Accounting Information System for Grace Limited: Business and System Requirements

This report discusses the business and system requirements for Grace Limited, a family-owned beverage company. It also evaluates accounting software options, including Xero, SAP, and MYOB.

Running head: ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM
ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
Aim of the report is to discuss about the business background of the Grace limited. Grace
limited is a company with around 65 employees. This a family owned company and the sales
revenue has increased more over past years. The report will discuss about the working and
the main goal of the company in detail. As the company is growing with time it is important
to have a proper accounting knowledge about the business requirements. This will help to
understand the need of the market as well as will help the organization in managing the
financial condition each year. Proper knowledge regarding the market will help the
organization in gaining competitive advantage in the market. The report will discuss about
the business requirements associated with the organization the system requirements, proper
software selection and effective vendor selection.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Requirements for the Company.................................................................................................4
Business requirements............................................................................................................4
System requirement for Grace Organization..........................................................................5
Software selection......................................................................................................................8
Xero accounting software:.....................................................................................................9
SAP......................................................................................................................................10
MYOB Accounting software...............................................................................................11
Vendor selection.......................................................................................................................12
Contrast between SAP and Xero accounting software vendors...........................................12
Comparison..........................................................................................................................12
Xero accounting software package..........................................................................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................13
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
The report aims at describing the important features of an organization. The
organization that is going to be discusses is the Grace limited. This organization is a family
owned business with around 65 employees. With the growing years the sales revenue has
increased to more than $11.5 million. The company aims at delivering beverages to different
business organization that includes super markets and pub chains. Over the years it is
observed that the growth of business has increase with the implementation of new products.
However recently it is observed that some key accounts related to the organization has been
lost. The company was unable to deliver the products in order to achieve competitive price.
Thus in order to overcome the situation the firm has appointed an accountant for maintaining
proper records regarding each financial statement every year. However after analyzing the
requirements of the firm, it is observed that the company needs much information for
successfully running the business. The firm felt that there is a need to invest on having a
proper accounting software that will help in taking the business to next level.
Thus in order to overcome the situation it is important to assess all the requirements
regarding the firm. The report will describe about the accounting software that is needed for
Grace limited. The report will describe the major business requirement of Grace limited. The
key business process associated with organization will also be discovered in the paper.
Further the report will discuss about the processes that is required achieve the business
objective. The system requirements associated with the system will be explained and the
features that are important to achieve the IT investment objectives. The software that is
selected for the accounting software package vendors is Xero. This is being decided after
evaluating three software vendors’ sites that are Xero, SAP and MYOB. Apart from this it is

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important to understand the features offered by the accounting software. The last part of this
report will compare the accounting software packages that are offered by the vendors.
Requirements for the Company
Business requirements
The business requirements of the organization includes several requirements. This
includes human capital requirements, sales and inventory management, process
manufacturing functionality, maintenance and support, raw materials and infrastructure.
Raw materials: this are the basic requirements of every business. Before manufacturing the
products it is important to manage the wide range of raw materials. The need of raw materials
depends on the beverage type. The main aim of the organization should be that the raw
materials that are easily available in the market. The factors that gets delayed with the regular
delivery schedule includes bad weather, transportation issues and supply source. Thus it
becomes important for the organization to understand the requirements related to raw
material clearly.
Infrastructure: in most cases it is important to understand the infrastructure of the
organization. Proper location and set up of the organization will help in managing the
beverages of the company. With the implementation of proper designing the products can be
maintained effectively.
Process manufacturing functionality: it is important for the organization to have a proper
ERP that will help the organization to adapt with the specific manufacturing requirements.
With the implementation of ERP system the manufacturing process within the organization
can be processed successfully. This will save time and money and will maximizes the
efficiency provided by the workers. This will also ensure the accuracy, productivity, and also
helps to identify the weakness that are likely to come along with the working of the

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organization. While the organization processes the ingredients and the resources used needs
to be maintained properly. This will give proper details about the products. The ERP will
help to identify the production cost analysis, quality analysis and distribution schedule that
will be calculated after manually inputting the data.
Human capital requirements: with the help of ERP implementation human capital
requirements can be managed properly. Managers can analyze and plan according to the need
of human capital requirements. This will help in effectively managing the system. This helps
in determining the employee performance management and enterprise resource management.
Sales and inventory management: one of the key requirement of the beverage organization.
The inventory management is a part of ERP. This has the ability to track the overall
performance of the business. This all functions helps in saving the business time and also
helps in displaying the information in the dash board’s style. This information can be
accessed easily.
Supply Chain Management: this is the most important factor that helps in success of the
company. With the implementation of ERP supply chain management can be improved
greatly. This includes proper procurement and analysis of production performance data.
The main objective of Grace Company is to increase the business growth. With the
help of proper collaboration and teamwork the organization will be able to meet the
competitive advantage. It is important to perform SWOT analysis on the organization to
understand the business strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. After this it is
important to analyze the different business in the market so that the company’s average
benefit can be calculated properly. The company needs to set their goals properly so that they
can work upon their goals. The goal should be specific so that the objective can be obtained
properly.

