Case Study: Accounting System Implementation at Elegant Firm

This case study examines the implementation of a new accounting information system (AIS) at Elegant Firm, focusing on the roles of management and employees in the selection and implementation process. It contrasts the benefits of the new system, which utilizes a life cycle approach, with the ...Read More

[Year]
Case Study
Elegant Firm

Table of Contents
Part 1...........................................................................................................................................................2
1. Role expected by the management to play.......................................................................................2
2. People’s role in analysis of the new system leading to the selection and implementation of the new
accounting information system................................................................................................................3
3. Benefits of installing the new system over file-oriented system for accounting..............................3
4. Stages of Life cycle approach..........................................................................................................4
Part 2...........................................................................................................................................................6
Context Diagram.....................................................................................................................................6
DFD LEVEL 0........................................................................................................................................7
Document Flow Diagram........................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................9
List of Figures
Figure 1- Context Diagram..........................................................................................................................6
Figure 2- DFD LEVEL 0.............................................................................................................................7
Figure 3- Document flow diagram...............................................................................................................8
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Part 1
1. Role expected by the management to play
The managers and the supervisors in any system perform a major role in the process of influencing the
employees of the organization. Here are some of the roles that the management, i.e., the boss (Lance) can
play in the process of designing a new system for the organization:
 Act as a communicator: The manager or the supervisor should be the first to communicate the
organization’s employees about the change in the system. He should be the source of the valuable
information. His answers should be the solution of the employee’s doubts such as policies,
procedures, employee benefits etcetera.
 Act as an advocate: The support of the supervisors/ managers (in this case, Lance) should not
only be on the papers (passive support). The employees should feel that their supervisor or
manager is giving his efforts on implementing the change and harnessing the good from the
change. Application of a system changeover is a great deal and Lance should be able to
demonstrate his employees the effectiveness of the new system.
 Act as a trainer/ coach for the employees: The manager or the supervisor should perform like a
trainer or a coach who supports his employees in their day-to-day development and improving
compatibility with the new system. The change of an individual can be analyzed in five ways.
The first is awareness to the new system. The second is desire which is the individual’s desire to
accept the new system. The third is knowledge which an individual can acquire through training
and reading. The fourth is ability which describes the skill sets of an individual and the last is
reinforcement which are techniques which can sustain the change. Through these factors, the
manager can coach the employees.
 Acting as a manager to the resistance: The manager is the best who can handle resistance among
the employees because he is the one with the knowledge and all the benefits. Therefore, he is the
best who knows the fact that from where the resistance is generating and what steps he should
take in order to overcome them.
 Acting as a liaison for the team: The progress of the team is marked up by the manager of the
team. Therefore, the boss/ manager/ supervisor plays an important role in collecting the feedback
of every employee of the team and report it to the company so that the team could be properly
evaluated. He also plays in charge of the assistance of the requirements and the needs of the team
(Prosci.com, 2018).
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2. People’s role in analysis of the new system leading to the selection and
implementation of the new accounting information system
The people who will be related to the Accounting information system or the people who will use the
system are the accountants, managers and the business analysts. They all have different roles to play in
the analysis of the system so that the organization can select one of the method for implementation. The
different people’s role in the analysis are as follows:
i) Accountants
The accountants can help in analysis of the system by playing the role of a designer, an auditor, as a user
and an owner. An accountant can best design the accounting system because they are very well versed
with the required knowledge which is required to analyze the requirements and design. The accountant
will also ensure as an auditor that whatever the rules that are documented are properly implemented. This
requires in depth analysis of the requirements. The accountants are the only users of the accounting
information system. Hence, as a user, the accountants can analyze both the systems, i.e., the current and
the proposed life cycle approach and come up with a list of advantages and disadvantages of both the
system which will facilitate the selection process.
