Analysis of Information Systems: Bell Studio Case Study (HI5019)

This case study analyzes the information systems of Bell Studio, an Australian art equipment seller, focusing on its centralized accounting system and its subsystems, including payroll, purchase, and cash disbursement systems. The analysis includes flowcharts illustrating these systems and identifies internal control weaknesses within each, such as reconciliation issues and job criteria variations in the payroll system, and weaknesses in authorization and control in the cash disbursement system. The study also discusses the risks associated with these weaknesses, such as employee dissatisfaction, data redundancy, irregular procedures, and inefficient processes. The assignment covers the transaction cycles, financial and management reporting, and the need for internal control processes to mitigate risks, providing a comprehensive overview of the organization's information system's strengths and vulnerabilities.

Running head: Information System for Bell Studio
Information System for Bell Studio
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
Table of Contents
Introduction:..................................................................................................................2
Purchases and Cash Disbursements Systems:...........................................................2
Payroll System of the Bell Studio:................................................................................3
Purchase System of the Bell Studio:............................................................................5
Cash Disbursement System of the Bell Studio:...........................................................6
Payroll System of the Bell Studio:................................................................................8
Internal Control Weakness in each of the System:....................................................10
Payroll System:.......................................................................................................10
Risks Regarding Payroll System:...........................................................................11
System of Cash Disbursement:..............................................................................12
Risks Regarding Cash Disbursement System:.......................................................13
Purchase System of the Bell Studio:......................................................................13
Risks with the Purchase System:...........................................................................14
Conclusion:.................................................................................................................15
References:................................................................................................................16

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
Introduction:
Information system are very much important for all the organization as it helps the
organizations in their business processes. Through the utilization of the information system
the organization will be able to manage its daily operations in a perfect way.
In this report strategic information system has been discussed for a specific
organization which is the Bell Studio which an Australian organization that sells art
equipment. For providing a better service both internally and externally Bell Studio has
developed a perfect centralised accounting system. This centralised accounting system
consists various of subsystems which includes the payroll system and the purchase
system. In this context all of the subsystem will be evaluated properly and diagrams will be
developed for proper demonstration of these subsystems. Also, various of internal control
weaknesses within each of the system will be described.
Purchases and Cash Disbursements Systems:
The purchase system of the Bell Studio has been developed considering various of
aspects of the organisation which are needed for performing essential day to day
operations within the organization. The developed purchase system of the Bell Studio is
capable of fetching digital order details, receiving goods, development of the purchase
orders and many more other essential operations regarding a normal purchase system. In
this case the most important components of this developed purchase system are the cash
disbursement, vendors, clerks at the receiving end and clerks related with the purchasing
department. One of the main aim of this system is providing a proper support to the entire
system and ensuring that each of the activity that is performed within the system is
completely effective for the whole system.
The Bell Studio has also utilised a cash disbursement system for their organization
which also aims to improve the organizational process within the Bell Studio. For the
development of the cash disbursement system some important aspects are utilised by this
organization which includes vendors, clerk at the receiving point, accounts and the clerks
at the cash disbursement end. In this system the receiving clerk has been appointed for
invoice filling, sending copy of the cheque, appropriate report receiving and for generating
the copy of purchase order. The vendor is consisting the responsibility of cheque
receiving.

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
(Figure 1: Purchases and Cash Disbursements System)
(Source: Created by Author)
Payroll System of the Bell Studio:
The payroll system of the Bell Studio also contribute in this overall information
system of this organization. It has been assessed that this payroll system is very much
crucial for the Bell Studio as this perfectly manages some important operations of the
organization. The important entities that are related with the payroll system are the clerk at
the payroll point, employees, clerk at the ledger point and the clerks at the account
payable point. Some of the crucial functions are performed by this payroll system for the
information system. This functions includes record of employees in digital form, work hour
recording within cards, data regarding time card, payroll register review, cards regarding
work hours, disbursement voucher preparation and transferring the vouchers at the point
of account payable. Additionally this developed payroll system is also capable of
performing some operations which includes payroll register, files voucher and the voucher
review. Some important details are also preserved by this payroll system and this consists
payroll registers and the voucher registers.

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
(Figure 2: Payroll System)
(Source: Created by Author)
Purchase System of the Bell Studio:
For elaborating the purchase system of the Bell Studio following flowchart has been
utilized. It has been assessed that by following the presented flowchart data accessibility
will be improved within Bell Studio.

