Qantas Airline Accounting System: Challenges, and Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the accounting system used by Qantas Airline, focusing on its organizational structure, operational challenges, and system acquisition methods. The report delves into the most likely system acquisition method, highlighting the adoption of an ERP system in partnership with TCS to address issues related to managing large volumes of information. It includes a system flowchart of the sales procedures and identifies potential control problems within the system, particularly concerning fraudulent activities and data security. Furthermore, the report examines the development and adoption of Application Service Providers (ASP), analyzes the current market size of accounting software in Australia, identifies market leaders like Xero and MYOB, and discusses current gaps and challenges faced by businesses. The report concludes with recommendations for future improvements, emphasizing the importance of selecting appropriate accounting software to enhance efficiency and reduce errors. The analysis covers various aspects of accounting software, including its role in business operations, customer relationship management, and the significance of integrating accounting software with organizational applications to achieve business objectives.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Part 1................................................................................................................................................3
Current organizational structure..................................................................................................4
Operational problems...................................................................................................................4
Most likely system acquisition method.......................................................................................5
System flowchart of the sales procedures....................................................................................5
Control problems in the system...................................................................................................6
Part 2................................................................................................................................................6
Development & adoption of ASP................................................................................................6
Current Market Size.....................................................................................................................7
Leaders in the market...................................................................................................................8
Current gaps or challenges...........................................................................................................9
Recommendations......................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The concept of accounting software generally comes under the AIS and is now defined as a
computing software that is used for easy recording and contracting accounting transactions in
easy modules: Accounts Receivable Modules; Accounts payable module; Test balance module;
Department of Payroll; and General Purpose Financial Reporting Module Accounting software
can be bought by business or third-party software developers. Accounting software and packages
vary depending on the huge cost and complexity. Package accounting software is not limited to
the recording and processing of financial data globally, but also provides a functional module
used for managing decisions with the aim of creating competitive edge. Australia's acoustic
software has made remarkable changes over the years due to technological advancement.
However, this research attempts to see the paper accounting presentations and current historical
content of Australian packages based on their historical development, uses, challenges and
adaptability, scholars try to use journal articles, books and conferences in business accounting
method,as well as accepting Australian accounting software or packages, the literature review
attempts to find the current market size, leaders and competitors edge. The current challenge
found in current studies and the use of differential accounting software or packages will be used
to develop appropriate recommendations for future improvement. The appropriate accounting
software can be valuable, time and money saving tool. Nevertheless, with over sixty different
tools available in Australia, identifying the best system to incorporate in your business is
difficult. Often, it is imperative to select an application that is easy to manage and which suits
your business and keeps you updated with the latest innovations. Also, whether you are
outgrowing your current set up of your business, merging a new company into an existing

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system, or requiring accounting software to seek out the business workload, it is important to
seek professional advice before implementing the new system into your business.
Part 1
The Qantas airline is not just the oldest airline in Australia, but it is the world's third oldest still-
running airline. In 1993, the airline company started serving as a domestic passenger airline
services and started international service in the 1935. This company has kept its brand image for
almost hundred years and is still considered to be one of the most preferred airlines in Australia
(Adenike and Michael, 2016). Worldwide, this report will focus on accounting systems used by
the organization to operate and record their financial and accounting transactions on local,
international, cargo services and other subscription business services under the brand name.
Current organizational structure
Qantas Airlines offers local and international travel services to customers worldwide. They are
also a part of Fleet services in which cargo and courier will be taken to a destination. They also
run the export ground handling service for themselves as well as other small and regional
airlines. Due to supreme management, the airline is responsible for important and strategic
decisions; however, managers are allowed to make their decision based on the situation. To
maintain a clear and transparent delegation of responsibilities and officials, they use a functional
organizational structure separately for each subsystem (Baxter and Hunton, 2011).
Operational problems
Qantas Airlines operates various operational activities and must ensure that they implement their
activities with minimal error and maximum accuracy. The problem of several actions that can be
made due to the construction of the project is mainly about delays in the decision-making
process. The airline market is very dynamic and the top management is responsible for the

