ASSESSMENT DETAILS AND SUBMISSION GUIDELINES | |
Trimester | T2 2020 |
Unit Code | HI5019 |
Unit Title | Strategic Information Systems for Business and Enterprise |
Assessment Type | Assessment 1: Individual Assignment |
Assessment Title | Analysing an Accounting Information System |
Purpose of the assessment (with ULO Mapping) | Students are required to: Demonstrate theoretical and practical knowledge of Accounting Information System.Articulate the various transaction cycles, financial reporting, and management reporting systems to technical and non- technical stakeholders.Evaluate various internal control process of an accounting information system. |
Weight | 20% of the total assessments. |
Total Marks | 20 Marks. |
Word limit | 2000 words ± 10%. |
Due Date | The written report is due in Week 7, dated 4th September 2020, on Friday at 11.59. |
Submission Guidelines | All work must be submitted on Blackboard by the due date along with a completed Assignment Cover Page.The assignment must be in MS Word format, double spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings and page numbers.Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report and listed appropriately at the end in a reference list using Harvard referencing style. |
Include a minimum of ten (10) references, at least five (5) from peer- reviewed journal relevant to the unit. |
ASSIGNMENT DETAILS
Analysing the Accounting Information System of HARDA Fashion.
HARDA Fashion sells ready-to-wear fashion clothes to teenagers. The company has a 20-store chain concentrated in the north-eastern part of the United States of America. Each store has the experienced full-time staff consist of a manager and an assistant manager. The full-time staff is paid a fixed salary. The full-time staff is assisted with a cashier and a sales assistant who have comparatively less experience. The cashier and sales assistant are paid hourly wages plus the commission based on the volume of sales. HARDA Fashion uses unsophisticated cash registered with four-parts sales invoice to record each financial transaction. These sales invoices for the sales transaction irrespective of the payment type.
The record-keeping starts with the sales assistant on the sales floor. The sales assistant fills the sales invoices manually by providing the following information:
- Records his or her employee number.
- Enters the transaction details including clothes item number, description, quantity, and the unit price.
- Totals the sales invoice.
- Calculates the discounts manually when appropriate.
- Calculates the sales tax.
- Finalise the sales invoice after calculating the grand total.
The sales assistant then forwards the sale invoice to the cashier and keeps one copy in the sales book.
The cashier reviews this sales invoice and enters in the cash register. The cash register mechanically validates the invoice, automatically assigning a consecutive number to the transaction. The cashier is also responsible for getting credit approval on charge sales and approving sales paid by cheque. The cashier gives (1) one copy of the invoice to the customer,
- retains the second copy as a store copy, and (3) the third for a bankcard, if a deposit is needed. Returns are handled in exactly the reverse manner, with the cashier issuing a return slip.
At the end of each day, the cashier sequentially orders the sales invoices and takes cash register totals for cash, bankcard, cheque sales, and cash and credit card return. These totals are reconciled by the assistant manager to the cash register tapes, the total of the consecutively numbered sales invoices, and the return slips. The assistant manager prepares a daily reconciliation report for the store manager’s review.
The manager reviews cash, cheque, and credit card sales and then prepares the daily bank deposit (credit card sales invoices are included in the deposit). The manager makes the deposit at the bank and files the validated deposit slip.
The cash register tapes, sales invoices, and return slips are forwarded daily to the central data processing department at corporate headquarters for processing. The data processing department returns a weekly sales and commission activity report to the manager for review.
Required
Prepare a report to Chief Executive Officer of HARDA Fashion to evaluate its processes, risks, and internal controls for its revenue cycle. In your report, you need to include the following items:
- Identify six strengths in HARDA’s system for controlling sales transactions.
- For each strength identified, explain what problem(s) HARDA Fashion has avoided by incorporating the strengths in the system for controlling sales transactions.
- Identify two situational pressures in a company like HARDA Fashion that would increase the likelihood of fraud.
- Explain why some companies would choose to install a distributed computer system rather than a centralised one.