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System requirement for Grace Organization
The main functionalities associated with the beverage company includes providing
assistance towards the challenging areas of the industry. This includes product innovation,
safety, and consumer demand and compliance issues. This are the factors that are needs to be
assessed significantly with the increase in demand. This factors will help the company to
determine the organization’s competitive edge and the ultimate success that can be gained
over time. As a part of individual organization it becomes important to build an ERP system
that will provide the necessary functionality and will add up towards the future. There are
several organization that competes for the same business market. Thus proper system will
help to serve the maximum number of peoples and will attract more and more profit.
The developed system needs to be integrated so that the important features associated
with the company can be understood properly. Single resource system will be able to locate
the data of the business by evaluating the financial, inventory and compliance. This all the
resources needs to be integrated within one single system that will allow the user to access
the information. The system developed should be able to process manufacturing within the
company. ERP system performs tasks that allows the organization to perform quality
assurance, helps in controlling the production and distribution schedule. Once the
functionality starts working properly than the organization can get effective employees.
The Grace Limited organization is a family owned company that is looking to
implement an accounting within their organization, which would help them the accounting
features for the organization. The accounting software would be used for taking the business
of the organization to the next level.
Utilities/MIS Reports: The software would be helpful for the organization to great extent.
They would be helpful in providing the grace organization with the MIS reports and provide

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reports about the software and the degree to which they would be able to provide efficiencies
of the software that have already being acquired. The accounting software would already
produce the final accounts and the cash flows provided in the Grace organization. The
software would also reduce the workload of the other departments, as they would be
integrating a large number of procedures for the organization. The software would also be
customizable according to the requirements of the users within the organization.
Expected Level of Secrecy (Software and Data): The accounting software also would be
helpful in providing some excellent security features for the Grace organization, which would
prevent the unauthorized access to the personnel from both inside and outside the
organization. Thus, manipulation in the data stored in the system would be prevented by the
accounting information system. The users rights for the organisation would also be preserved
by the software implemented by the organization. The vouchers purchased by the
organization would be organization would be restricted on accounts of user rights. Hence, the
system would be supporting the purchase department largely. Many human resources would
be saved by the use of the accounting software for the company. The software verify the sales
vouchers from the billing accountants with the data that has been stored in the main database.
Along with this cash module would be helpful for the cashier largely. The system would
allow multiple users to work on the accounts to a great extent. All the user profiles would be
stored in the system and the user profiles would be protected by the password facilities
provide to them.
Exporting/Importing Data Facility: The accounting software would be able to transfer the
data from the software to the databases. The Grace organization would be required to transfer
the available data to directly from the ledger to the software deployed for the organization.
The software should be able to transfer the data in a hygienic and untouched process. The
accounting software should also link well with the other software packages for the

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organization. The software should be able to import the data from the other software to the
accounting software as well. They accounting system should be able to interact with the other
software existing in the system. There are various sub components in the organization and the
accounting system would integrate them with main business process of the organization.
In addition to the functional requirements there are some additional non-functional
requirements for the system that would be helpful for the organization. The non-functional
requirement of the system are required below:
Availability: The software accounting system should be available to the Grace organization
24x7. The organization would be needing their accounting data throughout the business
process hence the software accounting system should be available at all times for the
organization so that the data of the organization is managed efficiently.
Data integrity: The data for the Grace organization is to be secured with the
accounting software system and the data in the system should be well protected so that the
data can neither be tempered nor the data be manipulated for the system. The system would
be containing the data for the company and the customers as well, hence it is very important
that the data of the customers and the users of the system be well maintained.
Usability: It is very important that the system is usable by the users of the system. The
users of the system would able to interact efficiently with the system and the navigation of
the system would also be performed efficiently. This would help the users in surfing through
the system and perform their activities accordingly.
Software selection

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Every organization needs accounting software system. This is an essential element for
every type of industry. The software offers different sort of benefits that includes faster
accounting process, reduces the costs and mistake free taxation. Accounting software’s are
referred to the type of application that will help to maintain the records. This also includes
processing the accounting transactions related to the organization. The functional modules of
the accounting software include modules such as accounts payable, journal, accounts
receivable, general ledger, trial balance and payroll. Apart from this a wide range of useful
features are also offered by the accounting software. This also ensure that the organization
selects a suitable software that will provide maximum benefit. There are number of
accounting software system this includes FreshBooks, Xero, SAP and MYOB.
Xero accounting software:
This is the accounting software that has provided user satisfaction around 99 percent.
This enables the business owner t access and manage the real time financial data at any
location. They can even store data on different devices. This also allows advisors to work
properly in order to manage the financial data. This is a software that is basically designed for
small business owners with the aim of providing an easy way of managing wages, revenues,

