Bell Studio Dataflow and System Flowchart

BELL STUDIO DATAFLOW AND SYSTEM FLOWCHART 1
Bell Studio’s Dataflow and System Flowchart
Student name
Professor’s name
Unit title
Institution

BELL STUDIO DATAFLOW AND SYSTEM FLOWCHART 2
Contents
Executive summary................................................................................................................................2
Introduction..............................................................................................................................................3
Data-Flow Diagrams...........................................................................................................................3
DFD of Bell Studio’s Purchases and cash distributed system................................................3
DFD of Bell Studio’s Payroll System..............................................................................................5
System Flowcharts.............................................................................................................................6
System flow chart for Bell Studio’s Purchases system............................................................6
System flow chart for Bell Studio’s Cash distributed system.................................................7
The system flowchart for Bell Studio’s payroll system.............................................................8
Systems’ weaknesses and risks...................................................................................................10
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................10
References..............................................................................................................................................11

BELL STUDIO DATAFLOW AND SYSTEM FLOWCHART 3
Executive summary
The following report highlights the data flow diagrams as well as system flow charts for
Bell Studio. The diagrams are used to present the company’s Purchasing cycle,
payment distribution as well as payroll system. In the report, weaknesses and risks of
the company’s systems is also included as well as the benefits of using the graphical
representations in outlining Bell Studio’s processes.

BELL STUDIO DATAFLOW AND SYSTEM FLOWCHART 4
Introduction
Bell Studio, a wholesaler of art supplies based in Adelaide has just appointed a new
business analyst recently. The business has a complex system of purchasing and
managing its inventory and the analyst has been appointed to assist in creating a report
of the company’s accounting system. Bell Studio sources its goods from different
regions including Australia, China, Japan and New Zealand. The company operates on
a centralized accounting system with networked terminals at various locations. The
company’s purchasing cycle following a series of systems each controlled by a different
clerk. The systems include; the purchases system and the cash distributed system. To
develop a good report the analyst needs to evaluate the processes, risks and the
internal controls of the company’s expenditure cycle. One way of achieving this is by
coming up with dataflow diagrams and system flowcharts of the purchases system.
Data-Flow Diagrams
Dataflow diagrams (DFD) outline the flow and transformation of data for a unique
business process. It represents a visual illustration of how the data flows through the
system allowing users to clearly see where the data comes from, where it is going and
the way it gets stored. Businesses apply data flow diagrams daily to assess existing
systems to identify where setbacks are and create new business processes. For Bell
studio, the DFD would assist to analyze the company’s purchasing systems as well as
payroll systems breaking the complex processes to highlight the vulnerabilities, areas
experiencing delays, processes that can be improved and methods of improving the
systems (Difference Between, 2019). Data flow diagrams present raw data in a pictorial
format but in a formal way. They provide a graphical representation of how information
is transferred within processes in a system. DFDs usually follow a hierarchy, consisting
of a diagram made up of various layers, each unique to a particular process or data
functionality. A Data flow diagram consists of four elements. Processes, arrows, entities
and data stores. The processes are represented by a circle or oval shapes and highlight
the business activity where transformation and manipulation of data happens (Lucid
Software Inc, 2019). The arrows highlight how the data is flowing. They represent the
movement of data through the systems. Entities on the other hand are represented by
squares or rectangles. They could be a person, application or system where the data
starts and ends. The data stores are shown by rectangles with a vertical line cutting
across and they highlight where the produced or required data linked to the processes
is stored. After developing the DFD, analysts can add levels including substantial
information about processes on the outline.
DFDs can be developed to represent the system at various levels of abstraction. DFDs
at higher levels are split into low levels covering more functional elements and
information. Three main levels of data flow diagram exist including; 0-level DFD, 1-level
DFD, and 2-level DFD (Hermans, 2011). 0-level DFD which is also referred to as
context diagram is created as an abstraction view. It shows the system as a common
process and its relationship to external entities. It highlights the whole system as one