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
(Figu
re 3: Purchase System)
(Source: Created by Author)
Cash Disbursement System of the Bell Studio:
In this case for the Bell Studio a specific type of flowchart has been presented
regarding the cash disbursement system. This presented flowchart consist various of
functions that are described with the presented flowchart. The presented flowchart will also
help to understand the functionality of the system in a much easier way.

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
(Figu
re 4: Cash Disbursement Flowchart)
(Source: Created by Author)

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
Payroll System of the Bell Studio:
For demonstration of the payroll department of Bell Studio in this case also a
specific type of flowchart has been presented. This presented flowchart will help to
demonstrate the system that is currently associated with the payroll. This payroll system
consists two important entities which are the employee and the salary of them. The
important need of the system and the main functionalities of the system can be observed
through this presented flowchart.

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
(Fig
ure 5: Payroll System Flowchart)
(Source: Created by Author)

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
Internal Control Weakness in each of the System:
Currently various of departments of Bell Studio is facing problems regarding some
internal control weaknesses which can be problematic for the organization in day to day
performance. In the following section this departments will be described briefly and the
weaknesses will be discussed and potential issues due to the weaknesses will be
discussed.
Payroll System:
It has been assessed that the Payroll system of the Bell Studio is consisting some
type of specific issues that can create problems for the organization itself. The payroll
system is mainly connected with the payment system that is executed for the providing
salary and incentives to the employees of the organization. There has been several of
weakness that has been identified for the payroll system. In the below section this
weaknesses are described briefly.
Accounting System Reconciliation: Here the reconciliation is implemented for a better
payroll system which actually helps the supervisors to get a perfect overview of the current
payroll system. This actually sometimes becomes a weakness of this payroll system. In
such scenarios the payment of the employees is halted until the reconciliation process is
completed.
Job Criteria Variation: Within a particular organization there can be various of different
job roles and that is also true for the Bell Studio. Different employees works a deferent
hierarchy of the entire business system of the Bell Studio. Due to this factor the payroll
structure to this employees is also different. Many employees some extra allowance and
many gets incentives, and due to this payroll structure varies for most of the employees.
Thus the supervisor need to check and ensure all type of payroll are working fine within
the organization. Here the payroll clerk also a big responsibility of thoroughly checking
payroll accounts for gathering details about all type of activity. Different payroll system for
the different employees creates managing the entire payroll system and also creates
differences between the employees. Due to this factor this system becomes and weakness
in this case.
Risks Regarding Payroll System:
Due to the above discussed weaknesses there can be various types of risks in the
payroll system which are discussed below.
Dissatisfaction of the Employees: Here the factor of reconciliation mainly contributes in
the dissatisfaction factor of the employees. In many of the cases the salary of the
employees goes in to outstanding mode due to the process of reconciliation and prior this
factor employees does not receives their total amount of salary within correct time. This
factor makes the employees unhappy and they feel demotivated towards their works which
actually cause loss of effectiveness and production. Also trust related issue also occurred
between the employees and the organization. Another issue in this payroll system is that
attendance of the employees are decided by the time cards and again it reconciled among
the different peoples of different departments. This also another reason of dissatisfaction
of the employees. Overall these factors ultimately causes loss of revenue of the
organizations.
Redundancies in Data: The Bell Studio consists various of various of departments within
the organization and in this case data of each of the departments is checked separately.
Also, many details regarding those data stored within the main system in a particular way
that it can be accessed by the supervisor. Due to this factor of a separate data details data
related redundancy occurs within the system of the Bell Studio. Storage capacity of the

