ACCT6001: Apex Plumbing Ltd - Accounting Information Systems Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the accounting information systems at Apex Plumbing Ltd, a wholesale supplier of plumbing equipment. It begins by identifying the participants, inputs, and outputs within the current business processes. A business process model is developed to illustrate the company's operations. The report then identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the existing system, highlighting inefficiencies such as the lack of a customer self-service portal and the fragmented nature of information flow between departments. Recommendations for improvement are made, emphasizing business process reengineering and the implementation of IT solutions. A newly reengineered system is proposed, featuring a customer self-service portal, automated order processing, and improved communication between departments. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations, offering insights into how Apex Plumbing Ltd can enhance its accounting information systems for greater efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Running head: ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR APEX PLUMBING LTD
Accounting Information Systems for Apex Plumbing Ltd
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR APEX PLUMBING LTD
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Identification of Participants, Inputs and Outputs.................................................................2
2.2 Development of the Current Business Process Model..........................................................4
2.3 Identification of Current Strengths and Weaknesses.............................................................6
2.4 Recommendation for Improving Present Inefficiencies........................................................7
2.5 Explanation of the Newly Reengineered System..................................................................9
3. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
The report is based on understanding the various business processes that are being
performed at Apex Plumbing Ltd, which is a major wholesale supplier of different plumbing
equipment, tools and various other services. The company have formed their major operations
based on serving customers who are spread across the nation. The company has been in the
process of following their traditional information systems to deal with a wide ranging client base.
In the recent times, the company has been facing a stiff competition in the global
marketplace based on dealing with their competitors. This has majorly created competition
among their competitors to deal with price factors, understand the changing behaviour of
customers, deal with their traditional information system, which further leads them to operational
inefficiencies (Huang et al., 2015). The following sections of the report focuses on the
identification of participants, input and output processes for the event. The current business
process model of the case have been displayed and described. After the analysis of the case, the
strengths and inefficiencies have been identified. Based on the inefficiencies, the ways in which
the present business processes could be improved have been discussed.
2. Discussion
2.1 Identification of Participants, Inputs and Outputs
From the understanding of the case for the current business processes being performed at
Apex Plumbing Ltd., the current business processes, which are being performed by the involved
participants are discussed. The input and output processes, which are being performed are also
discussed accordingly.

3ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR APEX PLUMBING LTD
The participants, which are a part of the business process for Apex Plumbing Ltd are:
1. Sales Department Clerk – The sales clerk is responsible for entering the customer
order number into the centralized computer sales ordering system.
2. Customer – The customer has the option of either registering themselves as a new user
or perform a direct login function at the customer file system.
3. Warehouse Department Clerk – The clerk is responsible for reviewing the open sales
order files and print their copies for each considered new sale of orders (Rinaldi, Montanari &
Bottani, 2015). They also send one sale copy to the sales department while the other copy is
being sent to the shipping document.
4. Shipping Department Clerk – Based on receiving the receipt for the release of goods
and stock, they prepare the goods for shipping them to customers.
5. Billing Department Clerk – They perform a detailed review of the closed sales orders
from the system terminal. Hence, they are responsible for preparing two different copies of sales
invoice (Doumeingts, G., & Browne, 2016). One copy is mailed to customers while the other
copy is being stored within the billing department. The updated copy of the newly stored file is
updated by the clerk in the general ledger file.

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2.2 Development of the Current Business Process Model
The current business model is described in the following figure:
(Figure 1: The Current Business Process Model at Apex Plumbing Ltd)
(Source: Created by author)
From the above figure, it can be understood that Apex comprises of several kind of
functions and has a wide employee base. The company performs their operations for the purpose
of serving their customers who are spread across the nation. The sales team of the company

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comprises of some part-time employees and 17 full-time employees. Hence they are in the
process of receiving orders through telephone, email, traditional mailing system and also through
occasional walk-in of customers (Borgianni, Cascini & Rotini, 2015). The sales clerk is primarily
responsible for entering a customer order within their traditional computer sales order system.
The file server and computer are primarily set up within the small data processing department of
Apex.
In the next phase, the warehouse departmental clerk would also be responsible for
performing a detailed review over the open sales order file created for the customers. After the
placement of an order, two copies of stock release document would need to be created
(Kasemsap, 2020). Thus, the warehouse clerk updates the records in the inventory subsidiary
file, which would reflect the quantity of items and the order id of the item being shipped.
After receiving the receipt of the stock and goods release, the clerk within the shipping
department clerk would need to prepare three billing copies of lading. From the billing copies,
two of them are shipped with the goods to the goods carrier and the third copy would be shipped
along with the stock release document. This would further be filed with the shipping department.
In the final part, the billing department clerk would be responsible for reviewing the
orders, which are marked as closed. They would then prepare two different copies of sales
invoice. One of the copy would be mailed to the customer end while the other copy would be
sent to the billing department. The clerk would then be able to create a new record within the
account receivable subsidiary file (Esbenshade et al., 2016). Thus, upon receiving of the file, the
sales order system would perform an automatic update over the account receivable account
present within the general ledger file.

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2.3 Identification of Current Strengths and Weaknesses
The discussion in the previous section focuses on the understanding and analysis over the
present business process model and the kind of business functions being performed at Apex
Plumbing Ltd. From the kind of understanding and analysis of the discussions from the case, the
current strengths of Apex can be discussed as follows:
1. The company possesses a good kind of strategy based on segregating their employees
as per the requirements of the business (Mitchell & Sutherland, 2020). Hence, each of the
employees within each of the department are provided with clear instructions based on
performing each task accordingly.
2. The sales department of the company have the capability of receiving orders the orders
through different methods, which means that they have a broad number of options for their
customers on placing orders (Hopkinson & Aman, 2019). They also possess their own form of
small data processing department in which the customer sales information is being stored
separately.
3. The business also possesses a good feature of storing each customer records in a
separate file. Whenever a customer creates an order, the sales clerk is responsible for sending an
e-mail notification to customers as a confirmation message of their booking.
4. The clerk in the warehouse department are also efficient in determining the orders,
which are dispatched and updating the stock of items, which are continuously changing (Chen et
al., 2017). Thus, the warehouse department continuously updates the quantity within the
inventory and provides a detailed knowledge regarding the items, which are being shipped.

7ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR APEX PLUMBING LTD
5. The billing department also maintains a quick response facility to perform a detailed
review of the closed sales orders (Jackson & Clynch, 2018). Two different copies of data are
stored one which is notified to customer while the other copy would be filed within the Billing
department.
However, upon consideration of the strengths, the weakness within the business
functionalities at Apex are:
1. The company does not offer their customers to place an order on their own. Apex does
not own their personal portal from which the customers would be able to place an order from
their own choice.
2. The company does not possess a full-fledged website that would display the products
in which they specialize in (Kumar, Boesso & Michelon, 2016). Innovative features such as real-
time customer support, online order placement options and supporting of wide number of
payment options would need to be supported in their new platform.
3. Different departments possess a different system which are although linked to each
other, the information being processed by them is made through a clerk who performs the
functionality (Donelson, Ege & McInnis, 2017). Moreover, for example, a clerk within the sales
department would be notified about the sale of a product only when the warehouse department
clerk would process the information to the sales department.
2.4 Recommendation for Improving Present Inefficiencies
A proper strategy established for changing the strategies of the business based on
successful execution of each of the stages could be possible with the help of Business Process
Reengineering. This can be considered as a game-changing aspect for each business processes.

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The most certain ways in which the inefficiencies within the business could be corrected with the
useful impact of business process re-engineering and effective use of IT are discussed as follows:
1. Identification and communication for the changes needed – The changes, which
have been discussed are based on identifying the weaknesses faced by the business. After the
discussing over the inefficiencies, a comprehensive plan would need to be discussed (AbdEllatif,
Farhan & Shehata, 2018). This would help in determining the basic needs of communication that
need to be made for removing the inefficiencies from the system.
2. Hiring an Expert team for discussing changes – An expert team should be prepared
who would be responsible for designing a proper system that would help in eradicating the
inefficiencies from the system. This team would comprise of highly skilled experts who would
be made aware of the present situation. Thus, they would prepare a well-prepared plan with
which they would be able to determine the outputs.
3. Defining Key Performance Indicators and Inefficient Processes – After the setting
up of a well-skilled team, they would be responsible for kicking off an initiative based on
defining a right KPI. Different KPIs based on understanding the sales processes and involvement
of IT within the system. The workflow of various processes that need to be followed should need
to be discussed (Hakim, Gheitasi & Soltani, 2016). Hence, an effective use of process flowchart
between each of the involved departments should need to be restructured.
4. Reengineering processes and comparison of KPIs – After the KPIs and various
processes have been restructured, the implementation of the processes would need to be
performed at the earliest (Gonzalez-Huerta, Boubaker & Mili, 2017). Hence, after the processes

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would be performed as per planning, the outcomes from the business processes should need to be
compared with the KPIs.
2.5 Explanation of the Newly Reengineered System
The new business processes that would be followed at Apex is shown in the below figure:
(Figure 2: The Proposed Business Process Model at Apex Plumbing Ltd)
(Source: Created by author)
From the understanding of the above figure, it can be discussed that Apex would have a
strong need for designing a self-service portal for their present designed structural processes. The

10ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR APEX PLUMBING LTD
customer would be able to register or login themselves to the portal. After registering
themselves, the customer would be able to view each of the products from where they would be
able to choose and purchase the products (Lee et al., 2015). Whenever a customer would place
an order, the sales department would be automatically notified regarding the order placed. The
details of the customer would be displayed at the sales department (Chen, Yang & Tai, 2016). A
transaction ID would be sent to the customer from where they would be able to track the order at
every stage.
Based on determining the location of the customer, the sales department clerk would
clarify from their nearby warehousing department whether they have the goods at their service
(Banerjee, 2015). Upon receiving a confirmation, they would assign the particular warehouse
department to the customer. However, if the particular warehouse department does not possess
that particular good, the sales department would provide the goods from their central warehouse
department (Lilian, Uzochukwu & Francisca, 2015). Whenever the warehouse department would
receive notification, they would transfer the good to the shipping department.
The shipping department would then pack the goods and also notify the sales department
and customer that the item is currently in its packaging stage. After the packing of the goods
would be made, the shipping department would notify the customer and sales department
regarding the carrier service (Sarker & Lee, 2015). The carrier service provider would be mailed
regarding the details of the customer and their address. After the carrier would hand over the
goods to the customer, they would notify the billing department, shipping department, sales
department and customer about the shipment details.

11ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR APEX PLUMBING LTD
3. Conclusion
From the understanding of the case, it can be concluded that business process
reengineering can be considered as a major step towards bringing in procedural changes within
the industry. This could be considered as a major step leading to changes within the existing
processes being followed at Apex. The discussion within the report focuses on the identification
of various participants, input and output processes being followed at the company. From the
understanding of the current business process model, it can be understood that they did not
possess a proper system for customers to order products. They did not also have a proper system
based on arranging each of the departments into a common platform. Hence, from the discussion
of the case, the new processes that should be implemented within the company have also been
discussed accordingly. Thus, after the implementation of the new processes, it can be concluded
that the new system would majorly help Apex to improve their present processes and bring in
major improvements towards the business services.

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