T1 2019 HA2042: Accounting Information Systems Report Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of accounting information systems (AIS), examining their importance within organizational structures and operational practices. The report focuses on evaluating and recommending accounting software for Abacus Property Group, an ASX-listed real estate company. It explores the client's business activities and processes, highlighting key features and functionalities of accounting software. The report compares and contrasts two software packages, SAP and MYOB, considering factors such as multi-user access, currency options, and integration capabilities. Ultimately, the report recommends SAP as the most suitable accounting software for Abacus Property Group, emphasizing its ability to integrate departmental efforts, manage costs, and support informed decision-making. The conclusion reiterates the benefits of AIS, particularly for small-scale enterprises, and underscores the significance of considering various software features during selection.

Accounting Information Systems

Executive summary
An accounting information system is a process which is used to manage records, analyze,
retrieve, collect and store the financial data of any company. This is done to provide reliable,
relevant and comparable information to the users of the data. This data can be helpful for
investors, lenders, customers, financial institutions, government and banks. These kinds of
systems help the company to maintain accuracy in the data and make a financial report. These
systems help to integrate the working of different departments to convert financial data into
useful information. The information provided by the accounting information system is based on
historical cost, flexible and compatible.

Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Background......................................................................................................................................4
Systems requirements......................................................................................................................5
Software selection............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference list.................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
The aim of the report is to explain the importance of accounting information software in view of
the organizational structure and operating practices. This report is based on evaluating and
recommending accounting software to a client of the form. The client is an ASX-listed company
named Abacus Property Group. This report contains a brief description of the client and its
business activities and its business processes. This report has focused on explaining the features
of the accounting software and its functionalities that the Abacus Property Group must consider
supporting its business activity. Also, a brief description of two software packages has been
provided in the report along with comparison and contrast in their features and the most suitable
vendor is also identified for the client.
Background
Description of the client
The client of the firm is a real estate company named Abacus Property Group. This company is a
property group and invests in various properties across Australia. This company was established
in 19966 and in 2002 got listed in ASX (Pierce, 2015). This group consisted of three companies
named Abacus Storage Operations Limited, Abacus Group Holdings Limited and Abacus Group
Holdings Limited. This company works on the strategy of investing in those properties which
have been underpriced in the market and grab the opportunity to get maximum profit. It provides
many services in the real estate sector such as self-storage facilities, office rooms, industrial and
retail properties etcetera (Lu, 2017).
Business practices
Abacus Property Group generally works on holding the opportunity to add maximum value to
their security holder by taking the advantage with the help of releasing of assets, refurbishment,
acquisition and re-development of assets across Australia (Manisha and Bosman, 2018). They
work on the basis of providing changes in the asset and providing it required management over
the life cycle of the property. They also focus on social, political and environmental aspects of
business practices and involve all sustainable issues in their working operations and decision-

making ability. They also work for the development of property and providing a solution related
to finance. They also provide investment solution to the retail investors in order to meet their
specific needs (Yacht and Crosson, 2017).
Business processes
Abacus Property Group follows a complete business process to manage its activities. It starts
with planning the goals and objectives of the company (Zou et al. 2017). Then it identifies the
property that it can easily acquire, develop or reconstruct. After planning it focuses on to
maintain all the documents of the asset such as clauses, lease or any other record. After complete
documentation, they maintain a contract with other clients by sending or receiving emails or any
other communication. After contract they complete payment requirements and set schedule, date
or amount whatever is required. The business process of APG is based on all crucial functions of
the management that are created with planning, organizing, directing, staffing and controlling.
Systems requirements
There are many features and functionalities present in any accounting software which the Abacus
Property Group must consider to consider it business activities (Sledgianowski et al. 2017).
Using an electronic record keeping system will help the APG to capture all relevant information
easily and safely. It is possible only with the help of any accounting software which can help it
by meeting all tax reporting necessities. They must consider the following features while
choosing any accounting software:
 The software must be able to record all financial a transactions such as asset details,
income and expenditure made by the company, wages and salary paid to employees,
stock available, etc.
 The information recorded must acquire less storage and records in an efficient and
effective manner.
 The software must provide easy options to generate invoices, reports of stock, financial
reports and statements, orders, reports of debtors and creditors.
 It must be able to cross check the reporting functions and amounts recorded in the
software.

