Accounting Information System Report: AMP Bank Plc Case Study

This project report analyzes the Accounting Information System (AIS) of AMP Bank Plc, a financial services company. It begins with an executive summary and introduction outlining the scope of the project, which is to analyze AMP Bank's AIS and recommend suitable accounting software. The report delves into the company's background, including its operations and objectives, followed by an examination of its key business processes such as lending, account maintenance, and human resource management. It identifies required outcomes from these processes, including deeper user engagement, increased predictive capabilities, and better governance. The report then outlines AMP Bank's system requirements, including features like accounts receivable, invoicing, payment processing, and reporting capabilities. The report also analyzes software and vendor selection, providing recommendations based on the bank's needs. The conclusion summarizes the findings and recommendations.

Accounting Information
System

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Background of the company.......................................................................................................1
Business requirements.................................................................................................................3
System requirements...................................................................................................................4
Software selection.......................................................................................................................6
Vendor selection..........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This project report is summarises as Accounting information system is a structure of a
business organization which collect, store, manage, process and report all the financial data.
AMP Bank Plc is selected in this project report in order to understand this topic. Various
analyses of accounting software are done so that a suitable software can be ascertained for AMP
bank. Various software such as low, medium and high end are analysed and evaluated in this
report.

INTRODUCTION
Accounting information system is a structure of a business organization which collect,
store, manage, process and report all the financial data Accounting information system is a
structure of a business organization which collect, store, manage, process and report all the
financial data so it can be used for various parties related with the company that are auditors,
regulators and tax agencies. AIS mainly consists components such as people, instructions, data,
software, information technology and internal controls. In this project report, a company is
selected to better understand the concept of AIS and that is AMP Bank Plc. As a graduate
consultant in a management consultancy firm, various analysis is conducted about AMP in order
to recommend them an appropriate accounting software. In this project report, background and
description of this company along with its business processes is discussed. This information is
collected in order to ascertain their system requirements and IT investment objective. Suitable
software selection is done by evaluating various software packages and a software vendors (Bai,
Nunez and Kalagnanam, 2012).
MAIN BODY
Background of the company
AMP is a financial services company operating in Australia and New Zealand providing
superannuation and investment products, insurance, financial advice and banking products
including home loans and savings accounts. AMP shares are included in the Australian Securities
Exchange's S&P/ASX 50 index. Its headquarters are in Sydney, Australia. AMP formed in 1849
as the Australian Mutual Provident Society, a non-profit life insurance company and mutual
society.
It was demutualised into an Australian public company, and listed on the Australian
largest shareholder registers, with most shareholders living in Australia and New Zealand. This
is because when the society demutualised, all policy holders received shares in new company. Its
UK operation was the subject of a demerger in 2003,separating out Henderson Group (Belfo,
2013).
Operations:
The company provides financial planning and advice, banking, life insurance, managed
funds, superannuation, property, listed assets and infrastructure. It is Australia's largest life risk
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business in Australia. AMP is one of the largest asset managers in Asia pacific (excluding japan)
region AMP has four main business areas.
 Advice and banking provides financial planning and device,superannuation services for
businesses, and selected banking products. These products and services are primarily
distributed through a network of self-employed financial planners. AMP has been granted
a authority, enabling it to continue to receive default superannuation contribution from 1
January 2014.
 Insurance and superannuation provides superannuation, personal risk insurance products
and self-managed super fund administration, support and design. These products and
services are primarily distributed through a network of self-employed financial planners.
 customer solutions focuses on helping companies meet customer needs, handle marketing
efforts and take sales offer to market (Caglio and Ditillo, 2012).
AMP Capital is one of Asia's Pacific's largest investment mangers. Through a team of
investment professionals across the world, it invests in equities, fixed interest, infrastructure,
property, diversified funds and multi-manager funds. It is the top 10 global investment manager
in infrastructure and top 25 in real estate. Not only this, AMP is a wealth management company
which offers solutions and services across financial services across financial advice, investment
management,banking,superannuation, superannuation, self-managed superannuation funds
(SMSFs), life insurance, retirement income and investing.
AMP was founded 170 years ago in Australia, it's reach now spans around the world,
where AMP use our expertise to advise clients and customers in Asia, the Middle East, Europe,
the united kingdom and North America, it operates in 11 countries. Besides this, it operates in six
segments which are Australian Wealth Management, AMP Capital, Australian Wealth
Protection, AMP Bank, New Zealand Financial Services, and Australian Mature.
Objectives:
 Simplify the finances and be debt free.
 Profit as well as wealth maximisation.
 Improving banking sector's ability to absorbs shocks arising from financial and
economical stress.
 Strengthen banks' transparency and disclosures.
 Improve risk management governance (Christensen and Feltham, 2012).
