A Detailed Report on Apple's Accounting Information System (AIS)

This report provides an overview of Apple's accounting information system (AIS), emphasizing the use of SAP FICO software. It details SAP FICO's components, including FI and CO modules, and their functions in financial management, reporting, and internal control. The report highlights the roles and responsibilities of SAP FICO accountants, such as financial statement preparation, audit participation, and system design, as well as their involvement in various financial and non-financial tasks. It also covers the integration of SAP FICO with other functional units and the importance of internal controls. Furthermore, the report identifies limitations of the current SAP system, such as the line item limit, and suggests recommendations for improvement, including cost considerations and user-friendliness. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and the importance of a robust AIS for a multinational corporation like Apple.

Accounting Information
Systems

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Existing accounting software uses apple.....................................................................................4
Role of SAP- FICO accountant...................................................................................................6
Recommendation for improvement the SAP .............................................................................9
SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCE ................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Accounting information system can be described as the accumulation and processing of
financial and accounting data for reporting the information to internal and external stakeholders
of a company. The present report will highlight the accounting information system of Apple, a
multinational gadget manufacturing company.
Apple Inc. is an American transnational organisation which is headquartered in
Cupertino, California. It was founded in 1st April 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and
Ronald Wayne. It is a public traded company and is listed on NASDAQ, NASDAQ 100
Component, DIJA component, S&P 100 & 500. The corporation designs, manufactures and sells
the electronic gadgets, computer software and also offers variety of online services. The
organisation has an enormous human capital and has around 132000 employees.
Apple offers wide range of products such as iPhone, iPad, Macintosh, Mac book, Apple
Watch, iOS, Garage Band, iWork, Home-pod, Final Cut Pro, Apple TV. It also provides variety
of services like iTunes store, Apple Pay, I-Cloud, Apple Music, I-Books Store, Mac Stores,
Apple Store, App store etc. The products and services are offered through its 500 retail stores
worldwide. The giant organisation has different subsidiaries that are; Shazam, Apple Energy,
Apple Sales International, Apple Worldwide Video, Apple Services, Beddit, Beats Electronics,
Anobit, Texture, File Maker Inc. and Braeburn Capital.
Apple is parent company of FileMaker Inc, Braeburn Capital, Apple Sales International,
Anobit, Texture, Apple Services, Shazam, Beddit, Apple Worldwide Video, Apple Energy, LLC
and Beats Electronics.
Apple is one the strongest multinational IT gadgets manufacturing organisation in the world. Its
financial position can be assume by as it has, $62.9 billion revenue as on November 1, 2018.
Apple's operating income is US$70.898 billion and its net income is US$59.531 billion in 2018.
Company owned total assets worth US$365.725 billion and total equity US$107.147 billion.
Apple currently faces cut- throat competition from Samsung, Sony Corp, Lenovo, one plus etc.
Existing accounting software uses apple
Apple shares strong partnership with SAP ERP software in all the functional unit of
company. SAP FICO contain component i.e. FI and CO. FI deals with accounting, where CO

states control. SAP facilitate enterprise resource planning for financial management, customer
relationship, marketing management, human resource, supply chain and product cycle
management. SAP accounting module render application of budget management, journal entry,
financial reporting and project cost accounting etc (Burns, 2018). information and reports uses
by internal stakeholders like employees, creditors, auditors, managers, higher authority etc.
external people like government, tax authority ,supplier, bank, and investors also get the required
and timely reports made software. SAP FICO even allow customer to place their order through
it, which increases the efficiency of completion the orders. This automated process, can lower
the chances of human errors and Detain.
Illustration 1: SAP FICO module
( Sources: sap fico is it right for me, 2017)
This module is the part of integrated ERP ECO system, which enable manager to cross
check the information. For instance accounting manager can access the information of

production and sales department in order to know the sold quantities. It also eases the
communication and transparency in different functional unit. This communication deducts the
chances of mistake and help in internal control (Kiran and Augustine, 2017)
Software's strong work flow ability also minimise the error. SAP can execute bulk of
transaction in seconds as it is capable to produce automated records, fast calculation,
computerised invoices. Manager also does not need to put various information like tax rate and
discount separately for different product again and again. Software is enough capable to calculate
the final result on the basis of given input (Wang, Syaiful and Nurul, 2017). Like a user who
purchase make payment via debit card has to pay different tax, in compare of payment by credit.
In such case software identifies the tax amount should be taken in case of both payment because,
software is equipped with current tax rate for different product.
Effective communication, integration, real time information, data accuracy, actionable
reports and computer are help in fewer errors. In SAP accounting system, accountant has to
create master record for each transaction. Master record contain the Transaction data entry
process, which gives the answer of “ how the data has been recoded and processed”. Manager
can know the reason of error. It works as controlling the mistake and errors.
SAP- CO strongly help in internal control. Different component of sap co are cost
element, Cost Centre, Profit Centre, Internal Orders, Profitability Analysis etc. cost element
gives idea about overall performance of company, based upon P&L account and income
statement (Syaiful and Gunawan, 2017). Cost centre look upon cost associated with different
department like marketing, production, HR, IT, R&D etc. Profit centre take revenue and
expenses of all business line of organisation, into consideration. Like for apple, profit centre
covers, personal computers , media devices, potable digital music players etc. firm can general
anticipated cost of particular business activity in internal orders. This virtual order details can be
use by accountant in monitor and control the actual cost. Product costing, determines the cost of
the product, cost object controlling and material ledger actual costing (Okungbowa, 2015). These
all controlling component helps in internal control. These controlling measure are uses in internal
control like administrative and operational control, risk management, accounting control, trend
analysis, etc.

