BUACC5937: Information System Design and Development for Accountants

This report examines information system design and development tailored for accountants, contrasting traditional and cloud-based accounting systems. It explores the advantages of cloud solutions for businesses like Smith Brothers Auto Solutions, emphasizing cost-effectiveness and accessibility. The report also delves into database accounting software and spreadsheet solutions as alternatives. Furthermore, it addresses IT governance principles, aligning them with corporate governance to enhance transparency and stakeholder value within organizations like the Bank of Queensland. The analysis covers key principles, including management foundations, board structuring, ethical conduct, corporate reporting integrity, timely disclosures, security holder rights, risk management, and remuneration. The report highlights the significance of IT governance as an integral part of corporate governance, ensuring IT goals are met and contributing directly to organizational objectives. The report also provides an overview of IT governance objectives, including alignment with the enterprise, benefit realization, opportunity exploitation, and risk management.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR
ACCOUNTANTS
Information System Design and Development for Accountants
[Name of the Student]
[Name of the University]
[Author note]

1INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ACCOUNTANTS
Task 1:
The traditional Accounting is considered to be accrual or the accrual-based
accounting system that is responsible for recording all the income as well as the money spent,
which has been invoiced or has been billed. All these things are generally done without
considering the payments which have already been made or has not been made yet (Amahalu,
Abiahu & Chinyere, 2017). The traditional accounting system is also responsible for the
keeping of all the income records along with the expenditure records which are made for the
purchasing of the assets, along with the values that the stocks are having after the period of
accounting is over, the payments which are made to the employees, the cost related to the
business vehicles r the travel related costs, the interests in creation of the society and any
other incomes are also be declared along with this (Caskey & Laux, 2016). This type of
accounting system is highly suited for the organizations which are large in size and this
generally acts as an option in cases when there is a need of fast prediction regardless of the
growth that the organization is experiencing.
Additionally, the usage of the traditional accounting system is mainly observed when
the overhead of any company is lowered as compared with the direct costs which are related
to the production. This type of systems is generally associated with providing the figures of
the cost that are accurate (Muda et al., 2017). This mainly happens when the organization is
associated starts to operate by having a high-quality production. In addition to this there is no
such changes in the costs related to overhead charges and besides this it is also seen that the
overhead costs are also not associated with the creation of any kind of substantial difference
during the process of calculating the cost which are required for the different business
processes. From the above discussed topics, it can be concluded that the traditional
accounting systems are very hard to implement along with being costly.

2INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ACCOUNTANTS
The most crucial reason lying behind the usage of the traditional accounting is that it
is used for the purpose of creating and producing the external reports and the major reason
behind this is that they are simple along with being easy to understand by any outsider (Mates
et al., 2016). However, the traditional accounting systems are not generally associated with
providing the managers the accurate picture of the costs which the products are having.
Along with this the overhead costs are generally not allocated to the products which are
generally responsible for the consuming of the overhead activities.
Different type of opportunities would be provided to Smith brothers if they move on
to the usage of the cloud-based accounting instead of the traditional accounting system. The
major reason for which the new technology needs to be adapted is that the cloud-based
accounting system is very cost effective along with being efficient. The organization of Smith
brothers is having a very tight budget and for that reason the usage of the cloud for the
purpose of storing the financial along with the accounting data would be vary good choice.
The usage of the cloud software would also be helping in getting further access to the data to
different users from any place by making use of the internet. The traditional accounting
system might face a lot of problems one such problem might arise due to errors made by
human and many more (Gomes, 2017). However, the usage of the cloud accounting software
and solutions would e very much beneficial in decreasing the different type of errors along
with helping in the automation of the different processes of the business. Besides this the
usage of the cloud enabled solution would make the employees capable of working on the
same file at the same time and this would be greatly helping in the maintenance and
monitoring of the accounting data which are absolutely free from any type of errors.
There also exist certain other solutions that can be used by the Smith Brothers Auto
Solution and this mainly includes the Database accounting software and the installation of the

3INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ACCOUNTANTS
accounting software (Patel, 2015). These two solutions have been discussed below that can
be used by eth organization:
The Database Accounting Software:
This generally refers to the type of system which can be used by the organization for
the purpose of securing the data and besides this the existence of large database of the
organization is responsible for making this software appropriate for the organization to be
used. One of the famous examples of this kind of software is the Oracle Accounting Software
(Bonollo, Lazzini & Merli, 2016). The usage of this type of software would only be requiring
the hiring of the system engineers along with a system consultant so as to install this
particular type of software and the installation of the software would be helping the
organization in operating according to the need of the company. Besides this, the Database
accounting Software would also be responsible for handling the operations related to
financial management as well as the complex tasks, the networks which are large in size and
the different type of complications which are generally related to the functions related to
accounting (Van Grembergen & De Haes, 2018). Some of the major advantages of the
software would also be seen to be very much beneficial for the organization however this
type of systems is very expensive and generally requires a high maintenance cost.
Cloud Accounting Software:
This the accounting software which can be made available online and besides this the
software would also be responsible for making the data available online. One of the biggest
advantages of this type of software is that the data present in this type of software can be
accessed from anywhere and anytime by any one who is authorized to do this. Some of the
most important cloud-based accounting software are Freashbooks, Sage 50, Quickbooks,
Zero and Premium Accounting 2015 (Bailey, Minto-Coy & Thakur, 2017). There exist many

4INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ACCOUNTANTS
advantages of sing this type of software and the major benefits are it is less expensive and
highly available. These advantages are eventually responsible for helping the accountants in
keeping a track of the account in a very easy way. Besides this another major benefit that is to
be received by the usage of the cloud accounting software is that they would become of
connecting the online bank account with this accounting software.
Along with all this it is also possible to add the spreadsheet solution with the
accounting system that the company is having. This would be helping a lot in keeping a track
of the account by means of bookkeeping (Schaltegger & Burritt, 2017). The adaptation of the
spreadsheet would be helping a lot in meeting the basic needs of the organization. The
spreadsheet program would be responsible for listening to the expenses which are to be made
by the company along with listening to the sales as well as all other financial data that are
relevant. This is the type of system which would be handling the different kind of accounting
function which are advanced and be used by the organization so as to handle their accounts
(Joshi et al., 2018). Another major benefits of this type of accounting software is that it would
helping a lot in linking all the accounts related data which in turn would be useful in accounts
related operations such as the cash flow and many more.
Part 2:
The Directors along with the managers of the Bank of Queensland is
associated with putting forward the commitment of incorporating the governance along with
providing of support for the incorporation of the governance principles along with
recommendations in accordance to the principles which are put forward by the Australian
Security Exchanges Corporate Governance Council (Tricker & Tricker, 2015). This is mainly
done in order to make sure that the creditability is being enhances along with the
transparency of the capital market which the organization is having. The Corporate

5INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ACCOUNTANTS
Governance policy of the organization, Bank of Queensland can be categorized into eight
major principles which have been listed below:
Principle 1: Laying of solid foundations which are related to the management and
oversight
Principle 2: Structuring of the board for the purpose of adding value
Principle 3: Acting in an ethical way by having certain responsibilities
Principle 4: Safeguarding the integrity in the process of corporate reporting
Principle 5: Making disclosures on a timely basis and in a balanced way
Principle 6: Respecting the rights that the Security Holders are having
Principle 7: The risks are to be Recognized and managed
Principle 8: Fair and responsible Remuneration
IT governance policy is generally not associated with the functioning in the process of
isolation, however this can be considered as the subset which is present in an Enterprise or
the presence of Corporate Governance in an organization (McCahery, Sautner & Starks,
2016). There exist numerous stakeholders and the principles related to meeting the needs of
the stakeholders as well as the governance objectives for creation of the values is seen to be
same in both the cases. For the IT governance there is a need of considering the IT
governance stakeholders and satisfying them as well as the governance objectives for the
purpose of creation of values is also needed for the purpose of delivering benefits which are
associated with the minimization of the various kind of risk. Besides this it would also be
responsible for the optimization of the usage of various kind of resources as well. It is also to
be noticed that the IT governance is associated with making sure that the IT goals of an

6INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ACCOUNTANTS
organization are being met in a proper way (Dimopoulos & Wagner, 2016). Cases when the
IT goals are being met, then I can be considered that the IT governance is associated with
making direct contributions to the achievement of the goals that the organization is having
and while doing this it is also made sure that the needs of the organization or the Enterprise
Governance Stakeholders are being satisfied. From this concept it is entirely clear how much
the IT governance is valuable for the organization and why it is valuable.
The IT governance is generally associated with acting as the integral part of any kind
of organization and the major constituents includes the leadership and the organized structure
and the different kind of processes. The IT governance is also associated with making sure of
the fact that any organization which is s consisting of the IT as one of the major constituents
is having a sustained IT along with having some strategies which are extending as well as the
objectives of the organization. One of the major objectives of the IT governance includes the
providing of direction to all the IT related endeavors so as to make sure of the fact that the
objectives of the organization are being met (Armstrong et al., 2015). The objectives mainly
include the aligning of the IT with the enterprise assisted by the realizing of the various
benefits which have been promised, the usage of the IT so as to enable the enterprises in
exploiting the various opportunities assisted with the maximization of the benefits, usage of
the IT resources so as to exploit the various kind of opportunities and the appropriate
management of the various risks related to the IT. The Corporate Governance is to be
incorporated with the IT Governance which would be helping the businesses in becoming
totally dependent upon the IT. This ultimately helps in understanding the fact that the issues
which are related to the corporate governance cannot be resolved without the taking
assistance from the IT. In addition to this the relationship that exist between the IT
governance and the Corporate Governance can be understood by analyzing the fact that the
translation of the corporate governance is generally done in specific questions related to the

7INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ACCOUNTANTS
IT governance that are initially responsible for the disclosure of the issues related to corporate
governance cannot be addressed by usage of the IT (Jacoby, 2018). Besides this it is to be
noted that the corporate governance is generally associated with having a high influence upon
the numerous strategic opportunities that are outlined by the enterprises and are initially
associated with providing of critical input to the strategic plans. The IT Governance can also
be considered to be the driver of the corporate governance and for this reason IT governance
and the Corporate governance cannot be considered to be a pure distinct discipline and
besides this, it is also the reason for which there is an essential need of integrating all this
upon the overall governance structure.
Task 3:
Certain enforcement actions were taken by the DOJ or the Department of Justice and
the Exchange Commission which mainly involved the PTC Inc or the Parametric Technology
(Shanghai) Software Co. Ltd and the Parametric Technology (Hong Kong) Limited. Earlier
the PTC was also known as the Parametric Technology Corporation and the other two
companies were the subsidiaries which were wholly owned by this organization along with
the fines and the penalties which were made was also considered to be quite Subsidiary. The
Chinese subsidiaries had to pay a penalty of $145400 to the Department of Justice and along
with this the organization PTC also agreed that they have a profit disgorgement of $1185800
along with $176400 prejudgment that was paid to the SEC (Yu et al., 2016). The
sustainability of the books along with the records as well as the violation of the internal
control was done by the PTC. The actual reason which lies behind the violation of the books
and the records was the improper recording of the bribes which were done by the Chinese
Subsidiaries in the books and in the records that were disguised as the legitimate

8INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ACCOUNTANTS
commissions and the business expenses. Due to all these reasons each and every thing were
rolled up into the corporate parent’s books and the records.
Additionally, the PTC was also not consisting of any kind of appropriate internal
control and for that reason it is expected by the CCO that there exist certain internal control at
the locations that are situated outside the US and having the same efficiency like the internal
control which exist inside the US. However, it is seen that this does not happen always as in
many cases it is observed that the corporate level of the internal control is much stronger than
those which exist inside the foreign business units. The same thing occurred in case of PTC
as well and each of the bribery scheme consisted of failures in the internal control. There
existed very least control upon this however, the control was not still that much effective and
the major reason for this was the failure of the oversights of the PTC. This was also
responsible for depicting the weakness which existed within the internal control (Yermack,
2017). This was in turn associated with the allowing of corporate employee to have an
oversight of he different processes that were related to the receiving of approvals. From all
this it can be concluded that is are not sufficient for internal control.
Necessarily there should always exist the need of existence of various levels of
control which are related to the providing commissions to the third-party representatives.
This is mainly to be done because of the reason that they are associated with considering all
the highest risks according to the FCPA or the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (De Haan &
Vlahu, 2016). This is generally to be followed by the compounding by knowing the risks
which are high ad related to conducting of business in China. This is the way by which it
would become very easy for the spotting of the different kind of internal failures. For the
purpose of avoiding the various enforcement actions, it is very much essential to make sure
that the errors are being eliminated and the internal controls are being examined in a proper
way. This is the examination which is to be done in order to identify the weakness along with

9INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ACCOUNTANTS
the failure that exist specially in those that are associated with involving the numerous
foreign transactions. In addition to this the control environment should also be maintained
and this would be consisting of the styles related to operating, the ethics, delegation of the
authority system along with the management processes which were missed or ere ignored
(Aguilera et al. 2015). The risk assessment is to be conducted in a proper way by individuals
who are skilled and experienced in doing this. The activities which were mainly associated
with this includes the receiving of approvals, verifications and reviewing of the assets which
are performed in the business process so as to hide any kind of frauds. Effective
communication is another thing which is to be used along with the regulators and the
information system for the purpose of playing a significant role in gaining of insights in a
proper way by the other authorities associated with the organization (Berger, Imbierowicz &
Rauch, 2016). This is also associated with providing of direct options related to the things
that are to be done. The monitoring activities along with the separate evaluation is to be done
by taking specific actions that would be helping in the correction of the mistakes that have
been conducted in the internal control.

10INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ACCOUNTANTS
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