 It must be able to implement all tax laws, rules and tax rates. If possible, it must be able
to send emails to clients, investors, customers and suppliers.
 The software must also be able to keep back up of the records and must keep them at the
safest place to prevent any loss of information in case of theft and fire.
Software selection
Accounting software is simple processes that are being used for many accounting functions such
as record keeping, entry systems including single and double both, manage accounts such as
inventory, debtors, creditors, account receivables, account payables etc (Riungu-Kalliosaari et al.
2016).
SAP
It is one of the largest sellers of enterprise resource planning which helps the business
organizations to run financial operation related to fiancé, human resource, production and
marketing. This software helps the organization to maintain records by integrating the working
of different departments without any individual entry of the information. This software has full
control on legal, financial and process information (Janvrin and Watson, 2017). This helps them
to manage some technical and functional modules with the help of a single system. This package
contains many SAP modules and platforms that can help the company to meet their entire
requirement with the help of a single unified system (Dimitriu and Matei, 2015). These products
are:
 SAP R/3 and R/3 Enterprise
 mySAP Business suite
 SAP ERP
 SAP Industry Solutions
 SAP xApps
 SAPSolutionManager
SAP functional modules
 FICO- Finance and control

 PP- production planning
 MM- material management
 SD- sales and distribution
 HR- Human resources
 CRM- Customer relationship management
MYOB
MYOB accounting software is very useful for enterprises, especially for small scale
organizations. This software helps them to automatically record every financial record in the
software. This software is compatible with GST compliant and GST ready (Felter et al. 2019). It
is also compliant with windows8. It has the ability to perform the task in minimum time with
great effectiveness. It has resulted in billing work easy to do. This software keeps a record of the
cash flow of the company and accesses its profit and loss. It also keeps a check on the inventory
available and helps in calculation of some other things such as delivery time of products, wages
and salaries of the employees, generation of orders etc. This software helps in keeping track of
the bills and records of the company and also help in maintaining various records of the invoice,
clients customers, track the outstanding transactions, bills receivables, payables, manage other
accounting information and records them (Blount et al. 2016). This process can do all these
works on a regular basis such as monthly, daily or whenever the user wants. It has the following
products which make the work of small enterprises easy.
 Accounts payable software
 Billing and invoicing software
 Payroll software
 Accountant software
 Church accounting software
 Construction accounting software
 Accounts receivable software
 Cloud storage software
 Bookkeeper software
Similar features of MYOB and SAP

Most of the features of SAP and MYOB are the same such as both can be used by more than one
person at one time i.e. the ability to access multiple users (Cleary and Quinn, 2016). Both are
also available in multiple languages which are very good with the international perspective and
global growth. The availability of multiple currencies is also common in both the software. Both
the software helps in connecting the various functions of different departments with the
organizational objectives. They both have the ability to update the data and manage the issues
related to accounting. There are some minimum requirements also which are common in both
MYOB and SAP. These are:
 1GHz Intel Pentium Processor
 Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows Vista
 35 MB additional disk space per company file
 200 MB free hard disk space
 16-bit colour screen resolution
 Microsoft office from 2000 to 2007
 Adobe Acrobat Reader
 Microsoft Internet Explorer
 Apple QuickTime
 Dial-up or broadband connection
Comparison of SAP and MYOB
Basis MYOB SAP
Features  Access to multiple users
at one time
 Manage cash flow
 Manage inventory
 Easy synchronization
 Manage payroll
 System is flawless
 Can work on multiple
currencies
 Is available in many
languages
 Manage cash flow
 Integrate other
departments works
automatically

 The reduced time period
of the sales cycle
 Support financial activities
 Improved overall
performance
Benefits  Easy to be used
 Clear and accurate
reporting
 Solution provider
 Compatible with other
accounting software also
 Trustworthy
 Accurate
 Perform with consistency
 Compatible with other
devices
 Optimum utilization of
resources
 Enhance IT platform
 Ongoing updation
 Cost monitoring feature
 Software and hardware
applications better than
others
Most suitable accounting software package for Abacus Property Group
As SAP and MYOB have most common features and similarities but SAP is far better than
MYOB (Amirul et al. 2017). Hence APG must choose SAP accounting software for its financial
operations. This is because SAP has the ability to combine the efforts of different departments
and analyze them to provide final results. This also keeps a check on the cost of the product by
monitoring and controlling it and helps the organization to maximize its profit. This application
would be suitable for APG as it provides the digital way to them for recording their sales amount
and automatically updates the data on a regular basis. It also helps them in cash management by
recording the amount received from customers and updating other accounts which get affected
by it. It also helps the top level manager to take a decision on the basis of the resources available
and the cost of the operation provided by SAP to them. It helps them to be prepared for future
risk and probability of disasters. The price of the SAP is around $6000 to $7000 and it’s all the
working is very accurate and safe and also protects the information from being getting hacked
(Drew, 2015).

Conclusion
On the basis of the report, it can be concluded that the accounting information system can prove
to be very helpful for every kind of organization, especially for small scale enterprises. The
Abacus Property Group can be benefitted a lot by using the suggested accounting software
package named SAP. When a comparison is made between SAP and MYOB, it is found that
SAP is far better than MYOB due to its certain special specifications. There are many functions
and features of different accounting software that the company must keep in mind while
choosing this kind of software. These features can be time, cost, features, functions, system
requirements etc. Hence it can be said that the development of these software has proved to be
very useful in maintaining financial records and integrating functions of all departments
automatically.

Reference list
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