ii) Managers
The managers can help in analysis of the life cycle approach by supervising the employees, obtaining
their feedbacks and implying regular efforts. This would analyze the compatibility of the employees with
both the systems and thus, the selection of the system required would get easier.
iii) Business Analysts
The role of the business analysts is to create a detailed report on the analysis, highlighting the problems
and suggesting solutions, variance analysis, monitoring requirements and stakeholder analysis. The
business analysts perform the above functionalities for both the systems. For the new system, the
stakeholders include every person from planning, designing to implementation and release. The older
system does not follow the life cycle approach. Therefore, the requirements and stakeholders are not
properly distributed. Thus, business analysts can help in selection of the accounting system.
3. Benefits of installing the new system over file-oriented system for accounting
The current requirements of the organization with respect to accounting will be removal of data
redundancy, data dependency and facilitate the data mapping. The disadvantages of the current file-
oriented approach are as follows:
i) Duplication of data: The records present in the system are duplicated in the current system.
ii) Mixed assortment of computers and peripheries leading to poor data isolation: The data in the
current system is stored in different systems and in different formats. Therefore, the data is
not isolated.
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iii) Growing organization with bulk data: File processing system works for organization which
are small. But, the organization here is big and there is bulk data which needs to stored and
analyzed. The existing accounting package is high and the file processing system can’t deal
with it.
The benefits of the life cycle approach over the file-based approach are as follows:
i) The conventional costing method only focus on resources needed at the stage of manufacture.
But the new system focuses on the costs at every stage.
ii) Based on the current accounting package, the company considers the risks in product costing
at every stage. This couldn’t be managed in the conventional system.
iii) In the conventional system, all the machines may not be compatible with the accounting
package but in the new system, the phase of designing is different and implementation is
different. This ensures that the requirements are fulfilled.
4. Stages of Life cycle approach
The choice to procure bookkeeping data framework has turned out to be vital in nature and now requires
painstakingly arranged and well thoroughly considered procedures if an organization is to prevail in it.
Companies spend gigantic measure of cash on obtaining AIS yet at the same time have pretty much
nothing or nothing to appear for it. The principle purpose behind this is the curricular of bookkeeping
project of most colleges does not esteem it fit to add AIS down to earth instructional classes to the
bookkeeping program in this way making a hole in learning.
These are the stages of life cycle approach for accounting information system:
 Information gathering/Analysis stage: this is where organizations assemble the greatest number of
data as they can lay their hands on that would enable them to advance productive tasks in a
business. Best practice is to utilize programming to sift through those items that would not meet
the necessity of the organization. A decent case of such apparatus is the Accounting library. This
is a restrictive programming that assistance organizations distinguish those apparatuses that
would enable them to accomplish their targets (Wps.pearsoned.co.uk, 2018).
 Selection stage: in light of the above discoveries, an organization would be in a superior position
to choose the correct frameworks. The choice would be an element of the necessities of the
organization and the progressions that are going to come.
 Execution/usage stage: this is an ideal opportunity to execute the decisions that have been made.
Care should be taken to guarantee that proper testing is directed on the framework before usage.
 Operation stage: this is the checking, ceaseless preparing and change phase of AIS acquisition
process. The essential point here is to test the framework in a to some degree close full ability to
guarantee that particulars are met and are probably going to work as foreseen.
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At the arranging phase of getting bookkeeping data framework, choice of whether to purchase an off the
rack bookkeeping programming or to construct an in-house restrictive item. The best practice is to
purchase a standard bundle from a built-up merchant when one exists. It isn't monetarily savvy to attempt
and rehash the wheel when there are thousands if not a large number of individuals that have just created
and changed the wheel (Hybrid Accountant, 2018).
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Part 2
Context Diagram
Figure 1- Context Diagram
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DFD LEVEL 0
Figure 2- DFD LEVEL 0
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Document Flow Diagram
Figure 3- Document flow diagram
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References
 Prosci. (2018). Manager/Supervisor's Role In Change Management | Prosci. [online] Available
at: https://www.prosci.com/change-management/thought-leadership-library/manager-change-
management-role [Accessed 23 May 2018].
 Wps.pearsoned. (2018). Chapter 12 Accounting information systems development. [online]
Available at:
http://wps.pearsoned.co.uk/ema_uk_he_boczko_introais_1/217/55590/14231082.cw/index.html
[Accessed 23 May 2018].
 Hybrid Accountant. (2018). HOW TO ACQUIRE ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM
(AIS) -. [online] Available at: https://www.accountantnextdoor.com/how-to-acquire-accounting-
information-system-ais/ [Accessed 23 May 2018].
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