Assignment Structure
The report should include the following components:
- Assignment Cover Page clearly stating your name and student number.
- Executive summary.
- A table of contents.
- The introduction.
- Body of the report with sections to answer the above issues and with appropriate section headings.
- Conclusion and recommendations.
- List of references.
The report should be grounded on relevant literature, and all references must be cited appropriately and included in the reference list.
Marking criteria | |
Marking criteria | Weighting in Total Grades |
Strengths in HARDA’s system for controlling sales transactions | 6% |
Problems that HARDA Fashion has avoided by incorporating the strength in the system for controlling sales transactions | 6% |
Situational pressures that would increase the likelihood of fraud | 2% |
Reasons for companies to install a distributed computer system rather than a centralised one | 2% |
Research quality | 4% |
TOTAL Weight | 20% |
Marking Rubric | |||||
Excellent | Very Good | Good | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory | |
(80-100%) | (70-79%) | (60-69%) | (50-59%) | (0-49%) | |
Strengths in HARDA’s | Present an excellent | Present a very good | Present a good discussion | Present a reasonable | Present a weak or |
system for controlling | discussion of strengths in | discussion of strengths in | of strengths in HARDA’s | discussion of strengths in | inadequate discussion of |
sales transactions (6 | HARDA’s system with | HARDA’s system with | system without | HARDA’s system with | strengths in HARDA’s |
Marks) | supporting evidence | supporting evidence | supporting evidence | minor errors and/or | system with significant |
from the case. | from the case. | from the case. | omissions. | errors and/or omissions. | |
Problems that HARDA | Correctly identify all | Correctly identify most | Correctly identify most | Correctly identify most | Fail to identify the |
Fashion Limited has | problems that HARDA | problems that HARDA | problems that HARDA | problems that HARDA | problems that HARDA |
avoided by incorporating | Fashion has avoided with | Fashion has avoided with | Fashion has avoided | Fashion has avoided with | Fashion has avoided. |
the strength in the system | supporting evidence | supporting evidence | without supporting | minor errors and/or | |
for controlling sales | from the case. | from the case. | evidence from the case. | omissions. | |
transactions (6 Marks) | |||||
Situational pressures that | Present an excellent | Present a very good | Present a good discussion | Present a reasonable | Present a weak or |
would increase the | discussion of situational | discussion of situational | of situational pressures | discussion of situational | inadequate discussion of |
likelihood of fraud (2 | pressures that would | pressures that would | that would increase the | pressures that would | situational pressures that |
Marks) | increase the likelihood of | increase the likelihood of | likelihood of fraud with | increase the likelihood of | would increase the |
fraud. | fraud. | minor errors and/or | fraud with errors and/or | likelihood of fraud with | |
omissions. | omissions. | errors and/or omissions. | |||
Reasons for companies to | Present an excellent | Present a very good | Present a good discussion | Present a reasonable | Present a weak or |
install a distributed | discussion of reasons for | discussion of reasons for | of reasons for installing a | discussion of reasons for | inadequate discussion of |
computer system rather | installing a distributed | installing a distributed | distributed computer | installing a distributed | reasons for installing a |
than a centralised one (2 | computer system instead | computer system instead | system instead of a | computer system instead | distributed computer |
Marks) | of a centralised one. | of a centralised one. | centralised one with | of a centralised one with | system instead of a |
minor errors and/or | errors and/or omissions. | centralised one. | |||
omissions. | |||||
Research quality (4 | An extensive amount of | A broad range of quality | An adequate range of | An adequate range of | Little or no peer- |
Marks) | high-quality evidence | peer-reviewed journal | peer-reviewed journal | peer-reviewed journal | reviewed journal |
from peer-reviewed | references and other | references was included | references was included | references were included, | |
journal articles and other | sources was included and | and used to support | and used to a basic extent | and these were rarely | |
sources was included and | used effectively to | discussion. | to support discussion. | used to support | |
used effectively to | support discussion. | discussion effectively. | |||
support discussion. |