Accounting is a term that describes the process of consolidating financial information to make it clear and understandable for all stakeholders and shareholders. The main goal of accounting is to record and report a company’s financial transactions, financial performance, and cash flows.
Within the Discussion Board area, write 800–1,000 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.
Write an 8-page paper on Budgetary Planning with at least 5 references in APA 7th ed. format.
You will need a:
Cover page
Body of paper
Reference page
Articles from 2009 – present only. Use your online library. No Wikipedia, BLOGS with Ads from Yahoo, UKEssay.com; Buzzle.com, or sites that challenge as they present a biased opinion. Google Scholar is accepted.
Also can look information from: Walther, L. (2020). PrinciplesofAccounting.com. Retrieved from PrinciplesofAccounting.com
With references: Articles from 2009 – present only. Use the University online library, searches like ProQuest. Will help provide articles later on.
No Wikipedia, BLOGS with Ads from Yahoo, UKEssay.com; Buzzle.com, or sitesthat challenge as they present a biased opinion. Google Scholar is also accepted.
Could use information from The Big 4 CPA firms’ websites provide current (published in 2017 or 2016) publications relevant to this course. Here are the Big 4 CPA firms’ websites: KPMG.com EY.com Deloitte.com PWC.com
Format everything, including references APA Version 7th.( Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 7th ed. (2019, October 1). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association ).
Also can look information from: Walther, L. (2020). PrinciplesofAccounting.com. Retrieved from PrinciplesofAccounting.com
References: Articles from 2009 – present only. Use the University online library, searches like ProQuest. No Wikipedia, BLOGS with Ads from Yahoo, UKEssay.com; Buzzle.com, or sites that challenge as they present a biased opinion. Google Scholar is also accepted.
Referencing this week’s readings and lecture, describe the six steps in the systems approach and apply the systems approach to improving the quality of an accounting information system (AIS).
Part 2
An organization is a regional distributor of widgets. Widgets purchased for the organization originate from small suppliers, and payment is made only with cash. To simplify operations, orders are only taken from customers via its website, and delivery of widgets to customers are handled by a third-party shipping company. All sales are done on account on a net 30 basis and the simplicity of the operation allows the business to be operated by a husband and wife team and no other employees. The wife handles the website programming and all customer service activities (such as customer questions and complaints requiring replacement widgets), and the husband handles all other aspects of the operation (i.e., accounting functions and collections of accounts receivables).
From the information provided:
Identify the major business processes used by the organization.
What are the most important business processes for the organization’s strategic goals and objectives?
Would the business processes change if the organization added a new product and became bigger?
Requirements: 2 pages
Welcome to ACC622: Accounting Information Systems. We begin our journey with an overview of how technology and accounting correlate with one another. Accounting Information Systems (AIS) are more than just technologies used to report financial information. According to Bodnar and Hopwood (2013), “an accounting information system is a collection of resources, such as people and equipment, designed to transform financial and other data into information” (p.1). Each week you will be provided with a written weekly lecture aimed at supplementing one or more concepts from the readings. In addition to this lecture, a link to the textbook’s PowerPoint presentation will be made available to highlight the key concepts covered in the weekly readings.
The resources used in a comprehensive AIS work in correlation as a system that is focused on specific goals (Romney & Steinbart, 2015). Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is concerned with how management assesses an organization’s internal controls to ensure the accuracy of reported financial data. According to Romney and Steinbart (2015), these resources utilize five basic business transaction styles: “(a) revenue cycle, (b) expenditure cycle, (c) production or conversion cycle, (d) human resources/payroll cycle and (e) financing cycle” (p. 6-7). These cycles are inter-related with the AIS because normal business transactions work together as a process for the purpose of selling goods and services. Kay and Ovlia (2014) call this relationship an “enterprise system” (p. 4). An enterprise system is people working together within an organization to achieve specific goals. Information is created through transactions (input). This information is processed so that data becomes useful and that data is finally put into a useable format (Kay & Ovlia, 2014).
The inter-relationship of these processes has become known as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). ERP coordinates each of the five business transaction cycles into a single effort for achieving a goal. This can be as simple as creating a paycheck in the human resources/payroll process to as complex as the supply chain process of creating a product. Accounting Information Systems ties all of these components together into a workable system.
During week 1, we will explore the basics of AIS and how AIS works in a systems approach to achieve goals. You will explore how technology works in conjunction with created data to provide accurate reporting of this data and how this data works within an organization’s system of internal controls. The Week 1 written assignment focuses on the top ten technology initiatives as listed by the Information Technology Center web site for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (infotech.aicpa.org). You will analyze each of the technology initiatives and how they apply to practical examples in business. You will incorporate scholarly research to the effectiveness of each of these technologies.