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strategic decision-making process. If the market provides an opportunity to adapt to the new
technology and there is a delay in decision making, then it will increase the inefficiency of the
airline to avail the opportunity (Bolino and Klotz, 2015). Complicated structures can lead to
inadequacies in management and ground-level employees, which may delay the failure of
theservices. For example, if the booking team fails to communicate that the aircraft is full and
seats are underlined then after the failure of the service the customers are suffering.
Most likely system acquisition method
The leading Global Business expertise Publications highlighted that Qantas, Australia's
foremostairliners; TCS changed the ERP system to its main IT counter. Qantas started to face the
challenges or issues in managing large volumes of information with their ERP systems. As per
Cullinan and Zheng, 2015, Qantas’s IT Manager of the Enterprise System, manager has
demanded a lot of effort as well as resources or assets to monitor the systems needed to work
effectively. Their major challenges include complex ERP system implementation and include
many resources allocated to monitor the system (Cullinan and Zheng, 2015). Qantas upgraded
their ERP platform to partnership with TCS to support them in their transit journey. In
fulfillment of the customer's expectations, TCS provided a new, extremely quick and reliable
ERP platform, which resulted in decrease company costs, well-managed vendor management as
well as significantly reduced IT administration. Qantas organization went live with an innovative
Enterprise Suite in April 2014, an on-time moreover up-budget ERP system, with the ability to
run analytics on customer behavior and preference, and to help the aircraft develop better
products and services based on their needs and expectations. The ERP system will support the
reduction of the number of errors, because the information is sent to the relevant departments at
the same time with the least number of faults.

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System flowchart of the sales procedures
Development of the product

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The continuation of the system of Qantas Airlines will begin with the development of the
product and the target audience. In case of passenger airlines, migrants who want to use the
airlines services to move from one destination to the destination targeted. In this case, the
customer will start the investigation process for the customer's preferred destination and related
supplementary services and services costs (Dillard and Yuthas, 2013). Pitch them to sales
executives and provide detailed information about the possible discounts or attractive offers to
use the services. Then the customer will buy a service for a specific flight, book the desired time
and place at the destination. The customer has the option to book tickets for a favorite flight by
the internet or third-party vendor who is the airline's partner to provide services to customers.
Fleet or merchandise sales process will be completely different from regular travel flowcharts or
sales process.
Control problems in the system
Air cargo carriers in the passenger airlines have various problems related to the control system.
Sales execution can lead to fraudulent promises made to the customer which will be due to the
laudable services which will damage the image of the aircraft company. Automatic online system
to pay the payment,if it is not secure and fraudulent hackers can hack into account details by
hackers. Other cheating options may be made by third party vendors to increase their sales
revenue(Gailly and Geerts, 2014). They can charge more than the amount of travel required to
travel without informing the airline about the additional charges they charge. The cashier on the
counter can steal the cash collected during the special day and makes a false presentation of the
data so that it cannot be caught. Because the data of the airline is very important, it has details of
Target Audience
Passengers
Inquiries about services
for the preferred
destination
Associated
complementary
services
Cost of the services
Sales executive
Convince
customers
Offer discounts Book seats

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the traveler and their payment and account details, which can be used to steal or reuse cache by
paying cash to some other persons without informing them(Jain, 2016).
Part 2
Development & adoption of ASP
According to Dillard and Yuth, accounting software used in Australia operates business-oriented
activities against operating systems or other environmental software. It is analyzed that operating
systems or other environmental software improvements usually are not transparent in the
organization. Against this, Kearns, has said that updated software is completely transparent to
existing business organizations. When accounting software first demonstrated in Australia in the
1960s, royalty was given by companies such as accounting software McClack and Dodge.
Initially accounting software meets financial and accounting requirements only (Kaleka and
Morgan, 2017). The scope of the Dillard and Yuth argues states accounting software has
increased from time to time and has started to meet operations related to finctions, human
resources management, customer relationship management and many other activities. These
software systems are usually built on the basis of home applications and policies. LI and
SANDINO, 2018 has said that old accounting software is used to focus on one work in the
organization. This results in the accuracy of the organization and the problem of fulfilling the
customer's requirement. Accounting software should always be integrated with the organization
application. As per Lin, 2011, accounting software is a great way to develop business policies,
objectives and goals. Because of this, accounting software is implemented throughout the
organization to increase the efficiency of the organization. The success of accounting software
depends on the capacity of the accounting software to meet the needs of the organization(LI and
SANDINO, 2018).There are various accounting software’s available in the market but due to the

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complex process they cannot fulfill the requirements of Qantas Airlines. It would require a
proper ERP system to meet all the technical requirements of the aircraft and reduce accounting
errors and the chances of errors in cash flows in Ireland (Lin, 2011).
Current Market Size
Accordingly, Lin, 2011 new publishing accounting software has increased the issue of
management problems during implementation. Typically, the decision to install new accounting
software in the organization influences the statement that the supplier will provide new and
innovative business functions to the software (Sulub, 2013). On the contrary, Sulub, 2013 said
that in reality the users of the accounting software or the consumer are facing various challenges.
Software customers always have the tension about getting information from other parties because
security deficiency is the biggest challenge for users. Firewalls solve this challenge, but at that
time the system failed, firewalls failed to do the security work. With the growth or development
of IT and the progress of IS, for every small, medium and large organization, accounting
software has become mandatory. Current players present in the Australian market for small and
medium-sized establishments are MYOB, QuickBooks, Xero and Recon One, who are playing
rivals to each other so that they can maintain their market share(Vahdani, 2011).
Leaders in the market
The Australian accounting software market is growing competition. The largest number of
clients for Australian accounting software is small and medium sized businesses. In the
Australian accounting software market, the largest player Xero, incorporated into MYOB, has
been involved in accounting software cloud computing. While emphasizing client accounting
software, Xerox has given the largest share in the Australian accounting software market(Wan,
2014). The company offers best accounting software for small and medium sized businesses. The