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Business requirements
Key business processes for AMP:
Key business processes are the most significant series of business activities performed by
an organization in order to effectively run their business and achieve the organizational
objectives. AMP is a public limited bank which has a diverse number of operations performed by
them. Key business processes can include financing activity, human resource activities,
compliance activities and may more. In this case of AMP Bank Plc, various key business
processes are discussed below:
Lending – This process is related with the business operations of this bank according to
which money which is collected by the banks from their clients is lend as loans by charging
higher interest. This company automate the credit sanctioning using credit scoring techniques in
order to make sure that their amount which is lend will be repaid by their clients. This operation
of lending is not limited only for business purposes, security and personal lending are also
included in key business processes for this bank (Lending operations. 2018.).
Account maintenance – It is important for a financial institution to reinvest and make
profit from investment activities. But the major role of banks is still considered to be account
maintenance. Account maintenance is the major key operation of this bank according to which
bank maintains their clients account. This operation can include create, amend and delete records
of accounts of clients. Another activity in this process can include bank driven processes such as
non applied items, suspense account processing and branch balancing. These operations
constructs the core of a bank as these activities are related with gaining the trust of clients.
Human processes – Another key business process for AMP bank Plc. Is human
processing. This operation is not related with the regular business operations of an organization
but it is related with managing human resources of an organization. In order to satisfy a huge
client base, it is important to provide 24*7 client services. Ample of employees are employed by
this bank in order to conduct their back end back office work. In order to provide maximum
satisfaction to the clients and employees it is important to manage human resources. From the
above evidences it can be said that human resource is a key business process for AMP bank Plc.
Business activity monitoring – This key business process is a combination of business
processes with operational intelligence which helps in monitoring all above and other business
operations. Under this business process, regular business operation of AMP are monitored and
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controlled. Managers of this bank gathers information during regular operations and record them
in order to collect data for trend analysis (Gelinas, 2011).
Required outcomes from key business processes to achieve business objectives:
Every business organization conduct their business operations in order to gain their
business operations. AMP Bank is a financial institution which has basic objectives of profit
maximisation and client satisfaction. In order to achieve these organizational goals, there are
various outcomes which are needed to fulfilled using key business processes. These required
outcomes are discussed below:
Deeper user engagement – AMP Limited uses business processes such as account
maintenance in order to achieve client satisfaction. This bank has engaged numerous employees
to conduct operations of client account maintenance so that they achieve their required outcome
of deeper user engagement. By this outcome, company is planning to attain user engagement in
other services which are provided by this financial institution. For example: AMP bank has
various clients which are only related with bank due to their user account but with the key
process of account maintenance, they expect deeper engagement of clients in their other services.
Increased predictive capabilities – This required outcome is related with practice of
enhancing forecasting abilities of an organization. AMP bank performs key process of business
activity monitoring due to which they expect to gain their required outcome of increased
predictive capabilities. According to this outcome, this bank will be able to predict their future
events by trend analysis performed under monitoring process (Ghasemi and et. al., 2011).
Better governance – Another required outcome of this bank is better governance. By
achieving this outcome, AMP can effectively control and maintain their operations and activities.
In order to gain this required outcome, bank conducts various key processes.
User and admin flexibility - In order to achieve the organizational objective of
customer satisfaction it is important to achieve flexibility of admin and users. In this case of
AMP Bank Plc, user are the clients of the bank and admin is the management of AMP. From the
key process of business monitoring this flexibility can be achieved.
System requirements
Every organisation has its objectives in all operations of business, and these objectives
are crucial to achieve for long term growth of business. For instance, AMP has it's IT investment
objectives which are essential for the growth of organisation in it's sector. Some of the objectives
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are to provide a variety of technological information and ideas, encourage curiosity, ingenuity,
resourcefulness and discrimination along with promote efficient, informed, appropriate
communication. Develop an appreciation of the international and intellectual aspects of
technology, promote effective cooperation and respect for individual differences when
responding to technological changes (Grabski, 2011).
There are some features of software which firm should consider to achieve their IT objective:
 Accounts Receivable: Accounting software systems should be able to handle billing,
keeping track of what customers owe (account receivable,or A/R), and their payments.
 Invoice billing: Accounting software needs to able to handle invoicing. When money is
owed, you need to know from whom, how much, and when to expect payment. All
systems will allow you to print invoices, most will allow you to send them via email.
Your system should be able to remember basic customer data such as names, addresses,
account numbers and standard terms. Most software systems nowadays also remember
your standard pricing for a wide variety of products and services.
 Automatic invoicing: This is useful feature and ensures that revenue is never delayed
because you've forgotten to send out an invoice. In addition, with automated statements
and late reminders, the accounting software acts as your collection department,
reminding customers of need to pay their bills.