Please click on the link below to access a PDF version of the textbook Powerpoint Presentation for the weekly readings.
Choose one of the following real-life cases involving an ethical dilemma:
Betty Vinson from WorldCom (in the textbook)
Jeffrey Skilling at Enron (in additional reading links for this Unit;)
Michael Vines at HealthSouth (in the textbook)
Write a paper, approximately three pages (plus Bibliography and title page), analyzing the ethical decision-making process the person involved in the dilemma may have undertaken, using the format described below. You will need to research other sources in order to write a credible paper. You will also have to apply critical thinking skills and analysis.
Formatting requirements: Double-spaced, 12 point Arial or Times New Roman font, one inch margins.
Bibliography citing the textbook and other web or book sources from which you gathered information. Minimum number of sources for “B” grade: 3.
Paragraph one: Clearly describe the main ethical dilemma facing the decision maker you have chosen. You may want to describe how or why the dilemma arose.
Paragraph two: Describe what the decision-maker ACTUALLY did, and the Kohlberg stage that the decision-maker was acting at and why it applies. Then delineate the positive and negative consequences that arose or may have arisen from that choice. These should be done as headers with bullet points, for clarity.
Paragraph three: Identify a different possible course of action that could have been taken, and the Kohlberg stage that would lead to that choice.
Again, bullet multiple positive and negative consequences for the individual–this time making sure that you include consequences for the company and the relevant stakeholders.
Paragraph four: Identify a secondpossible course of action that could have been taken. Continue with the same requirements as Paragraph three.
Paragraph five (and six)–OPTIONAL–add additional courses of action and analyze as above
Last paragraph: Discuss briefly what YOU would do in the situation and why (based on Kohlberg and other considerations). Write a concluding sentence that summarizes the theme of your paper.
Here is a partial example of what the paper should cover in substance.
Assume that the following was a real-life case, and you were assigned to analyze this scenario from the point of view of Ms. CPA: A client asked Ms. CPA to hide income on a tax return. Ms. CPA’s boss also wanted her to do it. Ms. CPA is a single mother with minimal savings. Her dilemma? Does she break the law or disobey the boss?
Ethical dilemma: Does Ms. CPA comply with her fiduciary responsibility to follow the law, or does she do what the client and her boss want her to do, which violates ethical principles?
What Ms. CPA did: She told her boss that she did not feel comfortable committing this fraud; she said she would not be able to do it as a licensed CPA. She then asked her boss if this is typical of the way business is done in this firm.
This was Kohlberg stage four (law abiding) Positive consequences:
Ms CPA had respect for herself, and she would not face professional or legal censure.
her boss would know that she was a person of integrity
even if she did lose my job over this, that would be better in the long run than a lifetime of fraudulent transactions that could lead to incarceration and loss of license
the client would be confident that the firm had integrity, and had his best long-term interests at heart–especially if there were legal alternatives presented that could also result in a lower tax bill.
Negative consequences that may have occurred:
her boss may have been temporarily be angry with her, and talking to him would have been difficult.
This might affect the kinds of client assignments she would get in the future.
There is an outside chance that she might have lost her job, and she would have faced the loss of income, which may have affected her family.
The firm might have lost that client.
A different possible course of action: Do what the client (and boss) wants. This would be a combination of Kohlberg stage two (doing an action to get paid or keep a job) or stage three (trying to look good to boss or client by complying)
Positives: client and boss will be happy; Ms CPA will not have to worry about job loss for insubordination; difficult discussion with boss could be avoided.
Negatives: Ms. CPA cannot live with the guilt of breaking the law; she has to hide her actions from her kids; her boss pushes Ms. CPA to do even worse things in the future; eventually Ms. CPA is indicted; client gets caught and blames the CPA firm.
A second possible course of action: Realize that working for this firm is not a good “fit” ethically, Ms. CPA quits. This could be Kohlberg stage 2: (taking care of herself, and taking the consequences of loss of employment) or it could be Stage 4/stage 5 (following the rules of society even if one has to experience personal difficulties)
Positives: Ms. CPA feels ethically good about herself; client and boss have the chance to fact the fact that they might not be doing the right thing; law is not broken and third-party stakeholders do not suffer bad consequences
Negatives: Ms. CPA and her family must face the loss of income; client and firm might just continue with their deception, with “Ms. Goody Two-Shoes” out of the way
Etc….keep going with the parameters for the paper.
