achieving the business goals, the company requires advancing the accountability issues of the teams. The ultimate goal is the satisfaction of the consumers. Contemporary demands of the customer end include the automated processes which ensure ordering whenever they want along with the best quality results (Shaul and Tauber 2013). Besides, there should be provisions for automated software for tracking, which delivers the consumers of the baking market to keep track of their orders in the most feasible methods. Figure 2: Essential outcome processes of Bakery (Source: - Nazemi, Tarokh and Djavanshir 2012, pp- 1017) The appropriate budget allocation planning is one of the key operations to meet the business goals. Speeding up of the business operations also plays major roles in achieving the targeted achievements in the business. Determining the requirements of the system Speed along with flexibility: - These are the primary factors, which need to be followed for a competitive operation in the Bakery environment. Bakery deals with a widespread contrast of bread items for the consumers, to select from (Ghofaili and Mashari 2014). As a result, to sustain the brand image and marketplace in the competitive environment, Bakery requires advancing the velocity of the consumer services in the retail outlets. Maintenance of the warehouse items efficiently and effectively: - Bakery currently has a huge base of suppliers for the raw materials and deals with a widespread variety of items, which are stored in the production warehouses. These require efficient maintenance. Accommodation of product prices at a single point: - Bakery services ensure an extensive variety of facilities for the consumers. These offerings include discounts for the purchase of fuel (Arli, Dylke and Soldo 2013). As a result, for the effective running of the business, the AIS requires the domain to identify the customer information while the customers undergo the payment process. Figure 3: Determining the requirements of the system (Source: Wingreen, Mahdavian and Gupta 2014,pp- 21) Tracking of the orders placed online: - Bakery makes provisions for ordering the confectionary items and delivery services as well, but by ensuring the items to be fresh and at the same time good for the customers health. They also keep low costs in mind, due to the firm competition that they receive. The AIS is required to administrate and control the online delivery processes (Asgar and King 2016). Data security: - Bakery databases will include sensitive information like the names and contact details of the customer. The customer database will also have the information based on the financial data related to the customer, during the online ordering process (Shaul and Tauber 2013). Selection of the most suitable software Identifying the currently available and popular Accounting Software Package Vendor In Australia, there is some good Accounting Software Package Vendors namely: MYOB SAP Sage Xero Selection of the software vendor and justifying the implementation of the AIS package for Bakery The SAP software includes six major components which are the people heads, the heads who account for the business operations, the regulations and instructions to be followed by the users, the data that is structured or even unstructured, the software adhering to the SAP regulations, the architecture and infrastructure of the informatics system and the internal administration system (Sarker et al. 2012). The SAP permits the Bakery to increase their productivity issues of the different departments of the business including the human resources. SAP allows one-time entry of data. The system provides a one-way connection of the overall process of operations. As a result, the employees belonging to different departments do not need to deal with various specialized software. The SAP also helps to overcome communication breaches. By executing in a single operation, the SAP cuts the overhead costs off. A single package determines the companys reports and a firm tracking of the organizational data. Therefore, there is no ned to purchase more than one software. As discussed by Shaul and Tauber (2013), SAP ensures an increased scalability to manage the customer relations an provides unique development solutions namely consistency development, adequate interactions along the gaps, etc. The consolidation of the entire organization is ensured by the third party service. SAP also offers user-friend ly solutions in the retails commerce (Nazemi et al. 2012). The SAP service is also scalable to the size of the company, along with customized services for the retail management. Selection of the vendor Comparing the available accounting software package (SAP services and MYOB services) SAP may be stated as one of the most popular Enterprise Resource Planning vendors all across the globe and hold a firm market stake of about 30% (SAP 2016). Figure 4: Official brand logo of SAP (Source: - SAP 2016) SAP is German organization operating with 130 offices in different nations (SAP 2016). The advantages due to choosing SAP The consolidation of the organizational operations and performance is maintained by third party service of SAP. There are user-friendly services for the retail operations SAP is scalable to varying size of the organization The retail use is also associated with efficiently customized features. The disadvantages of SAP The cost for implementing SAP for the retails business software package is high on the other vendor's costs (Nazemi et al. 2012). To use SAP effectively, the work force requires undergoing an efficient training schedule for the profitable use of the package. MYOB The software services relating to the operations of the MAC operating system are hard to find, especially for the Australian industry. Entrepreneurs find it difficult to sustain the top of records, specifically for the government form