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company has set a distinction between users of desktop accounting software. Companies had to
face challenges because their departments were not autonomous units(Kearns, 2014). Accounting
segments have been entrusted with the task of integrating, processing and maintaining account
books, but not all audit reports in other departments, as opposed to challenging desktop
accounting software and duplicate Sulub, 2013, cannot be addressed(Werner, 2017). In this way,
reconciliation annual accounts became energetic, time consuming, faulty and inconsistency. The
use of desktop accounting systems and data redundancy was the source of the challenge. Many
businesses in Australia are using cloud accounting software in their integrated capabilities
(Abduljalil&Zainuddin, 2015).
Current gaps or challenges
According to Worrell, Wasko and Johnston, the challenges of accounting software are not only
related to its implementation. Due to the implementation of accounting software, the complexity
arising due to the change in institutional culture occurs. Another challenge for the user of the
accounting software is that the technical staff is not available in time (Worrell, Wasko and
Johnston, 2013). Technical accounting personnel will be required to restart the system if
accounting software fails. However, lack of availability of technical personnel in the short run is
a challenge for the user(A, 2015). Another is that it is difficult to establish specific objectives for
accounting software because the user and the supplier have different perspectives in their
mindsA, 2015. Worrell, Wasko and Johnston have stated that the skills of experienced
professionals are essential for the organization's accounting software implementation. It is a
challenge for an organization which is a high level of fee for experienced commercial charges. In
addition to this organization, employees are required to provide knowledge of accounting and
software information analysis skills with the help of coaching, which gives the organization

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additional expenditure. Worrell, Wasko and Johnston has analyzed that a large number of
systems related to information technology fail to bring the system effective results. Because,
accounting packages generally fail to integrate with the organization's purpose. Accounting
software is very technical and the use of technology is abstract for the user. When analyzing the
execution actions to understand the digital requirements, it creates a gap for the user. The user
takes an interest in resolving the last issue with the help of the accounting software
(ABDULJALIL and ZAINUDDIN, 2015).
Recommendations
Kearns, 2014 conclusions are that there are some leaders in Xero, Sage 50 and Intuit Australia
accounting software. Companies use accounting software to manage their different accounts.
Xero supports cloud-based accounting software that helps in obtaining competitive advantages in
Australia. There are around 65 percent marketplaces in Australia(Kearns, 2014). This is done
especially for the modern entrepreneurs who keep their accounts secure. It's a smart, cost-saving,
easy to set and easy UI. That's why Xero’s are preferred by professional companies to maintain
accounting. At the same time, the study of the Kearns, 2014states that Intuit is a key part of
Xero, and accounts for 20% of the accounting software or packages industry. It has a great
integration system and unlimited users that provide intermittent competitive advantage. Sage50
is famous accounting software in Australia. It has 10% market share. The effective cost strategy
of Sage 50 is capable of achieving competitive advantage. It has all the essential elements
required for business. Using Sage50 is also easy and smooth. There is no special training or skill
required for this to work. This allows the firm to get a real-time view of the cash flow(Romney
and Steinbart, 2018).But, in Kearns, 2014 view, the current accounting software has an automatic
updating and a preferred feature. Security is one of the most significant terms in business

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activities. The current business environment is dependent on accounting software usage. Due to
loss of important financial data, a company may be in the worst-case scenario. To avoid fear of
harmful horrific loss of financial data, companies seek help from accounting software. So, the
accounting software has a significant level of security which makes profits from competitors. In
addition, payroll processing and tax preparation are also significant features of the accounting
software. The software which can easily calculate the firm's tax system and employees' payrolls
can always get competitive advantage in the market.
Conclusion
Qantas must recognize the requirements of the new software system implementation before
deciding to enforce their requirements because it requires huge investment and does not appear
directly to the accountswhich have time to provide results. With ERP solution, airlines will be
able to improve their efficiency and productivity and reduce the mistakes and process and
provide transparency for all departments and activities related to the airline. There is a great war
being waged over the Australia’s SMEs; the prize is an industry where over 70% of the
Australians owning businesses are using accounting software packages. Commercial banks in the
country are at the forefront in using this software and are as well encouraging SME owners to
use the same