Role of SAP- FICO accountant
SAP- FICO accountant has to perform all the traditional accounting function but on
computer. Like Making the key financial account like journals- ledger accounting (G/L), profit
and loss, balance sheet. Manager is responsible to review accounts and reconciliation. Cereate
Cost centre data (CC), purchase price value analysis, generate the Supply Chain Management
report, Audits, initiate the closing and opening of account, are the key responsibility of
accountant (Weber and Schäffer,2017 ). Accountant personnel are take participation budget
making as they are able to interperatet the accounting information for controlling purpose. The
major difference between a SAP accountants and other software user is, they have to give
suggestion for improvement to other functional units. Also, these people have to provide
customised information to different department, Because, SAP is an integrated software. Role of
accountant in SAP-FICO is to collect the accounting information on the basis of various
operations performed. The role of accountant is to prepare the financial statements through use
of software. Accountant plays an important role in the existing software of Apple through which
it is able to monitor the performance of the company and can identify the changes required in the
functions. Accountant is the users of accounting information system and also the design the
information system for making effective decision in the organisation. Moreover , the role of
accounting is to have proper audit of the accounting system so that it is identified that the rules
are being followed or not.
SAP FICO project managers should have enough FICO experience because they are also
integral part of sales transaction in project. Account also has to feed some essential information,
which can be use by software like feed the tax rate, Enter accruals, Record the foreign currency
revaluation, make recurring entries, prepare the master record for different account, depreciation
rate, open vendor account etc. SAP FICO end activities also perform by the manager like
transaction processing, period end and year end closing, reporting menu tree, budgeting and
planning etc (Heinzelmann, 2017). FI integration experience is very much essential as, manager
has to integrate FO with Sales and Distribution (SD), Quality Management (QM), Production
Planning (PP) and Human Capital Management (HCM).
Other function perform by manager is to manage account receivable and payable
(AR/AP), Legal Consolidations, Funds Management, Ledger for Special Purpose, Bank
Accounting, Fixed Asset Accounting(AA), treasure management, investment management, tax

configuration etc. bank accounting is all related to manage the bank transaction like develop
bank master data, handle income and outgoing payments via management of cash balance. For
fund management, they have to calculate the revenue and expenses, generate and manage the
budget (Lukka and Järvenpää, 2017). SAP Travel Management taken care of corporate trips
organise by apple for business purpose. It records the expenses like bookings, Approvals,
settlement of travel trip.
Manager has to make some entry for Assets management like asset acquisition, write-up
of an asset, retirement/sale of an asset and depreciation calculation etc. accountant also has to
keep the financial security by implementing the internal controls. Accounting clerical staff is
guided by head account keeper by align the activities as per the record. Accounts has to present
evidence of truth to auditors because they internally audit transaction and documents first by
themselves. Any Payment is made after initiating the verification of deal and request for
Illustration 2: User of Accounting information
( Sources: User of accounting information,2018)

disbursements in software (Musbah, Cowton and Tyfa, 2016). Accountant even performs non
financial function too, like engage in professional societies, participate in business workshops,
develop personal network, give training to sub-ordinates etc.
in SAP. Account act as a user, System Designers, System Auditors, internal and external
auditor. System designer is accountant designs the accounting information system, which covers
nature and sources of information, accounting principle and rule uses in organisation etc. for
instance apple is a multi- national company so it has keep it's record according to the as per the
local accounting standard. And, these accountants give information about required change in
software to SAP consultant and developer (Ionescu,2016). In role of System Auditors, they focus
on ensuring the fir application of accounting principle and truth of transaction. Lastly, accountant
as user, use the accounting information for various decision making. They also render demanded
data to other personnel (Chotiyanon and de Lautour, 2018). Accountant even give information
about their requirement to IT department of firm. For instance apple has different business
activities, internal control requirements and which demand different set of special algorithms
from other organisation. So, accountant help in system design as per company's nature.
The different role of accountants consist of following :
System specialist : The accountant play the role of system specialist in which it monitor and
develop the various system for identifying the information and develop systems for gathering the
information. System specialist role is played by the account of apple in which it provide
information regarding the system which Are required in the organisation.
Consultant : The role of accountant as consultant provide the advice on various financial
matters regarding the treatment of transaction , following the accounting standards etc.
Moreover , the accountant of Apple provide the organisation with advice regarding the various
financial matters.
Internal auditor : The role of accountant as internal auditor is to check if the operation in the
organisation are performed in the right manner or not. Apple accountant play the role of internal
auditor in which it check on the operations performed by the firm and the accuracy of financial
statement prepared.
Recommendation for improvement the SAP
SAP is undergone to some serious issue like, it permits only 999 line items per document,
which is very low. It happens because some line left idle for automatic generated accounting

