BISM7209 ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS ASSIGNMENT

Part 1. Assessing MYOB reports essay.

This essay is designed to help you assess the reports produced by MYOB. You are to prepare a report for the General Manager of Surfing Shops Australia that addresses the following issues:

1. Excluding the HR subsystem because it is not incorporated in the reports, what are the major real-world subsystems, e.g., Sales, Receivables, Payments, Inventory, General Ledger (business systems) you believe are needed for the business, what are the critical success factors (CSFs) (with a brief justification for each one) that you believe the managers of each subsystem should monitor to ensure the activities undertaken within each of the subsystems are effective and efficient?
2. To the extent possible, using only the data in the reports available up to the end of July 2018, give an example figure or ratio (please refer to Module 8 lecture slides) that could be provided by MYOB to measure each of the critical success factors identified in part 1 above. If the information is not available in MYOB, suggest the type of information required to measure the CSF and the source from which that information could be obtained.
3. Excluding the HR subsystem because it is not incorporated in this exercise, comment on the weaknesses of MYOB subsystems in providing the manager of Surfing Shops Australia with the information required to operate and manage the business effectively and efficiently.

For each real-world sub-system you identify, please limit your assessment to no more than 150 words. Each real-world sub-system assessment should name the sub-system, identify the CSF to be monitored, identify how the example figure or ratio measures your selected CSF, and identify an information-provision weakness of a business information system like MYOB.

The following provides an example for one of the assessments of the CSFs:

Sub-system – General Ledger

CSF – Gross profit – ensuring profitability of SSA is a critical priority. The gross profit of SSA is -$5,875.10 identifying a slim profit on sales of $35, 109.83. Such a slim profit is important and concerning as the company generated a net loss of ($41,377.91). To understand why SSA is loss-making the costs of goods sold, and sales’ prices require investigation, e.g., are SSA’s costs for goods too high or are selling prices too low? Is SSA using simple markup or should SSA use differential markups. What is clear, there is insufficient profit from sales to be sustainable.

One of MYOB’s weakness related to the GL sub-system is that it provides little context to the figures, e.g., whether the cost of goods sold accurately reflect actual costs. Were the sales for slow moving, obsolete, damaged, or dead stock that were sold at very low prices (fire sale prices) to be replaced by fast moving stock?

Your essay will be graded on the bases of its completeness, originality, and its professional presentation. This part of this assessment is worth 60 marks. The grading rubric indicates the marks available.

Objectives 

After completing this essay, you should be able to:

• identify and justify company-level CSFs;
• identify figures from the MYOB exercise that will measure your specified CSFs;
• identify some of the information-provision weaknesses of a business information system like MYOB.

Deliverables for Part 1

For this part of the assignment, you should provide an assessment of each of the real-world subsystems that MYOB provides. While this part is in essay form, you should include headings for each subsystem you assess. The expectation is that you should assess each of MYOB’s five main subsystems.

This part of the assignment should be submitted together with Part 2 as a single PDF file via the TurnitIn submission link in Blackboard by the due time and date. Students can use Adobe Acrobat or other applications to merge all deliverables into a single PDF file. The file name must contain your student number and LASTNAME_firstname, e.g., s1234567_KAW_Benjamin.pdf, and include the following: your MYOB report assessment essay and Parts 2’s requirements, i.e., the specified table of entities, the system flowchart annotated with control points, and a table noting what the controls seek to achieve. All deliverables have to be merged according to the following order:

1. MYOB report assessment essay;
2. table of entities and activities;
3. annotated system flowchart;
4. table noting what the controls seek to achieve.

Part 2:

You are required to address problem P10-1, Part a only, and P10-2, Parts a and c only on p. 397 and 398 of the GDW textbook in relation to Case D: Polis Grocers, Inc.  Note: In performing Part c, also include a Table (see below) briefly explaining the control plans (e.g., P-1…P-n) or the missing plans (codes M-1…M-n) you have identified.  In performing Parts a and c of the Case Study, a computerised tool such as Visio should be used. To this end, Visio is available in the BEL labs. You may also use one of a number of online drawing tools, for example, draw.io

Example of Table for P10-2, Part c:

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Objectives 

After completing this part of the assignment, you should be able to:

• identify and explain the detailed steps in an online sales and order entry process;
• identify the controls and control weaknesses in such a process, and;
• obtain experience in using a computerised process modelling tool.

Deliverables for Part 2

For this part of the assignment, you should provide answers as required to P10-1, Part a only, and P10-2, Parts a and c only of the Case D: Polis Grocers problem (p. 397 and 398 of the GDW textbook).

Assignments integrating Parts 1 and 2 in the correct order must be submitted, via the TurnitIn submission link on Blackboard by no later than the time and date noted on the BISM7209 Electronic Course Profile (ECP).

Penalty for late submission:  10 marks per day late or part thereof.

Weighting

You will receive 30% of your total course assessment based on the completeness and accuracy of the deliverables specified above.  The marks will be allocated according to the following grading sheet.

The grading rubric for this assignment is available on Blackboard and Turnitin.

CITATION