 Payment Processing: Many accounting systems provide a mechanism for customers to
pay their bills electronically. The advantages for the vendor are many, including less
staff time devoted to processing checks or making bank deposits, greater security for
payments, and faster processing times. however there are costs involved (Hall, 2012).
 Purchase order: Handling purchases and what you owe is one of the main tasks for A/P
software, but how it does so can vary from producing simple purchase orders payments.
 IRS tax forms: Having a database of the most common tax forms, such as the 1099 and
1096, can save a lot of time, especially if the system can input all the necessary data on
the forms for you and file them electronically with the IRS. Electronic payments of taxes
and filling of forms can keep you from being penalized for late payments.
 Banking: At very least, accounting software should have some form of link to your bank
account, enabling you to make direct payments and letting you import data from the
bank into the accounting system. Some software can go much further.
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There are some functions of accounting software are :
 Reporting: The quality and quantity of reports the system can generate differs widely,
too. Some systems offer a vast range of reporting options, with almost unlimited
categories and reporting options. Others just offer the basic reports, money in and money
out etc.
 Inventory: An accounting system with stock and inventory valuation and controls can
really streamline the business, helping you identify what's in stock, what needs reordering
and where purchase budget is being spent.
Software selection
Accounting software package vendors:
Accounting software is a system which manages and process financial data. This
software are developed by software package vendors. AMP Bank Plc is a financial institution
which operates in multiple countries. As the functions and operations of this company are
diverse it is important to manage their financial data using a effective software as traditional
methods of manual data recording are considered as obsolete. As a management consultant, few
accounting software package vendors which are considered for this company are mentioned
below:
SAP:
The first software vendor website which is visited is SAP. SAP is an enterprise resource
planning system which is concerned with systems, applications and products. This software is
ideal for small business as they can gain control over the business and also the subsidiaries with
this software package. The main feature of this software is that it connects and streamlines all the
business processes in one go. Capabilities and features of this system are financial management,
sales and customer management, business intelligence and analytics. The main key benefits of
this software is that this software package is significantly affordable due to which it can be used
by small businesses. Another benefit is effective solutions which are provided by this software in
order to handle the internal issues of a company. It also helps in providing insight to business
such as AMP. SAP software is a low end accounting software which is allows to conduct most
general business accounting functions but does not has adequate security or audit trails (Laudon,
2016).
MYOB:
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Another software website which is visited in order to review accounting software is
MYOB. This software is short for “Mind Your Own Business”, which is an Australian software
and is beneficial for purposes of accounting and taxation. The unique feature about this software
package is that it has variety of systems which are suitable for both small and large businesses.
Key features and benefits of this software are, the data which is stored using this system is
recorded using cloud due to which information can accessed anywhere and anytime. This
software also provides greater speed of input, accuracy and reduced costs. This software is not
limited to any end as this this software package has both low and high end software. Due to
cloud storage there is problem of data security (Libby, 2017).
Xero:
This software package vendor's website is considered due to its various benefits. This
software is considered as ideals for medium and small businesses. Key benefits of this software
are currency conversion, ease of use and accessibility and integration. This software can result in
beneficial for companies which are engaged in multiple operations. Limitation of this software
package is its criticism from customer as clients are not satisfied by its services (Onaolapo and
Odetayo, 2012).
Suitable accounting software category for AMP
AMP Bank Plc is a financial institution which operates in multiple countries and deals in
numerous products and services. In order to manage huge data of this company and control
various operations of this bank, it is important to select a software which is high end.
There are three categories of accounting software and they are low, medium and high. In
case of low end software, features and security of data is low due to which they are suitable for
small business. Medium end software are appropriate for medium business and high end
software are suitable for large companies. AMP is large company for which high end software is
most appropriate. MYOB is a high end software which is considered as suitable for AMP as a
management consultant. Another accounting software which is recommended for AMP is Xero
as this software provides data security and is also a high end software. Justifications for this
statement are identified below:
 AMP Bank Plc is a financial institution which has to deal in various finance related
operations such as accounting and taxation and this software is considered as ideal for
conducting this type of operations.
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 MYOB is a high end software and AMP Bank is a large business company due to which
this combination has highest compatibility.
 In a company where there is ample of information and data present it is important to
bring accuracy and reliability. High end software such as MYOB provides greater speed
of input, accuracy and reliability (Rainer and et. al., 2013).
Vendor selection
Comparison between features and functionalities of two accounting software
packages:
Basis MYOB Xero
Cost This software provides unlimited
benefits of whole package for 50
dollars per month.
According to the website of this
software package, cost of this
accounting software is around 60 dollar
every month. There is a variety of types
of this package but according to the level
of complexities present in functions of
AMP Bank, premium software package
will be accurate.
Storage This software provides unlimited
storage but it is limited to cloud only.
Cloud technology stores all the data but
the security of that information is
relatively low.
Xero is a software which stores all the
data but it does not provides unlimited
storage. But security of the data is
relatively high.
