Understanding the Key Business Procedures of Grace Limited

Running head: ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Accounting Information System
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note
Course ID

1ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Executive Summary:
The current report is based on understanding the key business procedure for the Grace
Limited and suggesting the most appropriate business procedure that would be helpful for the
company in attaining its objectives. The report would also suggest the possible software
features along with the functionalities that the business must take into the account to attain its
business objectives. The report would also address the software selection for the company
and a recommendations would be provided for the best suited software packages for Grace
Ltd.

2ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Business Process:.......................................................................................................................4
Key Business Process.............................................................................................................4
Outcomes required from the processes to achieve business success:....................................5
Systems requirements:...............................................................................................................6
Possible Software Features or Functionalities:......................................................................6
Software Selection:....................................................................................................................9
Accounting Software Packages:.............................................................................................9
Vendor Selection:.....................................................................................................................12
Comparison and Contrast of Functionalities and Features:.................................................12
Category of Software suitable for Firm:..............................................................................15
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................16
References:...............................................................................................................................17

3ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Introduction:
Majority of the food and beverage industry are aware relating to business challenges
faced by the owners of the company in order to develop or eliminate the business pains. In
the food and beverage industry there is are large number of ERP systems which is better
suited for the particular micro-vertical business requirements (Rosemann and Vom Brocke
2015). The increasing amount of competitive pressures with more severe legal requirements,
increasing commodities costs and consumers whose preference is necessary in the
environment of rapid change. Companies are forced to increase their suppleness and function
with maximum efficiency at the same time.
The key to attain business success is to perfectly co-ordinate with the reliable
communications which has been established among all the partners of the manufacturing unit
and it is easier to address the bigger challenges (Chang 2016). Companies generally wants to
make their process of operations more efficient and they are usually hampered by their
existing structure. The current report would recommend the Grace Ltd with key business
process and the outcomes that are needed to attain success.
Beside recommending the business requirements the report would also provide the
recommendations for the application of software features or functionalities which would help
the firm in attaining the IT objectives (Hammer 2015). The report would also recommend the
selection of software packages by comparing the features and functionalities Finally, an
appropriate recommendation would also be provided for the application of most suitable
vendor and accounting software packages for Grace Ltd.

4ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Business Process:
As evident from the above stated explanation Grace Ltd is a beverage manufacturing
company that is operating in the industry for over forty years. There is key business process
for Grace Ltd which are as follows;
Key Business Process
Reducing the total cost of ownership:
The management of Grace Ltd should make an attempt to reduce the cost of
ownership over the full life cycle of the plant. This would enable the covering of investment
costs that is made by Grace Ltd. The reduced of ownership would help in covering the
expenses for the operations, services and maintenance expenses incurred by the company.
Each of the identified areas possess the potential of inherent optimization. Grace Ltd can
exploit the total cost of ownership with the help of Total Integrated Automation which would
enable an overall integration of the partial steps in production along with the end to end
information flow from the manufacturing level to the administrative level (Vom Brocke,
Petry and Gonser 2016). Grace Ltd can consequently standardize the manufacturing
procedure which would ultimately decrease the interface problems thereby reducing the time
needed and costs all through the entire life cycle of the plants.
Shorter time to market:
All the new flavours for the soft drinks or the present success would benefit Grace Ltd
from the market potentials where the business can respond to the changes from the market.
Grace Ltd can automate the batch procedure with the help of modular process control system
that would help the business in providing smart solutions. The automation procedure would
allow the business to change the recipes quickly and easily which would further help in
increasing the flexibility as well as the profitability of the Grace Ltd.

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Implementing faster and precise tracking & tracing:
When there is a situation of food and beverage, the legislation does not allow any
compromise. This is to protect the consumer. However, Grace Ltd can track and trace its
capabilities that not only serves the consumers but also the transparency that involves
providing immense benefits to the companies (Uhl and Gollenia 2016). Process information
would help Grace Ltd in promoting better understanding of the production and business
procedure together with the targeted detection of the optimization potentials.
Increasing Productivity with Total Integrated Automation:
The modern trends have moved away from the individual devices and in the direction
of automation solutions. With the help of total integrated automation, the business will be
able to apply the integration. The total integrated automation would act as the integrated
platform for the for Grace Ltd for the whole line of production. This includes the goods that
are in the production procedure and goods that are out for delivery (Vom Brocke, Zelt and
Schmiedel 2016). The process of integration at Grace Ltd must not be limited to
manufacturing process. Instead Grace Ltd, should apply the engineering environment and
open ended communication to cover the critical areas of the business. This includes from
creating automation and power management to services and maintenance.
Outcomes required from the processes to achieve business success:
Efficient routine control: In order to attain the business success from the above stated key
procedures it is necessary that Grace Ltd implements the effective routine control at the
separate level of independent production. The efficient routine control would act as the
schedule for monitoring, controlling and diagnosing the material transports. The sophisticated
routine control would help in eliminating the complex routines networks which would
ultimately reduce the planning effort.

