CHAPTER 2

OVERVIEW OF TRANSACTION PROCESSING

SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

2.2 Give three examples each of the advantages and the disadvantages of an ERP system with a centralized database. How you
can increase the change of a successful ERP implementation?

2.3 What is the purpose of turnaround documents? Give examples of how companies use
turnaround documents.

2.4 Discuss the guidelines for a better coding system. Explain why these guidelines are important, and what would happen if
they are not met.

2.5 Some accounting students believe that they do not need to study information systems
to be good accountants. What are the disadvantages of this point of view? What are the advantages of accountants being
involved in designing and preparing reports that measure more than just financial performance?

SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO THE PROBLEMS

2.3 The purpose of an audit trail is to be able to trace a transaction from its origin through source documents to the final
output or backwards from the final output to the original source documents to prove the accuracy and validity of ledger
postings. Describe in detail the audit trail for the following in a manufacturing business:

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Ch. 3: Systems Documentation Techniques

a. Shipping an order to a customer

2.4 Your IT company deals in laptops, desktops, and servers. You also sell computer parts like hard drives and motherboards.
Design a coding scheme for your company.

2.6 Identify which data processing method (batch or real-time) would be required for the
following scenarios:
a. Prepare weekly payroll checks
b. Purchase goods from an online (e-commerce) store

c. Prepare daily bank deposits

d. Prepare municipality bills for water and electricity

e. Make a cash withdrawal at an ATM

f. Purchase bus tickets online

g. Transfer money to your mother via money transfer at the local grocery store

h. Purchase clothing from your favorite retail outlet at the local mall

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 Accounting Information Systems 15e, GE

2.7 On their websites, you will find several online demonstrations for the SAP and Oracle ERP systems. Visit these websites
and explore their content by doing the following:
a. Search the SAP site for corporate videos, and watch two of them. Explore the industries, services, solutions, and
platforms that SAP offers. Read several of the articles, such as the ones about customer successes.
b. Explore the Oracle website just as you explored the SAP site.

After viewing the Web sites, and based on your reading of the chapter, write a 2-page paper that describes how an ERP
can connect and integrate the revenue, expenditure, human resources/payroll, and financing cycles of a business.

CHAPTER 3
SYSTEMS DOCUMENTATION TECHNIQUES
SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
3.1 Identify the DFD from the following narrative: Henk buys a new bicycle at a local shop and pays with his debit card. The
sales clerk enters the transaction in the cash register. At the time of closing, the sales clerk gives the register tape and the
debit card PIN tape to his manager.

3.2 Do you agree with the following statement: “Any one of the systems documentation procedures can be used to adequately
document a given system”? Explain.

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Ch. 3: Systems Documentation Techniques

3.3 Compare the guidelines for preparing flowcharts, BPDs, and DFDs. What general design principles and limitations are
common to all 3 documentation techniques?

3.4 Explain the difference between a system flowchart and a program flowchart. What is the relationship between the two?

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 Accounting Information Systems 15e, GE

SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO THE PROBLEMS

3.1 Prepare flowcharting segments for each of the following operations:

b. Updating an airline reservation using your home computer

c. Preparing an accounts receivable aging report on paper from the accounts receivable master file and the cash receipts master file, both of
which are stored electronically

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Ch. 3: Systems Documentation Techniques

3.1 (continued) Assorted Flowcharting Segments

d. Using the company tablet to remotely enter transactions that were recorded on paper-based source documents during a power failure

e. An automatic update of the payroll transaction file and the cumulative payroll data in the payroll master file, with employees’ working hours
from a biometrical database

f. Using a mobile phone to access the company’s inventory database to check stock levels

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3.1 (continued) Assorted Flowcharting Segments

g. Manually backing up the customer database to magnetic tape

h. Having your supplier database automatically backed up from a magnetic tape to the hard disk after a hardware malfunction

i. Using a laptop to access sales orders for the last month, hard copies of which are printed and filed in descending order of date of the sales
orders

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Ch. 3: Systems Documentation Techniques

3.2 a. Prepare a system flowchart of the process described.

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 Accounting Information Systems 15e, GE

b.

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Ch. 3: Systems Documentation Techniques

3.3 b. Prepare a BPD to reflect how ANGIC Insurance Company processes its casualty claims.

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 Accounting Information Systems 15e, GE

3.4 Prepare a BPD that documents Beccan’s business processes.

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3.5 As the internal auditor for No-Wear Products, you have been asked to document the company’s
payroll processing system. Based on your documentation, No-Wear hopes to develop a plan for revising
the current system to eliminate unnecessary delays in paycheck processing. The head payroll clerk
explained the system:

The payroll processing system at No-Wear Products is fairly simple. Time data are recorded in each
department using timecards and clocks. It is annoying, however, when people forget to punch out at
night, and we have to record their time by hand. At the end of the period, our payroll clerks enter the
timecard data into a payroll file for processing. Our clerks are pretty good—though I’ve had to make
my share of corrections when they mess up the data entry.

Before the payroll file is processed for the current period, human resources sends us personnel
changes, such as increases in pay rates and new employees. Our clerks enter this data into the payroll
file. Usually, when mistakes get back to us, it’s because human resources is recording the wrong pay
rate or an employee has left and the department forgets to remove the record.

The data are processed and individual employee paychecks are generated. Several reports are
generated for management—though I don’t know what they do with them. In addition, the government
requires regular federal and state withholding reports for tax purposes. Currently, the system
generates these reports automatically, which is nice.

a. Prepare a context diagram to document the payroll processing system at No-

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3.5 a. (continued.)
Level 0 Data Flow Diagram for the payroll processing system at No-Wear Products.

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Ch. 2: Overview of Transaction Processing and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

3.11 A small business in Tokyo, Japan, is experiencing a slump in sales and decides to engage in a sales
promotion tactic. Customers who use the store credit card and spend at least ¥25,000 per invoice
are offered a 15% discount. Customers who spend more than ¥25,000 but do not use the store credit
card are offered a 3% discount. The company decides to prepare a flowchart to help them properly
design a computer program to enter sales prices, apply the discount, and print the invoice.

Prepare a flowchart to help the company program this process.

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