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payables, cash flow and expenditures. According to the need of the customer the site can be
customized. Xero solution offers connections to over 5000 banks and other major financial
institutions across the world. This also have a feature that allows the user to automatically
import and categorize all the latest credit cards, banking transactions and PayPal. Apart from
this another feature offered by Xero is that it automatically gets reconciles with all bank
transactions that is easy to manage and control the finance charts. The other helpful features
associated with this accounting software is that it offers real time currency exchange updates,
custom invoices and allows to access the site with multiple languages.
SAP
SAP accounting software is basically a software that helps the organization to perform
financial accounting and reporting. This software helps the organization to maintain
transaction records, reports related to operating data that are generated at the end of every
month. This analyzes the financial data associated with an organization properly. The main
modules of SAP accounting software includes reporting, accounting, reporting and accounts

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receivable management and many more. SAP accounting software allows the customer of an
organization to connect to each other and also helps to work through the system. Thus the
orders associated with the system gets processed faster without any delays. This offers easy
learning features and also allows analyzing the information technology and accounting
associated with the system. In order to have a smooth running system it is important to update
the SAP versions regularly. All this features will help in bringing good towards the
organization. The main objective of the accounting software is to provide more efficient,
flexible and more responsive to their own clients. The SAP accounting system frees up time
of the managers and employees so that they can work efficiently.
MYOB Accounting software
The main objective of MYOB accounting software is to support data entry in different
languages. This helps the user to create multi companies. The user can easily edit the
accounts transactions that is taking place within the organization. Proper cash flow report can
be prepared with the help of this accounting software. This also includes the major
advantages of the MYOB accounting software is that it helps in producing chart for the
account. This helps in tracking the customer and supplier database. This provides bank
reconciliation. Apart from this the accounting software also ensure developing a proper profit
and loss report.
Grace Company needs to have a medium level accounting software as this
organization is a medium size organization. Accounting software allows the company to
perform systematic practice that will help in performing the communication and ensures
proper recording of financial information. This is basically done for the purpose of evaluating
the internal and external audits performed within the organization. This also includes diverse
measurement and systematic measurement, proper classification, summation and clarification
of financial information. However depending on the type of requirement form the

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organization the accounting software varies from simple, to single-entry programs that are
used for developing individual record-keeping. This also offers software for sophisticated and
for double-entry systems that are capable of processing accounts that are receivable, the
payable accounts, the payroll and inventory systems. Due to the medium size of the
organization it will be better to have a medium size accounting software. The level of
complexity in such software’s are less and the employees will be able to easily handle the
situation and accounting related tasks. For the organization the best accounting software is
Xero.
Vendor selection
Contrast between SAP and Xero accounting software vendors
SAP is being rated with 8.9 percent and around 100 percent of users are using this
software. On the other hand 97 percent of users are associated with Xero. The pricing of SAP
accounting software is done based on quote, whereas the pricing of Xero starts with $9. The
pricing model also varies for both the system. The SAP accounting software follows quote
based pricing model whereas Xero follows monthly payment scheme. The features offered by
the SAP includes order to cash, request for the service, core human resources are used,
procure to pay. On the other other hand the features offered by Xero includes Bank
reconciliation, use of dashboard, expense claims, maintaining the files, keep track of proper
contacts. The available devices of SAP are Windows, Linux, Android, Mac, IPhone or IPad
whereas the devices available for Xero includes Windows, Android, Web based, Mac and
IPhone. The preferred company size are small business, large enterprises and medium
business for the SAP accounting software. However Xero offers small business, medium and
freelancers only.

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Comparison
Xero and SAP both are accounting software and aims at providing best facilities in
managing the financial records of the organization. Both the software’s are available for
business with small size and medium size. The products offered by the software’s are based
on the software as a service model. The main language offered by both the accounting system
is English.
Xero accounting software package
After analysing all the requirements of the Grace Company, it can be stated that Xero
is the best accounting software package. This offers monthly packages and the user can
upgrade according to their need. This software is best for medium sized company. Moreover
the products offered by the Xero includes automatic bank, credit card account feeds, account
payable and managing the reports. Every financial details are stored in the cloud with the use
of single unified ledger and allows user to work on. This has developed several features for
enhancing the facility of small business. This software also allows the user to login from
anywhere and allows the user to work by using mobile apps. The pricing offers their client
with 30 day free trial and three SMB and allows enterprise pricing plans to choose from.
There are three division this includes Starter, Standard and Premium. Apart from this the
support that are offered by the Xero accounting software includes Email, Phone, live support,
training and tickets. Xero has become one of the most popular accounting software that is
available in the form of online app. This are mainly designed for maintaining small and
medium business. Thus for grace company it is suggested that Xero will be the best
accounting software. Xero offers excellent features associated with the every service and
aims at providing benefit towards different company size.

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Conclusion
The report has explained the need of accounting information system for the chosen
organization. Grace Company is a family based company with a medium size. In order to
improve the services the organization needs to adopt some proper accounting software that
will help in better growth. The report has explained the business requirement of this beverage
company and the system requirements associated with the organization. As an accountant it is
important to suggest proper investment strategies that will help in developing proper software
for accounting purpose. Thus this will help to understand the requirement.

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