Analysis of Accounting Software Use at Macquarie Group, Australia

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Macquarie Group's use of accounting software in Australia. It begins with an overview of the company's organizational structure, highlighting its flat or non-hierarchical nature, and discusses operational issues arising from this structure. The report then details Macquarie Group's system acquisition methods, including the use of vendor software such as Intralinks, Manage Engine, and Synopsys, along with the development of customized software. A system flowchart illustrating the sales procedure is presented, followed by a discussion of potential control issues and types of fraud within the system. The second part of the report focuses on the development and adoption of accounting software packages, particularly Xero. It analyzes the current market size of Macquarie Group, compares it to competitors, and identifies market leaders and their competitive advantages. The report concludes by addressing the challenges faced by users of accounting software, such as security threats and lack of user-friendliness, and offers recommendations for improvement. References are included for further reading.

Running head: ORGANIZATION USING ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE IN AUSTRALIA
Organization using Accounting Software in Australia
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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ORGANIZATION USING ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE IN AUSTRALIA
Executive Summary
The objective of this report is to discuss about a company that uses accounting software in
Australia. This report discusses about Macquarie Group in Australia. It discusses about the
organizational structure of the company and figures out the problems. It discusses about the
software acquisition method of the company. It points out the current gaps in the system and
recommends the methods to be used in order to overcome the challenges.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
Part 1....................................................................................................................................3
Current or Existing Organizational Structure..................................................................3
Operational issues of Macquarie because of its Structure...............................................5
Method of System Acquisition........................................................................................5
System Flowchart depicting the Procedure of Sales........................................................6
Possible Control Issues and Various Types of Frauds in this System.............................7
Part 2....................................................................................................................................8
Development and Adoption of Accounting Software Packages......................................8
Current or Present Market Size........................................................................................8
Market Leaders and their Competitive Advantage........................................................10
Challenges faced by the Users of Accounting Software and Recommendations..........10
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................11
References..........................................................................................................................12

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ORGANIZATION USING ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE IN AUSTRALIA
Introduction
Macquarie is a well known financial group of company that is based and located in
Sydney, Australia. It provides services that involve management of financial assets of the clients.
Banking, capital, risk and advisory services and solutions are also provided regarding equity and
debt. This company has maintained an unbreakable record of generating profit for almost forty
eight years. Their framework for the purpose of managing risk is extremely robust in nature that
has been responsible for the massive success of the company.
This report gives an overview of Macquarie Group as it uses accounting software in
Australia. The first part of the report talks about the organizational structure and points out the
operational inefficiencies existing in the current structure of the organization. This report
describes the method of system acquisition adopted by the Macquarie Group. It also presents a
flowchart showing the sales procedure of the company. The second part of the report focuses on
the accounting software. It points out the market leaders and also their competitive advantages.
This report identifies the current loopholes and gives recommendations about it.
Part 1
Current or Existing Organizational Structure
Macquarie is a well known financial group of company that is based in Sydney,
Australia. It provides services that involve management of financial assets of the clients.
Banking, capital, risk and advisory services and solutions are also provided regarding equity and
debt. The organizational structure of Macquarie Group is flat or non-hierarchical in nature
(Macquarie.com 2017). There are operating groups that are present. The number of such groups

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is five. The central group is responsible for managing the entire organization as a whole. It
constitutes of the Managing Director and many more important officers of higher ranks. There
are individual or single businesses that are operating within the operating group of Macquarie.
These functional groups have their own specialization and concentrate on their own product and
segment of the market. The number of service groups that are present is four. They are
responsible for providing the infrastructure, framework and support to the rest of the groups like
operating groups that are present in the organization. Non-hierarchical or flat structure does not
follow any hierarchy. There are no levels present in the structure. Non-hierarchical structure is
responsible for promoting motivation in the company. The employees are allowed to take part in
a decision making process. This makes the employee feel that they are an important part of the
company and they work better to improve their productivity (Smither Houston and McIntire
2016). The employee satisfaction leads to the high productivity followed by high customer
satisfaction. The functional departments in the company work in an independent manner.

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ORGANIZATION USING ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE IN AUSTRALIA
Figure 1: Organisational Structure of Macquarie Group
(Source: Macquarie.com 2017)
Operational issues of Macquarie because of its Structure
The organizational structure of Macquarie Group is flat or non-hierarchical in nature
(Macquarie.com 2017). There are operating groups that are present. The number of such groups
is five. The number of service groups that are present is four. Non-hierarchical or flat structure
does not follow any hierarchy. There are no levels present in the structure. There are various
disadvantages of this structure. There are chances of loss of control in the company. Flat
structures are advantageous in any small organization. But in a large organization like Macquarie
Group this type of structure leads to several problems. There is conflict in the roles of the
employees. The employees face struggle for power in the organization (Rothaermel 2015). There
have been certain accusations against the company for providing the clients with financial

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advices that caused losses to the clients and gains to the company. This type of misconduct is not
possible when there is a hierarchy and when the employees have a fear in the mind about their
supervisors. The funds of the clients were said to be invested in risky projects (Hall 2012). In a
flat structure there is no such thing as supervisors and nobody is under severe surveillance which
leads to loss of control creating trouble.
Method of System Acquisition
The system acquisition method that is followed by Macquarie Group is the use of vendor
software. The first software used by the Macquarie group is called Intralinks software
(Intralinks.com 2017). This software provides all types of facilities and functions that are
required for the motive of managing projects. Solutions of all types of functional areas like
technology, finance and management are provided by this software. This software enables the
company in improving its productivity by proper planning and scheduling of tasks. The second
software used by the Macquarie Group is known as Manage Engine software
(Manageengine.com 2017). All the decisions and actions regarding management are facilitated
by this vendor software. They provide efficient tools of management to help the managers. The
decision making process of the company is improved due to this software. The third software
that is used by the company is called Synopsis (Synopsys.com 2017). This accounting software
facilitates the company with testing tools and helps them to perform safe and efficient financial
transactions. This company has even developed their own customized software for specific
needs. The main focus of this software is improving the client relationship and satisfaction
(ComputerWeekly 2017). Database tools that are open source nature have been used for creating
data layer in the middle of the client and the current system. It is a digitalized bank concept. This
helped to improve service quality of the bank.