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Standardization and reduced interfaces: By implementing faster and precise tracking and
tracing procedure Grace Ltd can reduce the interferences. This would help Grace Ltd in
significantly improving their line efficiency due to the reduction of risks in the line of
integration.
Integration: Reducing the overall costs of production and interconnecting all the parts of the
plant would help Grace Ltd in achieving the productivity with the combination of efficient
material flows, transparency in communications and consistency in operational procedure
(Pourmirza et al. 2016). A reduction in the total cost of ownership would help in reducing the
labour and service costs with greater protection of investment due to consistent modular and
accessible design. The total integration of the key business process for Grace Ltd would not
only help the production procedure but would also help all parts of Grace Ltd ranging from
the field of manufacturing to administrative level. Therefore, this results in perfect
coordination of the total concept leading to higher productivity of the business.
Systems requirements:
Possible Software Features or Functionalities:
According to Laguna and Marklund (2018) it is irrespective of the fact that no matter
what the size of the business or distributorship, every business requires the method of
organizing their order of process so that they can be profitable and effective. Despite
knowing this there are several small companies that are not sure that they need or even
required to start looking for the new software. In the current case of Grace Ltd ERP is
considered as the best possible software packages that the company must consider in
attaining their IT objectives.
Majority of the ERP companies that are operating in the Food and Beverage industry
are very much aware of the challenges that the business owners faces and develop the product

7ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
to remove their business pains (Seethamraju 2015). Below listed are some of the functions of
ERP that Grace Ltd should consider applying for its IT investment objectives.
Process manufacturing functionality:
Grace Ltd requires the application of ERP to adapt to their specific manufacturing
requirements. The ability of the ERP is to administer the manufacturing procedure by saving
time and money by increasing the working hours of staff. ERP would help Grace Ltd in
ensuring the accuracy by gauging into the organizational productivity, recognizing the
weaknesses and automating most of the supply chains (Lee and Lee 2015). All through the
process of production, materials and resources requires the tracking as well as tracing the
concise information on the product and batch yield.
This area of ERP is beneficial for Grace Ltd business to completely implement
control on production such as quality assessment and distribution program that regularly
consumes time through manual input of data.
Human Capital Requirements: ER has the higher capability in managing the human capital
and it is regarded as the main reason for several businesses to make investment in such
system. Managers here can plan as well as assess the human capital requirements with ease
and effectively by automating the tasks namely the administration and tax calculations
(Reefke and Sundaram 2017). ERP helps in reducing the potential for human errors, therefore
helps in increasing the efficiency and reduced financial losses because of inaccuracy.
Sales and Inventory Management: One of the vital requirements of ERP is to have the sales
and inventory management. Having the ability of tracking, tracing and locating the inventory
within the business is regarded as fundamental to overall operations (Svobodova and Cerna
2016). The data can be later linked with the sales data where managers can any time know the
amount of stock they have and the amount of stock needed to reach the optimum level. All

8ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
these functions would ultimately help in saving the time of business for Grace Ltd and would
ultimately increase the accuracy of data and business productivity. Preferably, managers
require this information for easy understanding of the real time stock level.
Promotions: Promotions and advertisement are regarded as main characteristics of the food
and beverage industry hence, the requirement for ERP becomes evident. Every business has
their own set of purchase and selling price with multiple amount of price lists is allocated to
the customers (Fatima 2016). Therefore, for Grace Ltd on choosing the ERP the business
would have the alternative capability of providing advanced pricing and promotional
functionality on the basis of customers, quantity of product and so on.
Supply Chain Management: A strong supply chain is regarded as the important factor for
the success of any business that are operating in the food and beverage industry
(Wickramasinghe, Cooray and Dissanayake 2017). As Grace Ltd is operating in the beverage
industry, by applying the ERP supply chain, the management of the business is greatly
improved as the system can manage the complex procedure within the procurement,
distribution and planning.
Integration Capabilities: The functions of ERP is to seamlessly integrate in the current
business structure and wherever possible it can get the best use of its hardware. By
implementing the ERP, Grace Ltd can connect the back office procedure with the shop floor
and the business here can leverage the data from their operations to make decisions on the
basis of that information (Haislip, Peters and Richardson 2016). Integrating the shop floor
process helps in completing the business cycle and there by extending the factory solutions
for the company.
Regulatory Control: Implementing control on the regulatory responsibilities in the business
can be very time taking process and involves detailed job. However, with the application of

9ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
ERP, Grace Ltd can regulate large number of subsidiary control. The managers will be able
to track and trace the items of inventory and level of batch at the time of production.
Maintenance and Support: ERP maintenance and support is a huge requirement for
companies. Grace Ltd must ensure that it is able to provide the needed technical and
maintenance support to the system. It is also the responsibility of Grace Ltd to make sure that
software provider is in the business for long time and combats against the out of date as well
as irrelevant information (Sampaio and Bernardino 2016). For example, the software provider
should ensure that the regular updates are performed on the systems to support that the
support is always working on time. This would help the business in keeping up with the latest
technology and manufacturing methods.
On the overall basis, there are ample number of requirements that Grace Ltd has to
meet and managers may face the difficulties in choosing the ERP. Therefore, the solutions
will be helpful for the company to be more flexible in growing their company and powering
their business.
Software Selection:
Accounting Software Packages:
Upon visiting the accounting software websites, the three accounting software that have
been selected for the Grace Ltd is stated below;
a. Xero
b. MYOB
c. Sage Accounting
XERO: Xero is a cloud bookkeeping software that has resulted in significant step changing
in efficiency for the accounting company. As the whole the employees working in the
company does not has the needed experience to use the software. Xero is best suited for the

10ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
company as it is a beginning level for the staff that does not has sufficient experience. The
use of Xero for the company would support more client information in lesser time. Cloud
bookkeeping and the process of automation goes hand in hand. Automation involves taking
manual tasks and having software is beneficial for the company that would enable tracking of
transactions without the data entry (Quinn and Strauss 2017). The accountants and the
bookkeepers would be able to spend more time on the transactions data from the bank
statements. With the help of cloud bookkeeping the company would be able to support more
number of clients in lesser number of time through the process of automation by focusing on
the higher paying work.
The ability of the software is to efficiently administer the cash flow for the financial
success of the business (Carroll 2017). Entrepreneurs hardly has any real time to gain an
insight into the business finance. They are required to perform the day to day business
operations. Using the Xero would enable Grace Ltd in solving the financial problems and can
easily put the business owners back to the driver’s seat. Using the software at the beginner’s
level would help in providing the up-to date real time information regarding the financial
health of the company. The use of software would also help the person recording the
transactions with the understanding of the income and expenditure (Ben-Itzhak 2015). The
business owners here Grace Ltd does not have wait for the income and expenditure track as
using the XERO they can keep track of the required information where the money is going.
For the accountants of Grace Ltd performing the work of accounting manually may be
time consumer however with the degree of experience is below the required level using the
XERO at the beginner’s level would help in automating the accounting system and would
also save time for the accountant and business owners (Stafievskaya et al. 2015).

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Beside XERO, MYOB is another accounting software package that are leading the
success of the business. Rather than purchasing the expensive high maintained IT in the
organization, Grace Ltd can use MYOB for its accounting hassles and place its focus on the
financial and operational resources on their central business activities. MYOB is presently
used by more than one million business in Australia (Islam, Bilal and Ilyas 2017). This
software is helpful for the business as it helps in managing their cash flow, payroll and day to
day bookwork efficiently. As the accountant are at Grace Ltd are less experienced in the use
of accounting software MYOB can serve the purpose of accounting by reducing the waste
time on the manual process that results in bottlenecks and inaccuracies.
In context of the Grace Ltd, using MYOB can help in saving great deal of time and
money because there is not kind of upfront capital expense on the computer services. The
cloud computing helps in providing the employees with the greater ability of working on the
organizational content from any place by using any device (Patil 2016). This would help in
eliminating the productivity of road blocks at the time of travelling. By using the manual
accounting procedure, MYOB helps in automating the manual procedure that ultimately
wastes the valuable time and money.
On numerous occasions the manual accounting systems would require the accountants
to reduce the time-consuming procedure by automating the credit notes, purchase orders and
payroll. In addition to this, the business analysis turns out to be painless and use of
accounting software would help in assisting the managers in monitoring as well as controlling
the business. Using the software at the beginner’s level would help the accountants in
seamlessly produce the accounting reports by monitoring and controlling the business (Kim,
Gangolly and Elsas 2017). Rather than waiting for the different teams for collection of
information’s the accountants can use the generated reports for predicting the cash flow

12ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
problems and period of growths. Starting the software at the beginner’s level would help in
planning for the future growth with better confidence.
Finally, another accounting software that can recommended for Grace Ltd is the Sage
Accounting System that has the numerous facilities to process the monetary information. The
system would be helpful for the beginners at the initial level because the system would allow
the accountants to facilitate the numerous procedure for the financial information. The
accountants under the Sage Accounting System can collect the information, classify and then
summarize the data in the accessible manner to permit the user to view their financial
information in the simple terms (Ossimitz, Wieder and Chapman 2016). By using a
completely computerised accounting information, the accountants can rule out the risks of
human errors namely jotting down the wrong figures or misplacing the information. These
small errors can create a catastrophic impact on the financial reporting of the business
therefore having the accurate system is immensely the beneficial for the users and company
to have the real time financial information.
Vendor Selection:
Comparison and Contrast of Functionalities and Features:
Features/Functionality XERO MYOB Comments
Cost Starting package
25$ per month
(including the
automatic
calculations of
superannuation and
payroll for the
Starting package
for the MYOB is
$25 per month and
the premier
package of $50
provides unlimited
payroll accounting
XERO is the most
suitable for Grace
Ltd because the
software provides
only the single
package of costing
structure and it is

13ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
employees. facilities. very much straight
forward to
understand.
Sign-up and
installation procedure
The software is
slick, easy to use
and intuitive in
nature.
MYOB is easy to
use and implement.
But there are
several advanced
features in the
MYOB that is
necessary and the
MYOB accounting
right provides the
features and
inventory and job
management that
can only run with
the compatible
windows
In this
circumstances
XERO is regarded
as the best suited
for the company
because the
software does not
have any
compatibility
bound for the
windows.
Payroll Under the XERO
system the starter
and the standard
plans offer payroll
for only one person.
However, on
making the
The essential and
starter plans for the
MYOB provides
the feature of only
one person while
the premier plans
provide the
MYOB in this
circumstances is
best suited for the
Grace Ltd because
the company would
get the feature of
unlimited payroll

14ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
payment of $60 per
month the business
can get the payroll
features for more
number of people.
unlimited payroll
information.
availability for the
company.
Inventory All the plans of the
company include
the basic inventory
tracking and
management
system
MYOB essentially
comprises of the
basic inventory
tracking features
but only the MYOB
accounting rights
provides the facility
of advanced
inventory
management for
tracking and
managing inventory
(Huerta and Jensen
2017).
XERO in this case
is the best suited for
the company
because the
software provides
the integrations
with the third
parties that also
enables the more
complex inventory
management.
Invoicing Customisable
invoice layouts and
the capability of
tracking when the
invoice is opened
by the recipients
It provides
customisable
invoice layouts
along with the
ability of tracking
the open invoices
XERO in this
regarded is the
better options due
to the customisation
of sending and
tracking invoices.

15ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
of the recipients.
Advance
customisation is
only available by
using the MYOB
Accounting Right.
Category of Software suitable for Firm:
The most suitable vendor and accounting software package for the client:
The most suitable vendor and the appropriate accounting software that is appropriate
for the Grace Ltd is XERO. This is because XERO has the better control over the superiority
of the MYOB and it would provide the business with the multi-factor options for
authentications (Machado and Gomes 2018). XERO is better certified towards payment card
industry and data security standards whereas MYOB is not suitable for all these purposes.
In addition to this, XERO provides more additional integrations with the third party
software apps that would enable Grace Ltd in improving the capabilities to better meet the
needs of the majority of the small and medium business. MYOB on the other is more
restricted software that requires to be installed on the computer and it is only compatible with
the windows (Turner, Weickgenannt and Copeland 2016). One of the prime reason for
selecting the XERO over MYOB is because the XERO is more user friendly for the
beginners that have little or no experience in using the accounting software. At the end of the
day if the accountants are more proficient with the particular platform of accounting then it is
more sensible to make use of the XERO.

16ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
XERO is the best suited accounting software for the company because the software is
designed from the ground up level and it is regarded as the simplest, elegant and intuitive for
the small to medium size business (Zhang, Stone and Xie 2017). The software could be time
saving for Grace Ltd and it also saves time for the business.
Conclusion:
On a conclusive note, the analysis evidently provides that Grace Ltd should use totally
integrated automatic approach to increase its productivity. This is because the business in the
long run would be able to save more time by eliminating the bottlenecks and would also be
able to improve its profitability. The analysis also recommends the application of ERP
systems for keeping the better track of the administrative and functionalities that are
important in attaining the IT investment objectives. Besides this, it is recommended that
Grace Ltd should also XERO to meet its accounting software requirements as this is time
saving and easy to use for the beginner’s level.

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