Installation Accounting software is a system which
is needed to be installed due to which it
is important to consider installation
process. MYOB provides easy sign up
process and for its advanced features,
compatibility process is required to be
performed.
Xero also benefits in fast and easy sign
up process.
Access MYOB stores data on cloud storage. Xero provides storage access on both Pc
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Due to this feature of this software,
user can access the data from anywhere
and anytime as the information is on
online cloud storage.
as well as on Mac.
Advanced
features
MYOB provides various advanced
features which are not present in any
other software and they are inventory
and job management and compatibility
with all kinds of systems.
Features provided by this software are
currency conversion, ease of use and
accessibility and integration. But there is
no other advanced features.
Reporting This software report run one at a time
which can be beneficial for AMP as
they clear line of reporting and
wearability.
Xero is advanced in this case and allows
to fast reporting with multiple reports
able to run at once.
Customer
support
According to customer reviews of this
software it can be said that they has a
huge client base which are satisfied
with the support services of this
software.
Clients of Xero are not observed to be
satisfactory with the support system of
this software as this system of Xero is
not as efficient as MYOB.
Inventory In the case of AMP Bank Plc,
management can get benefited with the
basic inventory tracking system and it
also provides advanced inventory and
job tracking management.
All plans of this software includes basic
inventory tracking and management. It
sometimes result in third party
integrations which can result in leakage
of data.
Above are the various comparisons between two high end software that is Xero and
MYOB. These comparisons has brought few contrasting qualities of both the software and they
are storage, inventory and access of data. Functions and features of both the above software are
highly comparable as they offers diversified features. Reason behind this diversity is demand of
customer (Schaltegger and Burritt, 2017).
Most suitable vendor and accounting software package for AMP:
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AMP Bank is a financial institution which operates in ample of data. AMP has to deal in
numbers and a lot of numerical data due to which they has to take an Information technology
investment decision about accounting software. As a management consultant of this AMP, the
most suitable vendor and software package of this company is MYOB. There are various reasons
for above statements which are mentioned below:
 AMP Bank Plc is multinational bank which operates in Australia and other parts of the
world. This diversity brings to them numerous data which requires a software which can
provide unlimited data storage. MYOB provides unlimited cloud storage at a similar cost
of other software.
 Another reason for selecting MYOB is trust. According to the customer reviews and
huge client base, it has been observed that this software is highly recommend due to its
after sales services such as client support which is provided 24*7 to clients.
 Besides the factor of client support, storage and cost, other important factors for
selecting this software is easily accessibility of data and its advanced features which are
not provided by any other software.
CONCLUSION
From the above project report, it has concluded that AMP bank limited is a large scale
business entity which should use high end accounting software. By analysing and evaluating
various software packages it has been identified that MYOB is the most suitable software for this
company has it has all the features and functionalities which are required by this company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bai, X., Nunez, M. and Kalagnanam, J. R., 2012. Managing data quality risk in accounting
information systems. Information Systems Research. 23(2). pp.453-473.
Belfo, F. and Trigo, A., 2013. Accounting information systems: Tradition and future directions.
Procedia Technology. 9. pp.536-546.
Caglio, A. and Ditillo, A., 2012. Opening the black box of management accounting information
exchanges in buyer–supplier relationships. Management Accounting Research. 23(2).
pp.61-78.
Christensen, P. O. and Feltham, G., 2012. Economics of Accounting: Information in markets
(Vol. 1). Springer.
Gelinas, U. J., Dull, R. B. and Wheeler, P., 2011. Accounting information systems. Cengage
learning.
Ghasemi, M., and et. al., 2011. The impact of Information Technology (IT) on modern
accounting systems. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 28. pp.112-116.
Grabski, S. V., Leech, S. A. and Schmidt, P. J., 2011. A review of ERP research: A future
agenda for accounting information systems. Journal of information systems. 25(1).
pp.37-78.
Hall, J. A., 2012. Accounting information systems. Cengage Learning.
Laudon, K. C. and Laudon, J. P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Libby, R., 2017. Accounting and human information processing. In The Routledge Companion
to Behavioural Accounting Research (pp. 42-54). Routledge.
Onaolapo, A. A. and Odetayo, T. A., 2012. Effect of accounting information system on
organisational effectiveness: a case study of selected construction companies in Ibadan,
Nigeria. American Journal of Business and Management. 1(4). pp.183-189.
Rainer, R. K., and et. al., 2013. Introduction to information systems. John Wiley & Sons.
Schaltegger, S. and Burritt, R., 2017. Contemporary environmental accounting: issues, concepts
and practice. Routledge.
Online
Lending operations. 2018. [Online]. Avaliable thorugh:
<https://www.barclayscorporate.com/products-and-solutions/financing/corporate-
lending.html>
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