documentations. MYOB has succeeded to hold its marketplace consistently for the longest span to be accessed by the MAC operating systems in Australia (Wingreen et al. 2014). Although not a critical issue initially, if run on the MAC OS, it faces relatively reduced demands for handing the information over to the trusted set of accountants, not depending on the chip operations of the MAC or the PC. The package comprises three major subgroups that are Business Basics of MYOB for the starters and single vendors, the MYOB Accounting service for the record tracking of SMEs and the MYOB Accounting Plus for the established organizational works. The advantages of choosing MYOB are A noticeable increase in the input speed: - There are areas of mediocrity in the bookkeeping information that are manually operated. There may be the significant waste of cost and time for the bookkeeping operations. Numerous cases involve the passage of the same information. However, MYOB efficiently synchronizes information and reduces the tiring processes through the automated notes of credit, purchase orders, financial data and ensures high limits (Alrashid et al. 2012). Noticeable accuracy: - Correct information is the primary element for completing finance related maintenance. The operations, dependant on the manual frameworks of bookkeeping, involve likely blunders and inclusion of obsolete information. MYOB automates the manual processing, reducing the areas of mistakes. There are also provisions for the identification and the uprooting of copied information and repetitive mistakes. The challenges faced in MYOB A major challenge that is faced in MYOB is the issue regarding the security of the information related to the bookkeeping frameworks. The online data is always susceptible to intrusions extortion and other security breaches. Nevertheless, in the various domain, MYOB accounts for the industry best operations for the architecture and design of security framework. MYOB outruns other companies in cost maintenance of such high-security levels and ensuring secure access interfaces for the clients and the legal and other endorsement information. MYOB is not disposed of well. The workforce of the company must be well prepared to avoid the representatives with not worthy manual processes (Goyette et al. 2014). Many organizations are still not utilizing the services of cloud robotization because they are accustomed to the former services. So it is essential to create an expert staff base. But, MYOB provides online tutorials for free. MYOB provides niches for disposing of manual procedures and the respective bookkeeping frameworks along with vital plans (Sarker et al. 2012). The organizations, which utilize the services have been provided an opportunity to counter the ineffectiveness of the operations, avoiding their interference in the efficient business operations. Justifying the effective Accounting Software Package Vendor for Bakery The contemporary market has numerous vendors to offer Enterprise Resource Planning software services. Bakery must be wise enough for choosing the vendor, keeping in mind the organizational requisites and the capabilities. The top-notch vendors providing the software services are SAP, the Sage company, Xero and MYOB and others as well. There are a variety of factors to choose the Enterprise Resource Planning Vendors for the Supermarkets of Woolworths. Some inferences can be made while comparing the different service parameter of the various vendors. Bakery may avail a fast and efficient service from the SAP service and that too a highly scalable one. The SAP services for the Accounting Service assists in efficient and effective warehouse maintenance and operations in Bakery. The services by SAP ensure lucid and speedy price allocation functions in the SAP systems for SAP (Leon 2014). The tracking of the products, as well as the online order deliveries, are made effectively easy by the SAP services for the accounting services. SAP also ensures very feasible verifications of the information, and validation of the data is fast and accurate. The information and the protection of data are also efficient and more effective as compared to the other Accounting Service Software vendors. The business strategies of Bakery aim at the satisfaction of the consumers from the perspective of every decision that is made. Bakery is a very renowned supermarket and indulges in a non-skewered commerce in Australia and New Zealand. The employee base is well aware of the satisfaction requisites of the clients (Bezawada 2012). Hence, the training schedules of the employees to master SAP implementation will not account as an essential criteria. The cost for implementing SAP Accounting Software System is lower than all the other market rates and is well aligned with the requirements of the profits and the implementations efforts for the entire system. Conclusion The implementation of the Enterprise Resource Planning services in Bakery, Australia along with the services provided by SAP ERP vendor, will assist the organization to achieve the highlighted objectives in their line of business. The advancement of the entire system with the Enterprise Resource Planning services makes sure that Bakery is well accustomed to the factors namely the Accounting related working departments, the financial operations, the management of the human resources, the maintenance of the cordial client relationships, the production, and the supply chain management system, the administrations of the sales and the product distribution systems along with the effective logistical operations, by ensuring efficient transportation. The Enterprise Resource Planning services assist Bakery in the areas, which manage the real time operations of the Bakery business and making all the commercial operations easier and way more efficient. 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