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
Bell Studio gets affected negatively due to this factor. Data analysis within the organization
also becomes very much difficult in this type of situations and actually for this reason
productivity of the organization gets hampered. Also, removing the duplicated data is also
quite problematic, means overall this becomes a huge issue within the organization.
System of Cash Disbursement:
The implemented strategic information system actually utilised for providing a
proper provision to the system of cash disbursement of the Bell Studio. Through this
strategic information system the Bell Studio is aiming to incorporate the cash disbursement
system of it with their main system of the organization. It has been assessed that there are
many internal control weakness that are related directly with the cash disbursement
system. Theses weaknesses are discussed in the following section.
Continual Adaption Weakness: From the brief explanation of the cash disbursement
system it has been assessed that currently this system is lacking an appropriate
authorization mechanism. Proper authorization is very much important for handling the
cash disbursement of the Bell Studio and for that proper knowledge among the employees
is also very much important. Thus Bell Studio is having a major weakness in the case of
cash flow management. With that the Bell Studio is also facing some security related
weaknesses in the current system. Overall this flaws are creating issues in the in Bell
Studio.
Ineffective type of Control: Proper control over the cash section is very much important
for all the organization, but in this case the Bell Studio is having some problem regarding
management and control of the cash department of the organization. The business
personnel is mainly responsible for creating business control over the cash disbursement
system and in this context the board of directors takes the responsibility making crucial
decisions for the organization. Different peoples can control the cash disbursement system
of the Bell Studio where important sectors like the cash disbursement system must be
controlled and managed by any higher authority as this falls under the cash section. This is
one of the main reason of weaknesses in organization.
Risks Regarding Cash Disbursement System:
Mainly two types of weakness has been identified from the above system which can
create risks regarding the cash disbursement system. In the following section these risks
are described briefly.
Irregular type of procedures: It has been identified that the Bell Studio is currently facing
some problems or issues related with the cash disbursement system of the organization
and it is occurring due to the fact of improper and irregular type of processes within the
organization. The irregular type of procedures are contributed by the weakness of
continual adaption within the organization. Due to this weakness factor tasks are managed
within the organization in an ineffective way and this is creating a serious risks or issue
within the organization that is low amount of production. Overall system of the Bell Studio
will be affected due to this reason, thus ineffective type of business process will be arise
within Bell Studio.
Inefficient type of procedures: The above discussed weaknesses actually creating some
unorganised type of process execution within the system. Hence, due to this improper
processes overall performance of the system is currently going down. As the overall
performance of the current system is going down, low level employees in the Bell studio is
not having proper access rights which are creating various of issues. Proper organizational
structure must be followed and appropriate processes need to be executed in the system
so that better rights can be provided to the staffs of the Bell Studio.

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BELL STUDIO
Purchase System of the Bell Studio:
Proper analysis of the purchase system of the Bell Studio implies that proper
integration has been not done in the case of purchase system of the organization. Several
of internal control issues has been faced in this case which has created weaknesses within
the organization. Important weaknesses that has been founded in this case are discussed
in the following section.
Weakness Regarding Hard Copy Storing: The department of purchase consists several
of paperwork which are maintained with the hard copies generated through the purchase
system. This paperwork are related with invoice creation, subsidiary details and payment
related cheques. This paperwork are very important for the organization and need to be
distributed properly among the organization. This paperwork are done manually in which
various of mistakes can occur and that creates the main weakness within the system. Due
to this load of paper work also increases within Bell Studio.
Lengthy Inspection Process: Final delivery of a product requires proper and multiple
time of checking of those product. Thus here in the Bell Studio the product is checked and
examined multiple times before actually delivering to the vendor. Thus this process
consumes a high amount of time. On the other hand the vendors also requires some
amount of time to examine the product to ensure that the deliver products is meeting their
criteria. Due to this overall delivery time becomes very much longer which creates
organizational efficiency related weaknesses.
Distribution of Reports: The Bell Studio is quite a large organization which having
several of departments. For a proper business process it is very much important to ensure
that all the departments of the organization is having crucial data related with the
organization. This can be ensured by distributing all the important data effectively. This
process of data distribution actually very much lengthy which is the main weakness in this
case.
Risks with the Purchase System:
The above weaknesses are creating several of risks regarding the purchase system
which are discussed below.
Space Related Risk: Hardcopies are stored within the organization about each of the
operations in the organization. This creates the space shortage issue in the organization
due increased number of hardcopies on a regular basis. Also, due to this increased
number of files and hardcopies it becomes very much difficult to manage the
organizational processes efficiently. Storage related issues is the main concern in this
case which need to be fixed in this case.
Increased Development Time: The development time of the products are also increased
in this case due to the lengthy inspection processes. Distribution becomes slower due to
this factor which creates risks regarding timely product development.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion it can be concluded that strategic information system is
very much important concept for the Bell Studio organization for managing its business
processes in a perfect way. In this report a brief description about the Bell Studio has been
provided and the flowcharts and the data flow diagrams for various of organizational
processes has been presented. Also, in this case, internal control weakness for each of
the system has been presented and risks regarding this system due to this weaknesses
has been also presented. Thus overall analysis indicates that the strategic information
system is very much beneficial for the Bell Studio in the current context.