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ORGANIZATION USING ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE IN AUSTRALIA
System Flowchart depicting the Procedure of Sales
The flowchart given below depicts how the process of sales takes place in the Macquarie
Group. The initial step starts when the customer put forwards their orders. The last step in the
sales procedure is order fulfillment. In case of a banking system it can be considered that the
customer wants a credit card for which he places the order. After this step, the financial details of
the client is checked and verified. If he has a strong or satisfactory background then the order is
approved by the bank otherwise it does not approve the order. At the end of all the steps, the
client gets what he had asked for. The end point is the order fulfillment.
Figure 2: System Flowchart depicting the Procedure of Sales of Macquarie Group

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ORGANIZATION USING ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE IN AUSTRALIA
(Source: Macquarie.com 2017)
Possible Control Issues and Various Types of Frauds in this System
The organizational structure of Macquarie Group is flat or non-hierarchical in nature
(Macquarie.com 2017). Non-hierarchical or flat structure does not follow any hierarchy. There
are no levels present in the structure. There are various disadvantages of this structure. There are
operating groups that are present. The number of such groups is five. The number of service
groups that are present is four. There is high possibility of losing control over the employees in
the company because there is no strict hierarchy present in the company (Ting 2014). There is
high possibility that the financial advisors will take wrong advantage of the clients and use the
funds in risky projects and investments (Li, Allan and Evans 2015). There would have been
huge control in the hands of the management if they would have followed a hierarchical
structure. In this type of structure the employees would not have been able to take wrong
decisions on their own. Macquarie group was under the order of ASIC to compensate for the loss
of 160000 clients because of the activities that were considered to be fraudulent (Mossa and
Silvapulle 2012).
Part 2
Development and Adoption of Accounting Software Packages
Xero is the most renowned accounting software and it is used by the Macquarie Group
(Dimitriu and Matei 2014). Xero software is Australia based and is software provided by third
party. Financial services and facilities are provided by Xero. The company is able to access these
services by using internet connection only. It is a type of online service. The customers can
access their details and transaction details. Mini statement of the bank can also be accessed with

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the help of this software. Bookkeeping of customers are done by this accounting software
(Mageto 2017). All types of financial activities can be easily performed by this software.
Effective and efficient transactions can be carried out by this software.
Current or Present Market Size
The current market size of the Macquarie Group is depicted in the graph that is provided
below. The fluctuation in the share price is shown below. Macquarie bank is said be a better
performer in comparison to the other banks in the market like the Commonwealth as well as the
Westpac bank. The price of the share has risen by 4.64 per cent. This highlights the performance
of the bank. The share price was highest in the month of May. The fluctuation in the share price
is shown from February to August, 2017.

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ORGANIZATION USING ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE IN AUSTRALIA
Figure 3: Current Market Size of Macquarie Group
(Source: Macquarie.com 2017)
Market Leaders and their Competitive Advantage
There are several competitors of Macquarie Group like the Commonwealth Bank,
Westpac Bank and Scentre Group. These are the main leaders in the market. Each of them has a
competitive advantage over the other (Bhattacharya, Romani and Stern 2012). Customer
satisfaction is the main focus of the Commonwealth Bank. The focus of the Westpac Bank is to

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improve its technical efficiencies in order to achieve competitive advantage. Macquarie group
provides different kinds of financial services and this forms their main competitive advantage
over the rest. They maintain integrity and are committed to all the clients. They have high
standard of ethics and practices in the organization. They provide attractive remuneration
packages that motivate their employees to perform better. They provide best training to their
employees. These form the basis of competitive advantage of the company. Xero software used
by this company is also a market leader in the market of accounting software.
Challenges faced by the Users of Accounting Software and Recommendations
Users of the accounting software face severe issues while dealing with this software. The
extremely harmful and severe issue is the security threat. Information is stored in the cloud
platform and if the system gets hacked then the sensitive data will be revealed. If the software is
not up to date then this will affect the system efficiency as well as productivity. There is absence
of bank reconciliation characteristics (Christauskas and Miseviciene 2012). The features that deal
with managing customer enquiry are poor in most of the system. There is absence of continuous
technical support. Other issues are that the features of the software are not user friendly (Simkin,
Norman and Rose 2014). There are issues regarding speed of the software as it is dependent on
the internet. These challenges of the accounting software affect the productivity of the
organization. Any loss or misuse of data will affect the users as well as the company’s
reputation in a bad way (Mutongi 2014).
The issues regarding security threats can be resolved by incorporating efficient and
proper security policies. Strong encryption mechanisms can be applied in order to resolve
security issues. Implementing firewalls can make the security of the system stronger. It will only
allow authorized users to access the information. It will disallow the unauthorized users from