document. This permits line number has to be increase with software updation as one accountant
need more line, for big transactions. Organisation has to bear high installing and training cost. It
also has complex interface, this problem can be solve by making the SAP GUI a bit easy, so that
employee can understand it with less difficulty and time (Shim and Shim, 2018). SAP render
customised configuration, according to different business activity. But, software become
obstacle, when there is a slight change in activities. For instance- if apple tries new policy to
manage receivables, this new change will not accept by the software because it works upon only
one time configuration (Popa, Vaida and AG,2016). Sap German company should allow user to
add up the change in software by charging some extra money.
Technical support render by sap constant is very poor. For instance if apple manager call
to Sap technical support provider, to assist in database management. And, service provider gives
ambitious and non technical reply to the caller. This would lead to great frustration in
troubleshooting. SAP company has focus on this issue.
“ The weakest link" general problem faces in SAP software, it means inefficiency of one
department can affects the performance of another department. To get over this, software also
have real time data evaluation and controlling (Sun, Ni and Lam 2015). So that information and
result can be check continuously before passing to other functional unit. Software demands high
accuracy in many integrated links of different application, which lower the reliability of these
applications. Like marketing module has to inputs accurate data, then only various departments
get to right real time information. But, maintain these much of accuracy become difficult in huge
data. SAP should be equipped with some intelligence, which can maintain the accuracy with
recognise the activity pattern (Streitz and et.al.,2018). SAP is lacking in its master data
management. Clint has to execute three MDM tools to achieve the goal. It also fails in render
disruptive technologies like social CRM, cloud ERP and Customer Experience. These
incapabilities result in lags competitors. SAP save it's client data in its central data base. But
customer is unable to store and retrieve the data by their owner. They have to contact to sap
service provider, which enhance the dependency of Clint on company. There is no doubt SAP is
at alarming stage to develop the sound cloud storage system as soon as possible.
SAP has slow workflow because it's Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) is
able to perform only basic and simple workflow design. To enhance the workflow efficiency,
BPMN has to build solid collaboration with Business Activity Monitoring (BAM). SAP only

have some presentation tools and technologies like (Flash, Silverlight). On the other side many
other many modern interface provide more option to the Clint (Al-Sabri, Al-Mashari & Chikh,
2018). Software possess , fewer innovation like SAP R/3 in 1992, in 2003 it launched Net-
weaver in 2003 and latest is HANA. Software still struggling with fulfil the Clint demand on
opportunistic basis. This makes SAP a rigid software, Therefore SAP AG needs to brainstorm on
software innovation. This software need to become more sale driven In culture, in place of
engineering culture. And, it can possible by bring customer support, company specific solution,
more flexibility in customisation, make user friendly interface, less maintenance cost etc. The
following are the various recommendation for improving SAP software in organisation :
 The company should focus on improving its technical support services which will assist
in improving the performance of SAP.
 SAP AG should focus on innovation to develop new tools and technologies.
 Inefficiency of one department affect the other department so in order to improve this
SAP should provide data evaluation and check continuously to identify the mistake of
department.
 SAP GUI should be used in order to reduce the transaction cost and installing cost.
SUMMARY
From the above study it can be summing up that, technology help an organisation in it's each
business function. For accounting purpose there are so a good deal of software are available in
market like Fresh-Books, Sage Intacct, Zoho Books, Sage 50cloud, Expensify and bill etc. these
all software have some common and some different feature. Common feature demanded by an
accounting software customer are real time information, integration, automated process, more
customisation, data storage facility, data security, Free invoice templates, Expandability,
automated Reporting, and scalability. Accounting software and technology has many advantage
like : less human error, time saving, information accuracy, hybrid solutions etc. But, these
technologies also demand knowledge, skill and experience to perform work on these. Small and
middle size enterprises are still not able to implement the latest software because of their high
cost concern.
An organisation should first go to the consultants, who suggest and configure the most
suitable technology for particular business entity. Also, manager should go through to all the

limitation and weakness of the technology before making any decision. SAP is widely used by
many large organisation because it is considered as best ERP product. But SAP urgently require
many big improvements like more innovation. Product is made for customer, so it should be
more user friendly rather than technical only. Role of traditional accountant has been changed
with time. Now account has to perform some technical work as well, like integrated the
information with other departments and troubleshoot the software. Accountant are not limited to
only keeping company record only, they now perform different role like Project Manager, ,
Collaborator, Relationship Lead etc. accounting technologies help manager to build strong
relation with stakeholder like customer, employee, government, investor, tax authorities. These
all software are able to analyse the information and provide solution to each stakeholder. For
instance accounting information help in trend analysis. Accounting manager suggest production
unit to change its product design to meet the trend. Training and development is essential to
remain competence with technical changes. Manager can minimise the cost of training by taking
proactive and precautionary action. Like manager should appoint people, who already has
experience of software, which is currently uses in organisation.

REFERENCES
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